Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that had its peak from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott Joplin, James Scott and Joseph Lamb. Ragtime pieces are typically composed for and performed on piano, though the genre has been adapted for a variety of instruments and styles.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Joplin</span> [[African-American]] composer, music teacher, and pianist (1868–1917)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Scott_Joplin_1907_%28transparent%29.png)
Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist. Dubbed the "King of Ragtime", he composed more than 40 ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first and most popular pieces, the "Maple Leaf Rag", became the genre's first and most influential hit, later being recognized as the quintessential rag.
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1912.
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1908.
The cakewalk was a dance developed from the "prize walks" held in the mid-19th century, generally at get-togethers on Black slave plantations before and after emancipation in the Southern United States. Alternative names for the original form of the dance were "chalkline-walk", and the "walk-around". It was originally a processional partner dance performed with comical formality, and may have developed as a subtle mockery of the mannered dances of white slaveholders.
Elena Davidovna Kats-Chernin is a Soviet-born Australian pianist and composer, best known for her ballet Wild Swans.
The "Maple Leaf Rag" is an early ragtime musical composition for piano composed by Scott Joplin. It was one of Joplin's early works, and became the model for ragtime compositions by subsequent composers. It is one of the most famous of all ragtime pieces. As a result, Joplin became dubbed the "King of Ragtime" by his contemporaries. The piece gave Joplin a steady if unspectacular income for the rest of his life.
Eugénie Ricau Rocherolle is an American composer, pianist, lyricist, and teacher who began her composing career with choral and band music.
Ian Timothy Whitcomb was an English entertainer, singer-songwriter, record producer, writer, broadcaster and actor. As part of the British Invasion, his hit song "You Turn Me On" reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1965.
"Magnetic Rag" is a 1914 ragtime piano composition by American composer Scott Joplin. It is significant for being the last rag which Joplin published in his lifetime, three years before his death in 1917. It is also unique in form and in some of the musical techniques employed in the composition.
William Henry Krell (1868–1933) composed one of the early mature rag or ragtime composition in 1897 called Mississippi Rag, published in New York by S. Brainard's Sons and copyrighted on January 27, 1897. The sheet music stated that it was the first rag-time two step ever written and was first played by Krell's Orchestra in Chicago although the structure is in the form of a patrol march. Many historians believe that "Mississippi Rag" was more so of a cake walk composition than a ragtime. The cover shows a group of all ages dancing to a banjo player before onlookers sitting on a pile of stacked cotton bales on a dock on the Mississippi River. Krell also composed the rag Shake Yo' Dusters! or Piccaninny Rag in 1898. "Mississippi Rag" was one of the compositions that help popularize the genre known as ragtime.
"Bethena, A Concert Waltz" is a composition by Scott Joplin. It was the first Joplin work since his wife Freddie's death on September 10, 1904, of pneumonia, ten weeks after their wedding. At the time the composer had significant financial problems; the work did not sell successfully at the time of publication and was soon neglected and forgotten. It was rediscovered as a result of the Joplin revival in the 1970s and has received acclaim from Joplin's biographers and other critics. The piece combines two different styles of music, the classical waltz and the rag, and has been seen as demonstrating Joplin's excellence as a classical composer. The work has been described as "an enchantingly beautiful piece that is among the greatest of Ragtime Waltzes", a "masterpiece", and "Joplin's finest waltz".
Knocky Parker, born John William Parker, II, was an American jazz pianist. He played primarily ragtime and Dixieland jazz.
Joyce Grill is an American composer, teacher, and conductor.
Eduard Pütz was a German composer and music teacher.
Alexander Peskanov is a Ukrainian-American concert pianist and composer.
Jean-Baptiste Lafrenière was a Canadian pianist and composer noted for his work in the ragtime genre.
Henriette Blanke-Belcher, also known as Henrietta Blanke-Belcher and later as Henriette B. Melson, was an American composer of popular music, especially waltzes and ragtime tunes.
Louise V. Moore Gustin Taylor was an American composer of popular music.
Verdi Karns, after 1908 Verdi Karns Sturgis, was an American composer of popular tunes.
