It was part of the late 19th century-lexicon to use "-time" as a suffix to describe a kind of music by the characteristics of its rhythm. Ragtime, the word, probably began life as a description of musical meter and certainly preceded the advent of the music of Joplin, Scott, and others. ragtime created an attitude and defined an era that reached beyond the music." ( Real Ragtime booklet, 4) Much like rock 'n' roll, heavy metal, jazz, and other popular genres of music, ragtime invited "the curiosity and even devotion of the young at the same time it disquiets the staid and established. Ragtime became a very real fad that covered a wide range of styles and even grew to describe things non-musical. It is a genre distinct from other types of syncopated musical compositions from about the same period - for example, "coon songs" and cakewalks - the latter especially composed for dancing.īut our definition cannot be cut-and-dried, for "ragtime" once described the peppy, syncopated treatment of almost any type of music - that is how it was known to the public at large.
Some ragtime scholars point out that ragtime is composed chiefly for an audience - a pianistic work not meant for dancing. These roving composers include Scott Joplin, Charles Hunter, Thomas Turpin, Louis Chauvin, Charles L. This definition describes much of the music of the itinerant pianists who traversed the South and Midwest and eventually congregated in Missouri to produce an oeuvre of core ragtime compositions. A ragtime composition is usually composed three or four contrasting sections or strains, each one being 16 or 32 measures in length. Ragtime - A genre of musical composition for the piano, generally in duple meter and containing a highly syncopated treble lead over a rhythmically steady bass. However, these groups are distinguished by subgroups of purists who generally agree on, and stand by, a precise definition: Like jazz, another distinctly American musical art form, ragtime's composers, practitioners, and admirers each see its boundaries differently.
Ragtime's popularity promptly spread to Europe and there, as in America, soon became a fad. Ragtime seemed to emanate primarily from the southern and midwestern states with the majority of activity occurring in Missouri - although the East and West coasts also had their share of composers and performers. The popularity and demand for ragtime also boosted sale of pianos and greatly swelled the ranks of the recording industry. By the early 1900s ragtime flooded the music publishing industry. It emerged in its published form during the mid-1890s and quickly spread across the continent via published compositions. Ragtime, a uniquely American, syncopated musical phenomenon, has been a strong presence in musical composition, entertainment, and scholarship for over a century. Performing Arts Reading Room, Library of Congress.
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