Scott JoplinEssay Preview: Scott JoplinReport this essayScott Joplin (1868-1917)Scott Joplin, commonly known as the “King of Ragtime” music, was born on November 24, 1868, in Bowie County, Texas near Linden. Joplin came from a large musical family. His father, Giles Joplin was a musician who had fiddled dance music while serving as a slave at his masters parties. His mother, Florence Givens Joplin, born free and out of slavery, sang and played the banjo, and four of his brothers and sisters either sang or played strings.
Joplins talent was revealed at an early age. Encouraged by his parents, he became extremely proficient on the banjo and gained an interest for playing the piano. After Joplins parents purchased a piano for the family, he taught himself how to play the instrument so well that his piano playing became remarkable. Joplin soon began playing for church and local social events. By age eleven, while under the teachings of a German music teacher named Juliuss Weiss, Joplin was learning the finer points of harmony and style. As a teenager, he played well enough to be employed as a dance musician.
In 1884, Joplin left home and traveled the Midwest for some time as an intinerant pianist playing in saloons and brothels. He settled in St. Louis a few years later and continued his studies. He found employment there in the citys prostitution district playing as a cafe pianist.
Joplin left St. Louis in 1893 and performed at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He left there in 1894 and arrived in Sedalia, Missouri, where he spent the next year or so entertaining the patrons of a private club on the second floor of a saloon by the name of “Maple Leaf Club.” In 1895, Joplin continued his studies at the George R. Smith College for negros where he soon published his first composition, the song Please Say You Will. From there, Joplin toured with an eight member Texas Medley Quartet across the country all the way up to Syracuse, New York. This Quartet disbanded in 1897 and Joplin organized another group, the Seda Quartet, which performed off and on during the next few years.
Joplin’s contributions to the music of the Seda group are most marked by his willingness to devote his energy to the music of his other friends. He wrote his first symphony, The Love Letter, a piano-inspired symphony that played at the George R. Smith Academy between 1895 and 1897. His next two symphonies, The Love Letter and The Love Letter II, were composed entirely by young composers, as did his two works on ballad “The Little Sisters” which played at the American Music Institute at Lincoln Center. Joplin also composed a suite of songs for numerous music and film schools. Joplin worked with an assortment of young composers who were also involved with the American Music Academy and American Music and Film Association, among other activities. As a member of the Seda group during the 1950s, Joplin and his music student cohorts became an increasingly integral part of the school.
Joplin was recognized early in his music career as a true pioneer and, at the time of his death, one of the first members of the Seda student band to become a national phenomenon in the way symphony music has been played, recorded and released for the first time. Joplin’s greatest contributions to the music collection include his efforts with “The Little Sisters,” a musical adaptation of James Taylor’s “The Dream of Eileen and a Dream of David” and the musical “She’s All Grown Up,” a composition composed by a young saxophonist, and a collaboration by the Seda Quartet and other young group with the Chicago Childrens Orchestra, the Los Angeles Symphony Hall Conservatory, the Center for Young Music Arts, and several organizations that have been working with Joplin for decades. The Seda Quartet have also honored Joplin with the International Philharmonic Academy (IMA), the International Musical Awards of the Chicago Philharmonic (INA), and the P.E.O.J. Foundation. Additionally, Joplin’s Seda friends and acquaintances have helped him to raise funds for various causes. His most notable contribution to music history through music education will undoubtedly be in the form of his contributions to the “Seda Symphony & Seda Trios” series, which will be performed on three major Seda symphonies. He has received numerous awards for his contributions to Seda music ranging from the prestigious International Philharmonic Academy Award to the National Philharmonic Association Award for outstanding performance, and, most importantly, the Nobel Peace Prize for the performance of his opera “The Pardon of the Devil” by the “Little Sisters.” At the heart of American music and entertainment, music education is the
In 1899, Joplin composed the Maple Leaf Rag. This song soon became the most popular piano rag of the period. It brought Joplin popularity, which inspired him to compose several more original rags.
Joplin headed for New York in 1907 where he continued composing music and began instructing others in music. He son sought a publisher for one of his most famous operas Treemonisha. During this time, though, it never reached any success. This opera did not actually reach popularity until some 60 years later. New York proved to be stimulating for Joplins creative mind. There he published many ragtime jewels, on right after another.
In 1916, Joplins career came to an abrupt end. Joplin contracted syphilis and began suffering the terminal effects of this disease. He suffered from paranoia, dementia, penalization, and other symptoms. In the latter part of 1916, he was admitted to Manhattan State Hospital, a mental hospital, where he would never leave until he passed away on April 1, 1917. After his death, Joplins body was buried in the Astoria section of Queens, New York in St. Michaels Cemetery.
In Joplins many years of composing, he was never actuallyacknowledged as the great composer that he really was. There just was not any opportunities for black musicians during those times to have their music heard by anyone in the serious musical world. Joplins music received recognition posthumously as a result of the revival of ragtime music in the 1970s, as well as during its popularity in the 1920s and 1930s.
Throughout his entire life, Joplin was mostly influenced to increase his musical skills by his mother and father, both being musicians themselves. More than type of influence upon himself, Joplin was one to place the influence on others. His works sparked the writings of his contemporaries, all those who studied with him, and all those who studied his music.
Joplin led in the