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Ragtime Music

 

Before Jazz, Swing and Rock & Roll, there was... Ragtime.

ragtime, propulsively syncopated musical style, one forerunner of jazz and the predominant style of American popular music from about 1899 to 1917. Ragtime evolved in the playing of honky-tonk pianists along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers in the last decades of the 19th century. It was influenced by minstrel-show songs, African American banjo styles, and syncopated (off-beat) dance rhythms of the cakewalk, and also elements of European music. Ragtime found its characteristic expression in formally structured piano compositions. The regularly accented left-hand beat, in 4/4 or 2/4 time, was opposed in the right hand by a fast, bouncingly syncopated melody that gave the music its powerful forward impetus.

Scott Joplin, called the “King of Ragtime,” published the most successful of the early rags, “The Maple Leaf Rag,” in 1899. Joplin, who considered ragtime a permanent and serious branch of classical music, composed hundreds of short pieces, a set of études, and operas in the style. Other important performers were, in St. Louis, Louis Chauvin and Thomas M. Turpin (father of St. Louis ragtime) and, in New Orleans, Tony Jackson.

Though ragtime’s heyday was relatively short-lived, the music influenced the later development of jazz. Ragtime experienced occasional revivals, most notably in the 1970s. During that decade pianist Joshua Rifkin released the acclaimed album Scott Joplin: Piano Rags (1970), and Marvin Hamlisch adapted Joplin’s music for the score of the hugely popular movie The Sting (1973). Hamlisch won an Academy Award for his work, and his version of Joplin’s “The Entertainer” earned a Grammy Award and was a hit song.

 

What Is Ragtime Music?

 

Ragtime is an American musical style that developed in the 1890s from both European and African styles, mostly performed by Black American artists. Ragtime composers such as Scott Joplin, James Scott, and Joseph Lamb created enduring compositions filled with syncopated rhythms, sophisticated chord progressions, and memorable melodies. Their ragtime songs inspired Vaudeville and Broadway songwriters, as well as early jazz bands.

 

A Short History of Ragtime

 

Early ragtime composers drew inspiration from both marching band music (particularly the popular marches of John Phillip Sousa) and minstrel music—which was often performed by white musicians in blackface. Despite these influences from white artists, ragtime flourished in the hands of Black American composers working around the turn of the twentieth century.

  • Ragtime composition: Pianist Scott Joplin set the standard for ragtime composers. Joplin composed ragtime classics such as "Maple Leaf Rag" and "The Entertainer." Born in Texarkana, Texas, Joplin spent most of his professional career in St. Louis, Missouri, and New York City. He studied piano and music theory with Julius Weiss, a Jewish American music professor born in Germany, from whom Joplin likely learned the European art of polka, which inspired the syncopation he would infuse into his ragtime compositions.
  • Ragtime influenced jazz: In the early 1900s, the nascent ragtime movement caught on in New Orleans. There, Jelly Roll Morton incorporated ragtime piano into his jazz compositions. Morton, along with Harlem pianist James P. Johnson, helped bridge the gap between ragtime and early jazz music—although, unlike jazz, ragtime adheres to its sheet music and does not venture into improvisation.
  • Fading popularity: Ultimately jazz overtook ragtime as America's popular music of choice in the 1920s. However, the genre lives on through ragtime revival bands. Ragtime has also become a source of inspiration for many classical music composers, including Arthur Honegger, Igor Stravinsky, George Gershwin, Erik Satie, Darius Milhaud, and Claude Debussy.

 

4 Characteristics of Ragtime

 

During its heyday at the turn of the century, ragtime was defined by a few central characteristics:

  1. Largely piano-based music: Most ragtime music was composed for piano and exploits the vast potential of that instrument. Subsequent arrangers have built large orchestrations for these piano-based songs, but in its purest form, ragtime is often performed by a solo pianist.
  2. Syncopation: Ragtime is identifiable by its jaunty rhythm and frequent syncopations. When combined with a duple meter (such as 2/4 or 6/8) plus a heavy swing feel, ragtime becomes somewhat danceable.
  3. Mixture of African and European influences: Ragtime music shows obvious influence of German polka and Anglo-American marching band music—particularly that of John Phillip Sousa, who was popular during the ragtime era. Yet, starting with Scott Joplin, the most iconic ragtime musicians were Black Americans and many incorporated elements of Black spirituals and blues music of the American South. In particular, ragtime borrowed from a southern Black dance form called cakewalk.
  4. Harmonic sophistication: Like classical music before it and the jazz that would follow, ragtime songs tend to cycle through sophisticated chord progressions and key changes. However, unlike jazz, ragtime does not call for improvisation over these chord progressions.

