History Music / ScottJoplin

Scott Joplin (c. 1868 – April 1, 1917) was an African American composer and pianist famous for his ragtime compositions. Born to a working-class family of former slaves in Arkansas, Joplin received piano lessons from local teacher Julius Weiss and started his own dance band, singing in a vocal quartet and playing mandolin. Eventually he struck out on his own as an itinerant musician, winding up at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, where his band helped contribute to the growing craze for ragtime music.

He first achieved fame in 1899 when his piano composition ''Maple Leaf Rag'' became a smash hit, earning Joplin the title "King of Ragtime." He continued to compose and publish regularly, with his piano rags being reliable hits, and also trying his hand at more ambitious works. His {{opera}} ''A Guest of Honor'' had a successful performance tour in 1903, but the score is now considered lost. A second opera, ''Treemonisha'', suffered funding difficulties and was only partially staged during Joplin's lifetime; it was finally premiered posthumously in 1972.

* SmallReferencePools: Joplin himself has become synonymous with the entire genre of Ragtime music, to the point that listeners who are not serious fans or music historians will likely not even be aware that any other Ragtime composers existed.

In 1973, Joplin's music experienced a [[RevivalByCommercialization resurgence of popularity]] from the movie ''Film/TheSting'', which prominently featured a performance of "The Entertainer" by Music/MarvinHamlisch, hitting #1 on the Billboard charts and winning an Academy Award for best adapted score. Since then his compositions have been more fully appreciated as important pieces of American music history and as sophisticated works of art in their own right.

He first achieved fame in 1899 when his piano composition ''Maple Leaf Rag'' became a smash hit, earning Joplin the title "King of Ragtime." He continued to compose and publish regularly, with his piano rags being reliable hits, and also trying his hand at more ambitious works. His {{opera}} ''A Guest of Honor'' had a successful performance tour in 1903, but the score is now considered lost. A second opera, ''Treemonisha'', suffered funding difficulties and was only partially staged during Joplin's lifetime; it wasn't fully premiered until 1972.

** An interesting unanswered question about ''A Guest of Honor'': If the plot of the story involved an interracial dinner between UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt and Booker T. Washington, as widely assumed, then would the production have featured a mixed-race cast? If so, that would have been almost unheard of in the U.S. in 1903.

** An interesting unanswered question about ''A Guest of Honor'': If the plot of the story involved an interracial dinner between UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt and Booker T. Washington, then would the production have featured a mixed-race cast? If so, that would have been almost unheard of in the U.S. in 1903.

* DownerEnding: Joplin died without ever seeing his masterpiece ''Treemonisha'' fully produced and VindicatedByHistory.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Joplin's 1903 opera ''A Guest of Honor'' (now lost) told the story of a 1901 state dinner between President UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt and prominent African American educator Booker T. Washington.

* VindicatedByHistory:
** ''Treemonisha'' was never fully performed for over half a century after Joplin's death, but since then it has been produced many times to good reviews.
** Ragtime was considered light popular novelty music during the early 1900s, but the hindsight of history shows that it was a sophisticated art form that had a great influence on the development of {{jazz}}.

* DanceSensation: Ragtime was wildly popular for dances in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: In ''Treemonisha'', the main character is tied up and threatened with being pushed into a tree with a wasp's nest inside. It doesn't take much to see this as a metaphor for lynching.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Joplin's 1903 opera ''A Guest of Honor'' (now lost) told the story of a 1901 state dinner between President UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt and prominent African American eductor Booker T. Washington.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Joplin's 1903 opera ''A Guest of Honor'' (now lost) told the story of a 1901 state dinner between President UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt and civil rights activist Booker T. Washington.

Scott Joplin (c. 1868 – 1917) was an African American composer and pianist famous for his ragtime compositions. Born to a working-class family of former slaves in Arkansas, Joplin received piano lessons from local teacher Julius Weiss and started his own dance band, singing in a vocal quartet and playing mandolin. Eventually he struck out on his own as an itinerant musician, winding up at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, where his band helped contribute to the growing craze for ragtime music.

* StandardSnippet: Plenty! "Maple Leaf Rag", "The Entertainer", and "The Easy Winners", among others, get a ton of play, especially when an "old timey" feel is needed.

Scott Joplin (c. 1868 – 1917) was an African American composer and pianist famous for his ragtime compositions. Born to a working-class family of former slaves in Arkansas, Joplin received piano lessons from local teacher Julius Weiss and eventually started his own dance band, singing in a vocal quartet and playing mandolin. Eventually he struck out on his own as an itinerant musician, winding up at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, where his band helped contribute to the growing craze for ragtime music.

* UncommonTime: ZigZagged. Ragtime is marked by accompaniments that are in a straight vanilla 4/4 meter (or more rarely 3/4), but with elaborately syncopated melodies that are rarely aligned on the beat. The effect is a distinctive "ragged" feel that gave the genre its name.

In 1973, Joplin's music experienced a [[RevivalByCommercialization resurgence of popularity]] from the movie ''Film/TheSting'', which prominently featured a performance of "The Entertainer" by Marvin Hamlisch. Since then his compositions have been more fully appreciated as important pieces of American music history and as sophisticated works of art in their own right.