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Chapter 5: The Birth of an American Music: Jazz into the 1920s
The sound of ragtime
Ragtime was among the many varieties of music heard and played around
New Orleans in the early 1900s. Early jazz musicians, particularly pianists,
played the music and incorporated its syncopated rhythms and catchy
melodies into their jazz. Although both black and Creole musicians would’ve
heard ragtime, the Creoles were more likely to play the music verbatim from
sheet music because many of them had formal music training. Early jazz players
acknowledged their music as a variation on ragtime.
Songs displayed a new combination of musical elements: classical, European,
Latin, blues, folk. Ragtime contained little improvisation, but its syncopated
or “ragged” rhythms marked a shift from the stiffer beats of popular dance
and marching music. Whether played by two hands on piano or by several
instruments, the rhythmically rich music overlapped syncopated patterns
and accents that fell in surprising places. (Check out Chapter 3 for more on
syncopation.)
Ragtime was European-influenced, in the sense that it was composed, not
improvised, and featured carefully crafted melodies and harmonies. It didn’t
use the simple, raw blues base common in early jazz. Depending on the player,
ragtime could sound concisely European, or it could become a loose, swinging
precursor of jazz.
The masters of ragtime
During ragtime’s prime years between 1899 and 1917, some 6,000 rags were
composed. The “big three” composers were Scott Joplin (“Maple Leaf Rag”),
James Scott (“Hilarity Rag”), and Joseph Lamb (“American Beauty Rag”). Joplin
was the most prolific, and he surpassed his peers in later years by penning
orchestral works that influenced both jazz and theater music. In the following
sections, I give you some details about the lives of ragtime’s “big three:” Joplin,
Lamb, and Scott.
By 1910, ragtime was a national phenomenon, and in the quest for popularity,
the music became lighter and sweeter, but the ragtime era came to a close in
1917 with Scott Joplin’s passing, and by the end of World War I, elements of
ragtime merged into varieties of jazz including swing — although you could
detect ragtime’s jaunty rhythms and complimentary left and right hand piano
parts in the playing of mostly James P. Johnson. Johnson is important for
bridging styles between earlier ragtime and subsequent swing. Many people
became familiar with Joplin’s music from the popular 1973 film The Sting, with
Robert Redford and Paul Newman.
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