 

Here you will find some links to ragtime music Midi's

 

Ragtime Collections

Ragtime Media

Contemporary Ragtime

Ragtime Organizations

Digital Sheet Music Archives

Ragtime Books and Magazines

  • Badger, Reid. A Life in Ragtime: A Biography of James Reese Europe. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
  • Barile, Mary et al. Merit not Sympathy Wins: The Life and Times of Blind Boone. Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 2012.
  • Batterson, Jack. Blind Boone: Missouri’s Ragtime Pioneer. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1998 .
  • Berlin, Edward. King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era, 2nd ed New York: Oxford University Press, 2016 .
  • Berlin, Edward. Ragtime: A Musical and Cultural History. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1980.
  • Berlin, Edward. Reflections and Research on Ragtime. Brooklyn, NY: Institute for Studies in American Music, Conservatory of Music, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, 1987.
  • Binkowski, Carol. Joseph F Lamb: A Passion for Ragtime. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012.
  • Blesh, Rudi & Harriet Grossman Janis. They All Played Ragtime. 4th ed. New York: Oak Publications, 1966. Citations on this website to this book are to the 4th edition. The book was first published in 1950 by Alfred A Knopf.
  • Curtis, Susan. Dancing to a Black Man's Tune. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1994.
  • DeVeaux, Scott & William Howland Kenney, eds. The Music of James Scott. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.
  • <Frew, Timothy. Scott Joplin and the Age of Ragtime. New York: Friedman Fairfax, 1996.
  • Gammond, Peter. Scott Joplin and the Ragtime Era. London: Angus & Robertson, 1975.
  • Gilbert, David. The Product of Our Souls Ragtime, Race, and the Birth of the Manhattan Musical Marketplace. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2015.
  • Gilmore, John. Swinging in Paradise: The Story of Jazz in Montreal. Montreal, QC: Vehicule Press, 1988.
  • Hasse, JE, ed. Ragtime: Its History, Composers, and Music. New York: Schirmer Books, 1985.
  • Jasen, David. Ragtime: An Encyclopedia, Discography, and Sheetography. New York: Routledge, 2007.
  • Jasen, David & Gene Jones. Black Bottom Stomp: Eight Masters of Ragtime and Early Jazz. New York: Routledge, 2001.
  • Jasen, David & Gene Jones. Spreadin' Rhythm Around: Black Popular Songwriters, 1890-1920. New York: Schirmer Books, 1998.
  • Jasen, David & Gene Jones. That American Rag: The Story of Ragtime from Coast to Coast. New York: Schirmer Books, 2000.
  • Jasen, David & Trebor Jay Tichenor. Rags and Ragtime: A Musical History. New York: Dover Publications, 1978.
  • Jennings Haydon, Geoffrey & Richard Lawn. A Study of the Exchange of Influences between the Music of Early Twentieth Century Parisian Composers and Ragtime, Blues, and Early Jazz. Thesis/dissertation: University of Texas at Austin, 1992.
  • Karp, Larry. Brun Campbell: The Original Ragtime Kid. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2016. [book details]
  • Lerma, Dominique-Renede & Vivian Flagg McBrier. The Collected Piano Works of R Nathaniel Dett. Evanston, IL: Summy-Birchard, 1973.
  • McBrier, Vivian Flagg. R Nathaniel Dett: His Life and Works (1882-1943). Washington, DC: The Associated Publishers, 1977.
  • Milan, Jon. Detroit: Ragtime and the Jazz Age. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2009.
  • Morath, Max et al. The Road to Ragtime. Virginia Beach, VA: Donning Company Publishing, 1999.
  • Ping-Robbins, Nancy. Scott Joplin: A Guide to Research. New York: Garland Pub., 1998.
  • Rose, Al. Eubie Blake. New York: Schirmer Books, 1979.
  • Schafer, William & Johannes Riedel. The Art of Ragtime: Form and Meaning of an Original Black American Art. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1973.
  • Stewart, Philip. The Music of Charles Leslie Johnson: A Collector's Journey. Addison, TX: Aquila Media Productions, 2009. 
  • Sutton, A. Cakewalks, Rags and Novelties: The International Ragtime Discography (1894-1930). Denver, CO: Mainspring Press, 2003.
  • Swanson, Adam. Robert R Darch's Golden Reunion in Ragtime: The First Complete Study of a One-of-a-kind Recording Session. Thesis/dissertation: MM Peabody Conservatory, 2016.
  • Tracy, Steven. Hot Music, Ragmentation, and the Bluing of American Literature. Tuscaloosa: Univ of Alabama Press, 2015.
  • Waldo, Terry. This is Ragtime. New York: De Capo Press, 1991.
  • Whitcombe, Ian. Irving Berlin and Ragtime America. New York: Limelight Editions, 1988.
  • Williamson, Michael Noel. 'Ragging the Classics': An Examination of Ragtime in Piano Compositions by Claude Debussy, Percy Grainger and Igor Stravinsky. Thesis/dissertation: Parkville, University of Melbourne, 2013.

The Silent Film Sound & Music Archive has digitized most of the issues of the following ragtime magazines:

In addition, the New York Public Library has digitized the following ragtime magazine:

For a current periodical discussing jazz, swing, and ragtime, see:

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Most recent revision June 22, 2025 09:07:35 PM

 

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