American Composers and Musicians from A to Z: J (Part 1 – Joplin, Scott)

March 14, 2019 by Juliette Appold

Scott Joplin is probably the best-known ragtime composer of all time. Born in the northeastern part of Texas between July 1867 and January 1868, Joplin grew up in Texarkana on the Texas–Arkansas border. He started studying piano as a child, most likely with the German immigrant Julius Weiss.

Joplin composed the “Maple Leaf Rag,” copyrighted in 1899, when he lived in Sedalia, Missouri. This composition earned him the informal title King of Ragtime. In 1902, after moving to Saint Louis, Missouri, he composed his well-known piece “The Entertainer,” which is prominently featured in the movie The Sting. Another prominent piece is “The Cascades” from 1904.

The distinctive features of ragtimes are the syncopated, “ragged” rhythms. Ragtimes are mostly based on marches written in 2/4 or 4/4 time. The off-beat accentuations in the melodic line give the music a special drive and often humorous kind of energy. Ragtimes were especially popular between 1895 and 1918.

After moving to New York in 1907, Joplin composed an opera: Treemonisha. While he wrote it around 1910, Treemonisha was first performed in its entirety only in 1972 and posthumously received the Pulitzer Prize in music in 1976. Joplin continued writing ragtimes until he died in New York on April 1, 1917.

The NLS Music Section offers several compositions in accessible formats of Scott Joplin, who is one of the nation’s most influential African American composers and a seminal figure in American music history. Furthermore, the Library of Congress Music Division can assist with research on ragtime and on African American composers, as outlined in their recent blog post.