Chapter 15-Ragtime
“Hello! My Baby” a representative example
of a ragtime song.
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lyrics: invention of the telephone
Most identifying feature of ragtime music, vocal
or solo piano?
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the rhythm
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syncopated melody against a steady, marchlike bass in
duple meter
Roots of Ragtime
Broad. Possible sources of the syncopated
rhythm that is characteristic of ragtime music?
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dance rhythms:
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march or two-step
cakewalk
Caribbean and Latin American dance rhythms
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danza
habanera
seguidilla
Creole songs from Louisiana
Ragtime as Piano Music and the
Work of Scott Joplin
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World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in
1893
– gathering of ragtime pianists
– Ragtime for the piano assumed what three
forms?
 piano renditions of ragtime songs
 the “ragging” of unsyncopated music
 original compositions for the piano
Ragtime era - c.1893 to c.1920.
A rise in piano and player-piano sales
paralleled this period.
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Ragtime instruction books began to appear.
Ragtime instruction studios opened.
Ragtime sheet music was published.
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Not New York-centered
“the golden age of local and regional music
publishing.”
Ensembles that began to play
ragtime
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Brass, concert, and dance bands such as
that of John Philip Sousa began to
perform arrangements of ragtime music.
The Musical Characteristics of
Ragtime
Ragtime Rhythm
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Syncopation
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“the displacing of accents from their normal
position in the musical measure, so that they
contradict the underlying meter”
Ragtime Form
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What is the form of both rag and march?
– a succession of musically independent
“strains” of uniform length (sixteen measures)
– most of these “strains” or sections are
repeated
Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag”
– contrasting strains
– syncopation against steady, accented notes
Who was Scott Joplin?
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(b. 1868 in Linden, Texas; d. 1917)
parents: laborers; former slaves
Scott played guitar, cornet, and piano.
c.1890 settled in St. Louis
1893—performed at World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago
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moved to Sedalia, Missouri
composed, played, published
stage works
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The Ragtime Dance (pub. 1902)
A Guest of Honor (1903), lost
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his first opera
Treemonisha (1907)
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1976—won Pulitzer Prize for musical composition
Decline of Ragtime
By the mid-1910s, vocal ragtime merged with
mainstream popular music.
 Also, piano ragtime began to merge with jazz.
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Jelly Roll Morton
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(1890-1941)
born in New Orleans
pianist/bandleader
key figure in the transition from ragtime era to jazz
Two Offshoots of Ragtime: Stride Piano and
Novelty Piano
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Stride piano
also known as “Harlem piano”
1920s and 1930s
cultivated by James Price Johnson (1894-1955) and Fats Waller (1904-43)
virtuoso form, developed by pianists
musical style:
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steady left-hand rhythmic pulse
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like ragtime, but expanded to wide-reaching “strides” between low bass notes and midrange
offbeat chords
syncopated right-hand figuration
often faster than ragtime
driving beat
very elaborate melodic line
James P. Johnson’s “If Dreams Come True” - example of stride piano.
quick, steady pulse
“strides”
elaborate, syncopated melody
Where and when did jazz emerge?
wherever there was a sizable population of
African Americans
 in the early twentieth century
 What are the forms of black (or blackderived) music that came before jazz?
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– minstrelsy
– ragtime
– blues
Brass Bands
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An exceptional number of black brass bands and dance orchestras
were located in which American city?
– New Orleans
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What was the instrumentation of these bands?
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ten or twelve pieces
trumpets or cornets
alto and baritone horns
trombones
tuba
clarinets
drums
What were some of the different functions for these bands and
orchestras?
– concerts
– parades
– dances (smaller groups)
Parade music associated with funerals
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marching to the graveyard
after the burial
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march away to the beat of the snare drum only
burst into a ragtime number or a “ragged”
version of a hymn or spiritual
Examples of Parade Music
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“Eternity” by the Eureka Brass Band in New Orleans,
1954.
– representative of music for marching to the graveyard
– slow, solemn march
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krJW2qMVv4M&feature=rela
ted
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“Just a Little While to Stay Here” by the Eureka Brass
Band in 1954.
– representative of music for marching away from the graveyard
– upbeat, jazzy tune
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BBO6chcIk0