Scott Joplin Free Sheet Music, Program Notes, Recordings and Biography

The Entertainer's Echo: A Posthumous Triumph

In the early 1970s, a strange thing happened: the best-selling music in America, topping the pop charts, was written by a man who had died in poverty and obscurity nearly sixty years earlier. Propelled by the blockbuster film The Sting, Scott Joplin's jaunty ragtime tune, The Entertainer, became a global phenomenon. This revival led to a rediscovery of his entire catalog, a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for his life's work, and the long-delayed, triumphant staging of his opera Treemonisha. This ghostly success was a profound, if bittersweet, vindication for an artist who spent his life striving for the very recognition that only came to him long after his tragic death. Scott Joplin's story is one of groundbreaking success, unrecognized ambition, and eventual, resounding triumph.

A Musical Prodigy in Post-Civil War Texas

Scott Joplin was born into a musical African American family in the border region of Texas and Arkansas sometime around 1868. His father, a former slave, was a laborer, and his mother was a domestic worker. His natural musical talent was extraordinary. He taught himself piano in the homes where his mother worked and soon surpassed the skills of local teachers. His life changed when he came to the attention of Julius Weiss, a German-born music professor who was so impressed by the young boy's talent that he gave him free lessons in classical music theory, harmony, and form. This European classical training, combined with the African American folk songs, spirituals, and dance music he heard all around him, would form the unique synthesis of his later compositions.

The World of Ragtime

As a young man, Joplin left home to become an itinerant musician, traveling through the Mississippi Valley and playing in the saloons, clubs, and "sporting houses" of the burgeoning African American communities of the Midwest. This was the world where ragtime was born. A primarily piano-driven style, ragtime is defined by a syncopated, or "ragged," melody in the right hand played against a steady, march-like rhythm in the left. In the 1890s, Joplin settled for a time in Sedalia, Missouri, which had a vibrant African American community and was home to the Maple Leaf Club, where he was the principal pianist. It was here that he began to codify his musical ideas, determined to elevate this popular, often improvised music into a written, sophisticated art form.

King of the Ragtime Writers: The Maple Leaf Rag

In Sedalia, Joplin met the music publisher John Stark. In 1899, Stark published Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag. The piece was a sensation. It was the perfect "classic rag," a multi-themed work of immense rhythmic vitality and melodic charm. It sold hundreds of thousands of copies of sheet music within a decade, making Scott Joplin famous and providing him with a modest but steady income for the rest of his life. He was soon hailed as the "King of Ragtime Writers." He followed its success with dozens of other brilliant rags, including The Entertainer, Elite Syncopations, and Solace - A Mexican Serenade. Joplin was insistent that his rags were not merely dance tunes to be played fast and loose; they were serious compositions, and he often printed the instruction "Notice! Don't play this piece fast. It is never right to play 'Ragtime' fast."

Beyond the Rag: The Dream of Treemonisha

Joplin's ambitions went far beyond the piano rag. He desperately wanted to be recognized as a serious classical composer. He wrote a ragtime ballet, The Ragtime Dance, and in 1911, completed his life's great project: the opera Treemonisha. The opera is a remarkable and deeply personal work. It is not a ragtime opera, but a folk opera that tells an allegorical story of a young, educated black woman who leads her community out of the ignorance of superstition. It was a powerful statement about the importance of education for the advancement of African Americans. Joplin poured all of his resources into getting the opera staged, but he found no backers. In 1915, he mounted a disastrous, self-funded, unstaged performance in a Harlem rehearsal hall with just himself at the piano. The event was a catastrophic failure, and the disappointment is said to have broken his spirit.

Decline and Obscurity After the failure of Treemonisha, Joplin's health, which had been declining for years due to syphilis, deteriorated rapidly. His creative output ceased, and he was admitted to a mental institution in New York City, where he died on April 1, 1917. He was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave, and for half a century, his music, with the exception of a few rags kept alive by jazz musicians, was largely forgotten. His beloved opera was considered lost.

Legacy

The revival of the 1970s changed everything. The success of The Sting created a massive new audience for ragtime. A complete piano roll recording of his work was released, and in 1972, Treemonisha was finally discovered and given its first full, professional staging to great acclaim. The ultimate honor came in 1976, when Scott Joplin was awarded a special posthumous Pulitzer Prize for his contributions to American music. Today, Scott Joplin is recognized as a foundational figure in American music. He was a visionary who successfully merged African American vernacular traditions with the forms and ambitions of European classical music, creating a uniquely American art form and paving the way for the jazz age that would follow.

Section 4: References and Further Reading

• Berlin, Edward A. King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era. Oxford University Press, 1994.

• Blesh, Rudi, and Harriet Janis. They All Played Ragtime. 4th ed., Oak Publications, 1971.

• Curtis, Susan. Dancing to a Black Man's Tune: A Life of Scott Joplin. University of Missouri Press, 1994.

• Tichenor, Trebor Jay. Ragtime Rarities: Complete Original Music for 63 Piano Rags. Dover Publications, 1975.