Joplin’s pianism gave direct rise to the piano style of one Ferdinand Joseph Lamothe (ca. 1885/90-1941), AKA Jelly Roll Morton, who retained heavy syncopation in his playing style, which Morton humbly considered jazz and declared himself its father. Morton’s piano style logically evolved into the stride piano of James P. Johnson (1894-1955), Thomas Wright “Fats” Waller (1904-1943) and William Henry Joseph Bonaparte Bertholoff “Willie the Lion” Smith (1897-1973). This evolutionary stream of piano originality ended with Thelonious Monk (1917-1982) who further transformed the stride style into his own unique brand of jazz.
Joplin (and Gottschalk, for that matter) may be considered the American equivalents of Italy’s Domenico Scarlatti. All were popular in their lifetimes. All three specialized in composing short keyboard pieces that were often used for music instruction. And all three remain firmly in the modern performance repertoire. Joplin’s classical ragtime certainly deserves to played along side Bach and Beethoven.
Classical Ragtime
Scott Joplin desired to raise ragtime from the mere popular to the “classical.” “Classical Ragtime” describes ragtime composition developed by Joplin and the Missouri school of ragtime composers. The term was coined by Joplin’s publisher, John Stark, as a commercial way to separate them from the rags published by other houses. “Classical Ragtime” has evolved into the description of a specific structural form.
Conceived in a miasma of musical influences, at its genesis, ragtime defied printed definition with no common musical format for describing the syncopation of the pieces. In the early 20th Century a group of composers, led by Joplin, established conventions, by proxy, as Joplin was the most popular ragtime composer and his rag structures were ultimately accepted as a compositional template.
If conceived in Heaven, the “standard” structure of “Classical Ragtime” is composed in 2/4 meter with a four-bar introduction, followed by themes in the following order: INTRO AA BB A CC DD. Technically, there are one or two more particulars, but this gives the reader a pretty good idea. This definition exists only as a starting place for understanding a musical genre that is characterized by the exceptions to this definition rather than its rule.
Available Recordings
There have been many recordings of Scott Joplin rags. A consideration of the complete discography of available Joplin rags is neither practical nor warranted for this discussion. Many worthy recordings will be ignored in this article in an effort to provide the listener a sensible starting place in listening to and considering Scott Joplin’s music.
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