![]() Pianist Lara Downes says location is everything when it comes to Joplin’s musical development: Johnson, but his most extensive training came from a Jewish German American, Julius Weiss, who taught the young Joplin music theory, an appreciation of music as a formal art form, and he encouraged Joplin to set high goals for himself.Īfter leaving Texas, accounts place Joplin in Chicago in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition. Scott Joplin’s early music education also came from the Black musician Mag Washington and native American/Black J.C. He was the second of six children, and his parents had musical talent-his mother, Florence, played the banjo and was a singer, his father Giles played violin. The Ku Klux Klan was active in northeast Texas, and Black laborers who worked in white family homes, such as Joplin’s mother, could be fined for leaving the home without permission, impudence, or swearing, among other “offenses” that could be deemed “disobedience.”īut Scott Joplin’s mother was determined to give her son an education, and by the age of 12, Joplin was living in Texarkana with his family, where he was in school, and learning music. The Civil War may have ended, but it was still a dangerous time for Black families in the south. For this special series of African American Voices on KPAC, we’re looking back at Scott Joplin’s life and music, with the help of pianist Lara Downes, whose new album of Joplin’s music, “ Reflections,” reexamines his piano rags and melodies, some in fresh new arrangements, and Rick Benjamin, who reconstructed Joplin’s opera “Treemonisha” for a new generation.įlickr user QuesterMark Scott Joplin Historical Marker in Texarkana.īy most accounts, Scott Joplin was born near Texarkana, in 1868. But racism and a public that only saw him as a popular tunesmith stood in the way. He also was a “classical” musician, who aspired to write opera, a symphony, and a piano concerto. Scott Joplin was the King of Ragtime-a syncopated, march-like popular style of piano playing developed by Black musicians in the late 19th century. He grew up to be one of the most famous musicians in America as the 19th Century turned into the 20th … then died penniless and forgotten less than two decades after the height of his fame… only to be rediscovered and celebrated half a century later. Recordings and sheet music from the King of Ragtime.He was born in Texas, just six years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and three years after the passage of the 13th amendment to the Constitution. List created by SCCLD LIBRARIANS FOR ADULTSīy and about Scott Joplin. For more information about Scott Joplin and his work, and maybe learn to play piano rags yourself, here is the Santa Clara County Library Distict Scott Joplin Resource list. He published his Maple Leaf Rag in 1895, and for the next 20 years, he was the self-styled King of Ragtime. However, no one can say Scott Joplin did not leave his mark on American music, especially American piano literature. Joplin was further hampered by his own incomplete musical education and by often having to be his own teacher. ![]() Joplin completed his one opera, Treemonisha in 1911 but got no further as a classical composer. Young Scott Joplin was eager to become a classical composer, even though opportunities for black classical composers were practically non-existent in the late 19th century and the turn of the 20th. He also shared his love of symphony and operas with his student. A local music teacher heard about the exceptionally talented boy and gave him his first piano lessons. This gave Joplin early access to a piano in the home of his mother's employers. He was born in Texas and grew up in Texarkana, where his mother was a housekeeper. A son of a former slave, Scott Joplin's exact birthdate is unknown, other than it was during the six month span between June 1867 and January 1868. When celebrating the Fourth of July this year, it feels especially appropriate to honor a black American composer who gave us the uniquely American musical style-Ragtime. ![]()
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