Ragtime Music Research Paper

Music during the progressed quite a bit over time. It all started out with a less complex type of music known as ragtime. Ragtime was popular from around the 1890’s through 1915. Ragtime originated from the

African American music is divided into many subgroups that led to another style, which allowed empowerment. Such styles as spiritual, blues, jazz, r&b, and hip hop created an incredible history.

“When first entering in America, British folk music was distinguished by three-chord tunes, sparse instrumentation (with some fiddlers), mostly male performers, improvisation, the singers’ sporadic shouts (Scottish “yips”), Christian themes served up in hundreds of hymns, and a secular collection of songs that told stories, generally about love and lost love, using metaphor and symbol to tell those stories” (Allen 101). By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, British music changed and became Americanized. Vocal harmonizing slowly evolved, and fiddlers were accompanied by those who played banjo, an African American opening. “Tambourines and “bones” (tapping out rhythms using pork rib bones) were a minstrel show contribution” (Allen 102). When African Americans were forced into slavery and brought to North America in the 1600s, they brought their own musical traditions and sounds. Slaves who were on the Mississippi River Valley delta soil developed what will later be introduced as blues music. On the plantations, slaves greatly changed British American hymn singing. They took non-religious British American songs and turned it into their own forms of music that followed their culture and taste of music. Blues emerged in the early twentieth century at the same time country music became settled from its folk roots. Blues music talked about the indifferences African American slaves were going through at that time. “The blues voiced human

“For some this has been, at least partially, a nostalgic trip to the “simplistic and charm” of the past(...)ragtime’s direct melodic and harmonic message, its irresistible, foot-tapping, rhythmic impulse.” (Berlin) Ragtime was the type of music that was intended to evoke happiness and joy using instruments like piano, guitar, and drums. Through the genre of Ragtime, many popular dances of the late 1900s became prominent like the “cake walk”, “ragtime marches”, “two-steps”, and many more. (Berlin) One of the most prominent characteristics of Ragtime is the fact that it has syncopation which was fairly new at the time. Syncopation is the emphasis of notes that are played in the off beats. Irving Berlin describes the relationship between syncopation and ragtime as

“Other kids could play cowboys and Indians and imagine that they’d grow up to be cowboys,” he wrote in his Living Proof autobiography. “I couldn’t do that. I knew that I would never grow up to be a cowboy or a fireman or the president of the United States. I knew I’d grow up to be a singer. That’s all there ever was, the only option, from the beginning.” http://www.hankjr.com/career-biography/

s toured throughout the country. It reached its peak in the 1850's and 1860's as it became the popular music of the people. It ran on New York's Broadway for over forty years, and it was the music of the Mexican War, the California Gold Rush, and the Civil War. This form of popular music gave birth to our Ragtime, Blues, Dixieland, Country, and Bluegrass music of today. When a plantation owner had a man with musical talent, he might send him to New Orleans or up north to be trained in violin so he could play Celtic music for the cotillions and parties. But, when that man was alone in his quarters, he would pour his African soul into his Irish fiddle. This was the music the blackface minstrels tried to copy.

Black folk traditions like spirituals and “ragged music” evolve into the blues, ragtime, and jazz.

Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll or rock 'n ' roll) is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States. The music we know as rock and roll emerged as a defined musical style in the mid 1950s, even though a form of it had been on the horizon for at least a decade or so. A quarter of the American population moved during World War II, and that is what brought southern, rural, sacred and secular traditions into contact with urban-based music and its audiences. Rock and roll drew on many different styles. It derived most directly from the rhythm and blues music of the 1940s, which it developed from earlier blues, boogie-woogie, jazz and swing music. It was also influenced by gospel, country, western, and traditional folk music. With the combinations of all of these genres of music, that help to create this new style of music excited a worldwide generation of young listeners. Even though it had the attention of young listeners it started to upset the already established social, cultural and musical authorities. With this new music style coming into full affect along with new dances and people having voicing out their own opinion caused a lot of turmoil. Many people began to question this new genre of music and labeled it as the devil music while other loved it and couldn’t help but dance

Ragtime always gives people the instant feeling of caper and joyfulness when it is heard anywhere. It reminds us of Chaplin. The Sting sets story in the Great Depression. It tells about two grifters and their group swindling the rich mob boss Lonnegan. The whole film remains a very easy and entertaining atmosphere, well expressed by the rhythmical, brisk and naughty ragtime and delightful jazz. What’s more, the ragtime tracks are mostly played by jazz instruments, and even the sound of whistling, creating a more euphoric and easy mood of the film. In fact, the plot plays a joke on all the audience. We all think the ending of the film would be unsatisfying if we do not realise that it could be a double-con well played by Gondorff’s lot. The

“Hillbilly music,” “the high, lonesome sound,” and “old-time string band music,” have all been used to describe bluegrass, though none of these terms is quite

Thus the similarity between ragtime and blues is significant but there are numerous differences between the two music styles. First, their origin was different. Even though they both had African influence as mentioned, ragtime was more strongly influenced by European music style, and blues was heavily African music style. According to Durk Sutro in his book Jazz for Dummies, “Ragtime was European-influenced, in the sense that it was composed, not improvised, and featured carefully crafted melodies and harmonies…ragtime could sound concisely European” (ch.5). Although European-influenced, there is some African influence such as rhythm and African banjo music as mentioned during the lecture. Ragtime rhythm was “the rhythms of the black dancers who used their heels to make drum sounds, or to that of the black church singers who could vary the rhythms of a Christian hymn so much that a white Christian could not even recognize it”(Tirro, pp.37).

The class watched a clip from Singin’ in the Rain, and It’s Always Fair Weather.

In the 1920’s, Ragtime music was the most popular style of music. The distinctive “ragged” beat, for which it is named after, came about after the conclusion of the Civil War. At this time in history, African Americans had gained more freedom to express their emotions and share their stories through music. Johnson was very passionate about music, and used it as a way to convey emotions that he didn’t feel he could handle in any other way; he says in the book, “but I always tried to interpret a piece of music; I always played with feeling” (Johnson Ch. 2).

Appalachian music is music that has influenced many mainstream type that are around today. This music is not easily explained by playing a song and being able to identify the music. After reading about Appalachian music I have come to think of it as a Copper pot of music. This is in a similar way to the United States as the Copper pot of ethic people from around the world. To be able to understand this it is best to start from the known beginning roots and to understand who sings this music, why, and where it originated.

From the 1950's to the 1970's rhythm and blues bands usually consisted of piano, guitars, drums saxophone, bass, and were sometimes accompanied by background vocalists. New World Encyclopedia (2008) states As rhythm and blues combined the elements of jazz, gospel music and the blues, it thus created a very personalized form of melody and rhythm which has become known as one of the outstanding styles of American music. From jazz and its combination of African black folk music blended with European folk and pop music, rhythm and blues incorporated the syncopated beats supported by colorful chordal combinations to mirror the emotions and experiences of the composer and singer/musician.