AfriClassical.com Updates Page on Scott Joplin, Opera Composer & King of Ragtime (c. 1867-1917)

[Dancing to a Black Man's Tune: A Life of Scott Joplin; Susan Curtis; University of Missouri Press (2004)]

AfriClassical.com is proud to replace its page on Scott Joplin (c. 1867-1917) with a much more comprehensive examination of his life in music, based principally on Dancing to a Black Man's Tune: A Life of Scott Joplin, written by Susan Curtis, PhD, Professor of History and American Studies at Purdue University. In her book, Prof. Curtis stresses Scott Joplin's role in the creation of an American school of music. Susan Curtis has kindly agreed to contribute a blog post on the composer

Roy F. Eaton is a pianist who specializes in the piano music of Scott Joplin. His CD Joplin: Piano Rags is part of the Sony Essential Classics series. The revised Joplin page features brief music samples from four works on the recording: Maple Leaf Rag, The Entertainer, The Cascades and The Chrysanthemum.

Scott Joplin wrote three major classical works, but the only one which has survived intact is his opera Treemonisha. A growing number of productions of this work have recently been staged in a variety of locations, with more performances and at least one new set of recordings in the works. Anthony Tommasini, Classical Music critic for The New York Times, wrote on June 7, 2011 that Treemonisha is “...a serious American grand opera.”

Almost as soon as Scott Joplin was nicknamed the "King of Ragtime", he began to turn his attention to classical music, including opera, in which he had been tutored in his youth. Joplin spent the rest of his life struggling to escape the confines of the narrow role to which he was consigned by publishers, producers and theater owners. By the end of the 19th century, the United States and the world had an African American composer of opera.

Today his opera Treemonisha is being performed in front of appreciative audiences in Europe as well as in North America and the Caribbean. Scott Joplin never lived to see one of his operas fully staged, but nine decades after his untimely death, the music world is beginning to recognize Joplin as much more than the "King of Ragtime."