Ragtime

Ragtime is a term which originated from the black culture. During the days of ministrelsy, the minstrels would sing spirituals and work songs unlike the form the music was written in. They added embellishments here and there around the melody in a fanciful and lively manner, and called it "ragging."

From this ragging style of performance, came syncopation in its early stages. From syncopation came ragtime, which eventually opened the way for jazz.

The ragtime era from 1896 to 1917, was a welcome relief from the long depression that began in 1893 and continued for four years. The mood of ragtime was cheerful and exhilarating. The popularity of the music contributed to its longevity, and it was popular because it was a happy, joyful music. It continued on for the next twenty years.

Ragtime also had its origins in slavery. It was not until Scott Joplin, introduced it in modern form in the 1890s, however, that it became popular with American audiences. Almost immediately, it was heard everywhere. Be it a band concert, a picnic, an outing, a dance, a parade, a rally or a boat cruise, brass bands were constantly playing ragtime music with its syncopated rhythms.

"What is ragtime music?" very simply put, it is a syncopated melody played against a strict rhythm accompaniment. With the combining of these two rhythmic factors, a ragtime character is created. Syncopation is defined as the placing of strong accents where normally the weak or after-beats would be.

Ragtime's rapid success and popularity were helped by the national distribution of printed sheet music, which was primarily written for piano. Black piano players traveling throughout the south and mid-west played ragtime in saloons, dance halls and bordellos. Later, due to public interest, music publishers printed special arrangements for both dance bands and marching bands. In addition, piano rolls of ragtime music were recorded for home player-pianos.

A ragtime composition takes on the same form as that of a march. It usually starts out with a four bar introduction and is followed with four themes. The trio, as in the march, is introduced with either a two or four bar modulation leading into the sub-dominant key. Like the march, ragtime is mainly written in 2/4 or 4/4 time. 2/4 time has two beats to a bar and 4/4 time has four beats to the bar. Then around the early part of the 1900s, waltz music in ragtime was written in 3/4 time.