Scott Joplin (1868-1917)
Scott Joplin (November 24, 1868, Texarkana, Texas, United States – April 1, 1917, New York, United States), was one of the pioneering figures of African-American music. Their music has interested countless composers of various styles and from the source of the “rags” (their creative piano invention), they have drawn on musical styles as different as “Boogie Woogie” or “stride”. Ragtime is the music that chronologically, and genealogically, preceded jazz and in fact is one of the sources – not the only one, nor the most important – of jazz.
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It is known about Scott Joplin that his first steps musically speaking were in the city of St. Louis when he played the piano in some clubs and roadside dives between 1885 and 1893. He moved to the city of Sedalia in Missouri, a town where The slavery of the black race was harsher and there in the cotton fields he wrote his first successful composition titled “Maple Leaf Rag.” Years later, a version of that rag by the rocker, John Stark, sold more than seventy-five thousand copies, which constituted a huge sales success in the African-American market.
Most of his works, written for player pianos, have disappeared, including the famous opera: “A Guest of Honor”, but those that remain rigorously detail the African-American musical tradition. Scott Joplin was admitted to a hospital as a result of the depression he suffered due to the artistic and economic failure of his opera “Treemonisha.” There he contracted syphilis and died in 1917.
Scott Joplin never knew the influence he had on the music of the 20th century. One of his best-known and popular works was the Rag titled: “The Entertainer” used several times in the cinema and which was the soundtrack of the film directed in 1974 by the filmmaker, George Roy Hill and titled “The Sting” ( The Coup).
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Scott Joplin, Ragtime King (vinyl record)
Piano Roll Solos performed by Scott Joplin.
One of the most decisive genealogical roots of jazz was ragtime. The written player piano rolls – the rag ones excluded improvisation – served to spread it at the end of the 19th century and were the starting point for the appearance of the first jazz pianists, creating different styles. The most important of all of them was the ‘stride style.’ Scott Joplin is a decisive figure in the history of jazz.
