Articles and Essays

Articles, essays, and examples of sheet music which all provide insight into the times and performance of ragtime.

  • Christensen's Ragtime Review Christensen's Ragtime Review: Vol. 1. No. 1 (Chicago: Axel Christensen, December 1914). Performing Arts Reading Room, Library of Congress. The term "ragtime" took on new shades of meaning in the first decades of the 20th century. Originally defined as the "classic rag" style of African-American piano players in the 1880s and 1890s, it described a unique style in which the pianist "ragged" or syncopated…
  • History of Ragtime The Ragtime Nightmare by Tom Turpin (St. Louis, MO: Robt. DeYoung & Co., 1900). Performing Arts Reading Room, Library of Congress. Ragtime, a uniquely American, syncopated musical phenomenon, has been a strong presence in musical composition, entertainment, and scholarship for over a century. It emerged in its published form during the mid-1890s and quickly spread across the continent via published compositions. By the early…
  • Classic Rag Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin (John Stark & Son, c1899). Performing Arts Reading Room, Library of Congress. Ragtime music adapted to the unique style and invention of each composer and musician. Certain rags, however, particularly those by Scott Joplin and the composers who published with John Stark & Son, can be categorized as "classic." These instrumental rags fit a certain musical structure.
  • Treemonisha Treemonisha: Opera in Three Acts, words and music by Scott Joplin (New York: Scott Joplin, c1911). Performing Arts Reading Room, Library of Congress. Scott Joplin composed three works for the stage. The first, The Ragtime Dance, depicted a typical African-American dance gathering; it was performed in 1899 at the Black 400 Club in Sedalia, Missouri. The second work, A Guest of Honor, about Booker…
  • Sit Down, Shut Up, and Listen to Ragtime: Bob Milne and the Occupational Folklore of the Traveling Piano Player Every group, from the smallest family to the largest ethnicity, has a repertoire of informally learned stories, sayings, customs, techniques, and expressive traditions. This material is called folklore. Folklore allows group members to recognize one another as members of a specialized community, to express group solidarity, and to interact in ways that they find especially useful, satisfying, or meaningful. Occupational groups are no exception,…
  • Biographies