1. Chapter 15-Ragtime
“Hello! My Baby” a representative example of a ragtime song.
lyrics: invention of the telephone
Most identifying feature of ragtime music, vocal or solo piano?
the rhythm
syncopated melody against a steady, marchlike bass in duple meter

2. Roots of Ragtime
Broad. Possible sources of the syncopated rhythm that is characteristic of ragtime music?
dance rhythms:
march or two-step
cakewalk
Caribbean and Latin American dance rhythms
danza
habanera
seguidilla
Creole songs from Louisiana

3. Ragtime as Piano Music and the Work of Scott Joplin
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

4. Ragtime era - c.1893 to c.1920.
A rise in piano and player-piano sales paralleled this period.
Ragtime instruction books began to appear.
Ragtime instruction studios opened.
Ragtime sheet music was published.
Not New York-centered
“the golden age of local and regional music publishing.”

5. Ensembles that began to play ragtime
Brass, concert, and dance bands such as that of John Philip Sousa began to perform arrangements of ragtime music.

6. The Musical Characteristics of Ragtime
Ragtime Rhythm
Syncopation
“the displacing of accents from their normal position in the musical measure, so that they contradict the underlying meter”

7. Ragtime Form 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

8. Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag”
contrasting strains
syncopation against steady, accented notes

9. Who was Scott Joplin? (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
moved to Sedalia, Missouri
composed, played, published
stage works
The Ragtime Dance (pub. 1902)
A Guest of Honor (1903), lost
his first opera
Treemonisha (1907)
1976—won Pulitzer Prize for musical composition

10. Decline of Ragtime
By the mid-1910s, vocal ragtime merged with mainstream popular music.
Also, piano ragtime began to merge with jazz.
Jelly Roll Morton
( )
born in New Orleans
pianist/bandleader
key figure in the transition from ragtime era to jazz

11. Two Offshoots of Ragtime: Stride Piano and Novelty Piano
also known as “Harlem piano”
1920s and 1930s
cultivated by James Price Johnson ( ) and Fats Waller ( )
virtuoso form, developed by pianists
musical style:
steady left-hand rhythmic pulse
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

12. 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 black-derived) music that came before jazz?
minstrelsy
ragtime
blues

13. Brass Bands
An exceptional number of black brass bands and dance orchestras were located in which American city?
New Orleans
What was the instrumentation of these bands?
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)

14. Parade music associated with funerals
marching to the graveyard
after the burial
march away to the beat of the snare drum only
burst into a ragtime number or a “ragged” version of a hymn or spiritual

15. Examples of Parade Music
“Eternity” by the Eureka Brass Band in New Orleans, 1954.
representative of music for marching to the graveyard
slow, solemn march
“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