Scott Joplin–Entertainer Rag

The last form of music we want to highlight comes from the world of ragtime piano music. By the late 1890’s this form of African-American music was developing: from the banjo, a new kind of syncopated piano music called ragtime was emerging; and from work songs a lament that would later be called “the blues” was struggling to the surface.

Chicago was a gathering place in 1893 for ragtime pianists, who had transferred the syncopated sounds of the fiddle and banjo to the piano. At the time of the Chicago Exhibition, these men gathered to compare their various compositions and techniques. In that year of 1893, the word “ragtime” was first used in published sheet music.

Fred S. Stone wrote “My Ragtime Baby” in 1893, William Krills wrote “Mississippi Rag” in 1897, Tom Turpin published “Harlem Rag” in 1897, Tom Broady’s “Monday Broadway Stroll” and “A Tennessee Jubilee” came out in 1898. Nevertheless, the man we remember best is Scott Joplin; he published “The Original Rags” in 1898, and in 1899 he published his immortal “Maple Leaf Rag,” the first piece of instrumental music to sell over one million copies. We have included Joplin’s piano roll version of “Maple Leaf Rag” in the website; here we will include a more modern rendition of his famous 1902 composition, “The Entertainer.”