Ragtime Research Paper

Southern music known today as country music became popular in the 1920’s. This was music that was based on folk music of cowboys in the southeast (Collins English Dictionary, 2003). In most of the early music the artist played stringed instruments like fiddles, guitars, banjos and some were even playing harmonicas. When this type of music started some people called it

“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

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.

Joplin was in Chicago, he started a band and played cornet. After the fair was over he

One of the two most important musical influences was Ragtime, a style of music of insistent syncopated “ragged” rhythm created by black piano players. Photos and video clips of people playing and dancing to ragtime are examples of Burns amazing use of art photography and photojournalism to make the story more vivid for the viewers. Ragtime was a style of music the youth enjoyed to listen and dance to while the older generation of white men considered it a product of anarchism. A quote by a Massachusetts attorney and politician of the nineteenth century, Edward Baxter Perry explains that “ victims in [his] opinion can be treated successfully only like the dog with rabies, with a dose of led,” when talking about people who listened, and danced to ragtime. As segregation took over New Orleans, formerly freed creoles, whites who were of black descendants began to play together with the African Americans, combining their musical styles and creating an entirely new one that incorporated which came to be known as jazz. Creoles were affluent in classical music and piano, which they incorporated into the making of jazz music.

In the summer of 1969, a music festival known as “Woodstock” took place for three straight days in Upstate, New York with thirty-two musical acts playing, and over 400,000 people from around the world coming to join this musical and peaceful movement. Woodstock started out being a small concert, created to promote peace in the world. Now, Woodstock is still being celebrated over 40 years later. This three day music festival represented the perfect concert for the “baby boomers” during a messy political time. Woodstock significantly impacted the counterculture era of the 1960’s in a number of ways; how it began, the ideas of the concert, the sense of union and love it represented and it

Every memory of the summer of 1969 is connected to, in one way or another, the historical event, Woodstock. The festival could not have left more of an impact on the “hippie” generation anymore than it did those three days of music and peace. The generation of the time wanted nothing more than what they got out of Woodstock. Today, people still look back on the festival and think of how well it made history without the expectance of doing so. Woodstock, one of the most important cultural events of the 20th century, combined iconic musical acts with interesting social behavior.

Scott Joplin, commonly known as the "King of Ragtime" music, was born on November 24, 1868, in Bowie County, Texas near Linden. Joplin came from a large musical family. His father, Giles Joplin was a musician who had fiddled dance music while serving as a slave at his master's parties. His mother, Florence Givens Joplin, born free and out of slavery, sang and played the banjo, and four of his brothers and sisters either sang or played strings.

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).

He was later discovered here by John Stark who eventually published his first composition know as the Maple Leaf Rag. He later moved to St. Louis where he had the opportunity to perform for the next five years. Furthermore, he later left for New York, where he developed his own opera in 1911. This opera, called Treemanisha, was the first and only ragtime opera, but unfortunately, it only lasted one show. This was the falling point of his career, and he never regained the popularity he once had at the beginning of his career. In the 1970’s, Joplin and his opera was rediscovered with the revival of ragtime.

In 1904, he composed “Jelly Roll Blues,” “New Orleans Blues,” Frog-I-More Rag,” “Animule Dance,” and “King Porter Stomp”

The Ragtime is a musical era that we sort of consider that a starting about 1875 and extending to 1918 when the term Jazz become more prominent in American popular music, but for that twenty years that would be the Rock and Roll over the day. Ragtime music was the essence of popular music and it was considered what America had to offer to world music. There was something very special about Ragtime music. It was different from everything that had preceded and that almost every all kinds of music that have been played before. Basically, we’re on the beat and didn’t have that essence of syncopation that was at the heart of Ragtime music.

Okay, class! Today were are going to discuss Ragtime music. It’s a genre that some of you may have already heard of, but will likely be new for most of you. First, remember that a genre is a type of classification. For example, Hip-Hop and Rock are genres of music, and you should be able to think on your own how each of those genres comes up with a set of characteristics that help define each type of music and set it apart from other genres. To continue with our previous examples, Hip-hop often features rap and a particular emphasis on the beats. Rock, on the other hand, refers to music that mostly includes a four-piece band: 2 guitarists, 1 bass-player, and 1 drummer. So then, what characterizes the genre known as Ragtime? Well, Ragtime music is mostly defined by the presence of a shifted or ragged rhythm. This means that the regular flow or rhythm of a piece of music will be disrupted by a shift, making it sound slightly off-beat. Ragtime music is considered to be lively and springy, which makes it a great genre for dancing to.

Ragtime is a fictional story about the social structure, technological advancement, and revolutionary spirit of the United States of America during the early 1900s. In this book, the strict social structure of the time is being constantly defied and rejected. Many people take active stances against issues they feel are wrong. Technology is booming during the time period of this book, creating a new lifestyle for Americans. Ragtime is a book about moving forward in American political structures, technology, and society.