Ragtime Music

(From the Prologue to Ragtime)

"And there was distant music,

Simple and somehow sublime,

Giving the nation

A new syncopation-

The people called it Ragtime!

And there was music playing,

Catching a nation in its prime...

Beggar and millionaire

Everyone, everywhere

Moving to the Ragtime!

And there was distant music

Skipping a beat, singing a dream.

A strange, insistent music

Putting out heat,

Picking up steam.

It was the music

Of something beginning,

An era exploding,

A century spinning

In riches and rags,

And in rhythm and rhyme.

The people called it Ragtime!"

Ragtime is a music genre best known for its syncopated rhythm, peaking in popularity between 1897 and 1918. Originating as part of the African American music movement in the late 19th century, its influences derived from the red-light districts of the African American communities in St. Louis and New Orleans. By the early 20th century, however, it gained exponential popularity in North America and was listened to/performed by people of a variety of cultures. Described as the first American style of music originating in this country, ragtime pulls from African American syncopation (or "jigs" and "rags") and European classical music to form this melting pot of a musical identity.

Through his successful combination of African and European styles of music, Scott Joplin's The Entertainer (1902) on a Piano Roll is famously known as the epitome of the ragtime music movement.

Some characteristics of Ragtime music.