Ragged Time

Ragtime, created at the turn of the 20^th Century, has been touted the first true American style of music. Growing from more-traditional forms like the waltz and the march, its “rag-time” plays out stodgily in either a 2/4 or 4/4 beat. The left, sinister-hand keeps the steady rhythm while the right-hand syncopates, plays up and down and all-around with the melody.

Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” (1899) is perhaps the most famous piece of this type and Joplin himself ragtime’s most well-known composer. It helped his fame and resurgence in ragtime’s popularity that George Roy Hill’s Academy Award-winning 1973 film, “The Sting”, used Joplin’s rags for its soundtrack. This is where I came in...

If it hadn’t been for the film, and the Top Ten status for Marvin Hamlisch’s rendition of Joplin’s “The Entertainer,” I would probably have never heard of Joplin or ragtime. A teenage boy wanting to make an impression with friends could not exactly wow them with Beethoven’s Fur Elise, or a Clementi sonatina. But, “The Entertainer,” – now that’s entertainment. From there, it was to other pieces from “The Sting” like “The Pineapple Rag,” “The Ragtime Dance, “The Easy Winners,” and (what I later learned was only the last-half of) “Solace.” Then I was able to tackle the “Maple Leaf Rag.”

Life goes on, and after over twenty-five years of not having a keyboard and the ability to regularly practice, a piano finally rolled back into my life. Scott Joplin and ragtime came back, too. It wasn’t enough this time to simply relearn “The Entertainer” and “Maple Leaf Rag” – this time I started exploring the other pieces in the misnamed (as it’s not really complete) “Scott Joplin: The Complete Ragtime Piano Solos” I’d carried around since 1973.

I took on unfamiliar rags like “Weeping Willow,” “Cascades,” and “Palm Leaf Rag.” I finally even got around to bothering with the book’s introduction, which contained “School of Ragtime” by Scott Joplin – his tutorial written for the novice, amateur player.

He wrote: “What is scurrilously called ragtime is an invention that is here to stay. That is now conceded by all classes of musicians … That real ragtime of the higher class is rather difficult to play is a painful truth which most pianists have discovered. Syncopations are no indication of light or trashy music, and to shy bricks at ‘hateful ragtime’ no longer passes for musical culture.”

For his ‘Exercise No. 1’ he reiterates what appears at the beginning of most of his rags: “Play slowly until you catch the swing, and never play ragtime fast at any time.”

This is where my blog comes in.

It’s going to grow slowly and hopefully steadily, but always its aim will be to put out here “the best I can” at the time.

To stretch things out further than I should: Ragtime’s heart-sided hand with the beat, keeps time and holds onto the roundabout syncopation of the right-hand -- representing thoughts all-too-loose and ephemeral in my mind. With the help of this music and making sense of no-sense, perhaps I can begin to catch the swing of things -- and from there move along a little faster.