King Of Ragtime

It’s time to jam the Maple Leaf Rag in tribute to Scott Joplin’s unhonored request to have it played at his funeral on 1 April 1917. Maple Leaf Rag day celebrates the wild success of ragtime that Scott Joplin helped cultivate back at the turn of the 20th century (early 1900’s). It was arguably America’s first popular music genre with nationwide appeal, thanks to the proliferation of affordable printed music, as well as the genius of Scott Joplin who aspired to elevate ragtime as a respected musical style, despite attempts to label it as trashy, unwholesome, and even dangerous.

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But exactly what is ragtime, musically speaking? Here is a short musical explanation by Davide Di Bello showing how syncopation works to create that characteristic ragtime sound, accentuating the beat, and “inducing the listener to move to the music.”

Ragtime lead to jazz as musicians embellished and improvised on it, such as Jelly Roll Morton in his swinging transformation of the Maple Leaf Rag:

And you don’t need a piano to play ragtime, as Bob Evans illustrates with a fine guitar rendition of the Maple Leaf Rag:

Whether you can perform it yourself on your instrument of choice, or listen to others play it, be sure to crank up the Maple Leaf Rag today, April 1st — or any other day you want! — to acknowledge the historical significance of the piece, and the energy & talent of its great African American composer, Scott Joplin.

To show the spirit of Scott Joplin that ragtime is alive and well in the 21st century, here is a highly-viewed Maple Leaf Rag light show by Toms Mucenieks:

Image Credit: The “Scott Joplin 1911, The King of Ragtime Composers” portrait featured in this post came from NYPL’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, via the following Black History Month post: Slices of the Tenderloin #3: Scott Joplin.

However you enjoy it, whether by playing it yourself on your instrument of choice or listening to others perform it, be sure to crank up the Maple Leaf Rag today (April 1st) and anytime you want — appreciating its historic significance and the energy & talent of its African American composer, Scott Joplin.d

On this Easter Sunday of April 1st, 2018, celebration of “the quintessential ragtime piece written by that great master Scott Joplin” continues.

Terry Waldo provides a nice historical review of Ragtime and early Jazz where he observes that the Maple Leaf Rag “has continued to this day to be the quintessential rag”. A student of the great Eubie Blake (a Joplin contemporary), Terry plays a flowing, Eubie-inflected rendition of the M.L.R., as well as the Charleston Rag, and discusses the finer points of syncopation and how “to rag” a tune:

Ragification continues with Jonny May in an interview with Robert Estrin covering the historical development of ragtime. Jonny, who served for many years as the main  ragtime player at Disneyland, notes that the M.L.R. was the most requested ragtime song at Disneyland:

Additional history of Ragtime is covered by Allysia of PianoTV who notes a number of precursors of Ragtime including banjo playing, cakewalks, and British Isles dances (“jigs”):

Happy Maple Leaf Rag day!

Vive la Ragtime ♫ ♪

1 April 2017 marks 100 years to the day of Scott Joplin’s passing. Americans across the country honored the occasion in a tribute to the great composer of the “Maple Leaf Rag” whose wish to have this piece played at his funeral was not honored 100 years ago.

Richard Dowling performed all-Joplin concerts nationwide throughout 2017 & 2018 highlighted by the first public performance in history of The Complete Piano Works of Scott Joplin in Carnegie Hall on April 1, 2017, exactly 100 years to the day that Joplin died in New York.

Not many composers are publicly celebrated in such a high-profile fashion by professional musicians a century after their passing as Scott Joplin was. It speaks to the love and respect for the musical genre he catapulted to worldwide acclaim at the turn of the 20th century — Ragtime.

Here’s Richard performing excerpts of the Maple Leaf Rag and The Entertainer during the annual Scott Joplin Concert held outdoors at St. Michael’s Cemetery where Joplin is buried:

and an earlier performance by Mr. Dowling of the complete Maple Leaf Rag accompanied by orchestra:

Continuing the tradition from last year when we began marking the anniversary of Scott Joplin’s funeral on 1 April 1917 with a playing of Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag, everyone is invited to play this piece on their instrument of choice, or just listen to it, this April 1st.

It was Scott Joplin’s wish to have the MLR played at his funeral in 1917, but it never was. It not only launched his career as a composer, but it also propelled Ragtime into the international musical spotlight in the late 1890s and set the stage for the rise of jazz and other forms of popular music. Ragtime was actually America’s first popular musical genre to achieve widespread attention (and that attention was not always nice — many in the musical establishment at the time feared that Ragtime would lead to the destruction of civilized society; those predictions have proven wrong… so far!)

So let’s do our best to honor the Maple Leaf Rag on April 1st. If you play it already, perform it as if you were personally asked by Scott Joplin to perform it at his funeral. And if you can’t play it, try learning it on whatever instrument you prefer (humming, whistling, spoons & cheeks are fine, too :)). If you’re not a musician, give it a listen on this day.

Own It

One of the things that Ragtime sparked was improvisation, as different performers would take a piece like the MLR and personalize it with their own embellishments. Eubie Blake, Jelly Roll Morton and many other pianists of the ragtime and early jazz era enjoyed riffing on the MLR and other of Joplin’s pieces.

Here’s an awesome, stride-tinged contemporary example by the great Adam Swanson doing his own version of the Maple Leaf Rag in 2012:

Martin Spitznagel takes the MLR on a jazzy romp here:

Cory Hall does a perfect straight-up MLR rendition here:

Did you play it or otherwise enjoy the MLR on April 1st? Do you know of different versions played on different instruments? Leave us a note in the comments. If you’ve got a video of yourself performing it or another favorite version of it, include a link in your comments.

Welcome to KingOfRagtime.com — a new fansite dedicated to the spirit of Scott Joplin, king of Ragtime writers.  Learn more on the about page.