Regrettably, many of his works are now lost. Joplin spent the rest of his life producing ever more serious compositions, integrating the folk elements of the African-American culture into classical musical forms such as operas and concertos.
Joplin, however, saw ragtime as an original African-American form of music in which composers such as himself were creating completely new works. To "rag" a number was to play it in this syncopated style.
This ragtime device could also be applied to any other musical number, such as a song. The distinguishing element was syncopation ragtime marches contained the continuous use of rhythmic displacement. In form, a "rag" was closely related to the marches that John Philip Sousa had popularized in the last half of the 19th Century. Joplin produced almost 50 rags in the next decade and a half. A phenomenal hit, it set the standard for ragtime as not only a popular music but also as music that might well be considered the equal of the ageless European masterworks. This piece became the quintessential theme of ragtime music. After spending years as an itinerant piano player and entertainer, Joplin ended up in Sedalia, Mo., where he had his syncopated masterpiece, "The Maple Leaf Rag," published in 1899 by the local music store owner, John Stark.
0 kommentar(er)
