Ragtime Essay

immigration caused a drastic change in the culture the country once knew, these culture shifts caused a great deal of tension between different groups. This lack of empathy lead to a rise in poverty, over population is cities, and a lack a sanitation. Ragtime focuses on many of these changes and

Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow Up until the late 1900?s, the American populace on the whole had assumed a very optimistic view of American history. Glossing over disgraceful events, emphasizing the brighter points in our history, our culture has attempted to ignore the obvious fact that we have had, and still have, our fair share of problems. In Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow unabashedly exposes some of the worst aspects of American life in our more recent history. Doctorow doesn?t hold back anything, providing

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

simpler, with simple chord progressions as compared to ragtime which has complex chord structure. Blues, which can be sung freely by one person without strict rhythm, thus always enjoyed an advantage over ragtime. Ragtime, on the other hand is tuneful, but primarily utilized highly syncopated rhythm. The harmonies change every few beats, more march like and making it closer to "art music," less catchy and more difficult to execute. Moreover, ragtime is polyrhythm, that is multiple rhythms of different

Ragtime music is a musical genre that plays a significant role in the African American history of music. Ragtime music was one of the many genres of music was unique for it’s use of art and expression of African- Americans. Ragtime music peaked in popularity in the late 19th century. “This was one of a number of musical styles which had their roots in this time period. This increasing in diversity resulted from the fusion of African and European musical ideas in the Southern States of the U.S. It

These shows were influenced by the traditions of several different American entertainment traditions; the traveling circus, medicine shows, shivaree, Irish dance, musical halls and traveling theatre, (Padgett, 2016) . While in ragtime, the piano was the principle performing instrument, these minstrel companies often created combinations of brass band music, solo banjo performances and vocal accompaniment in their shows. Popular songs included Maple leaf Rag (1899), Frog Legs Rag

small, unpopular venues; this style of piano music was called ragtime because of the how ragged their arrangements were. Ragtime was like marches and it has a European harmony with African rhythm. This style of music became known as it was used for actors to do their cakewalk, which is a high stepping dance, at the end of the minstrel shows. An African American, Scott Joplin was named the “King of Ragtime”. After World War I, ragtime music was overshadowed by the Tin Pan Alley, which was a street

Ragtime and Blues: The History and Their Influence on Jazz In the city of New Orleans, from parades to clubs and from weddings to funerals, one element usually remained constant throughout all these events: the music that permeated the air. At most of these occasions, a band often performed as entertainment, providing many opportunities for musicians in the area to work. By the early 20th century, due to various factors such as mix of ethnicities and cultures with syncopated musical styles influenced

Ragtime and Blues are two different styles of music that came together to make what is known as jazz music. Ragtime was more about freedom, fun, and giving the listener an elated feeling while Blue’s intent was to appeal to the listeners emotions and make them feel better about the troubles in their life. The way Jazz came about was the collaboration of these 2 very different styles of music. Due to very influential people in the music world like Jelly Role Morton, Joe Oliver, Louis armstrong, just

Brian Chen October 2014 Professor Lyon | Section 7 Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow Understanding Identity Through Society E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime explores the construction of social identity in early twentieth century America through two unique yet coinciding narratives. The construction of social identity, contrary to popular American culture, does not result only from the principles of self-determination. Instead, one’s social identity must contain a mixture of one’s understanding