Popular Music of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

1. Popular Musicof the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries The Ragtime Craze: 1896–1918

2. Ragtime Music • Emerged in the 1880s • Its popularity peaked in the decade after the turn of the century. • Ragtime initially was a piano music but gradually came to identify any syncopated music. • The term “ragtime” was used to describe any music that contained syncopation.

3. Ragtime Music • The word derives from the African American term “to rag,” meaning to enliven a piece of music by shifting accents to the offbeats (a technique known as syncopation). • It began as an obscure folk-dance music up and down the Mississippi valley beginning about 1875. • Ragtime energized popular music in America by adding rhythmic vitality (syncopation) to the music.

4. The Banjo • A stringed instrument developed by slave musicians from African prototypes during the early colonial period. • The basic patterns of ragtime music were transferred from the banjo.

5. Ragtime • Also influenced by Latin American rhythms such as the Cuban habanera • Marching band music contributed the regular “oom-pah” bass common in ragtime pieces.

6. Ragtime Songs • Coon song • Popular among white audiences from the 1890s until World War I • Usually accompanied by a simplified version of the syncopated rhythms of ragtime piano music

7. “All Coons Look Alike to Me” • The first piece of sheet music to bear the term “rag” • Composed by the African American songwriter Ernest Hogan • Published (complete with racist caricatures on the cover) in 1896

8. March Songs • Ragtime-influenced songs that were less derogatory in content than coon songs • Owed less to the style developed by Joplin and other black pianists • George M. Cohan (1878–1942), author of “You’re a Grand Old Flag” (1907)

9. Ragtime Songs • Popularity suggests a continuation of the white fascination with African American music first evinced in minstrelsy. • Most popular ragtime songs were vigorous march-style songs with a few “irregular” rhythms added for effect.

10. Scott Joplin (1868–1917) • The most famous ragtime composer of the era • Best known for his piano rags • Born in Texas • Began to play piano around the town of Texarkana during his teens and received instruction in classical music theory from a German teacher • His first regular job as a pianist was in a cafe in St. Louis.

11. Scott Joplin (1868–1917) • Developed a “ragging” piano style, improvising around the themes of popular songs and marches in a syncopated style • Between 1895 and 1915, Joplin composed many of the classics of the ragtime repertoire • Helped popularize the style through his piano arrangements, published as sheet music

12. Scott Joplin (1868–1917) • Joplin’s rags were also widely heard on player pianos. • Player pianos were elaborate mechanical devices activated by piano rolls—spools of paper with punched holes that controlled the movement of the piano’s keys.

13. “Maple Leaf Rag” (1898) • Scott Joplin’s first successful piece • Named after the Maple Leaf social club in Sedalia, where he often played • The piece was published in 1899 and became a huge hit, spreading Joplin’s fame to Europe and beyond. • “Maple Leaf” started a nationwide craze for syncopated music.

14. Listening: “Maple Leaf Rag” • The form and style are typical of “classic” ragtime. • “Maple Leaf” consists of a succession of four distinct themes: • AABBACCDD • This type of form is common in marches. • The rhythmic interest comes from the interplay of the two hands.

15. Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton • New Orleans jazz pianist • Took Joplin’s composition and treated it as the basis for extended, rhythmically complex improvisations • Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton’s version of “Maple Leaf Rag” can be heard in The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz

16. The Rise of the Phonograph • Invented in 1877 by Thomas Alva Edison and, at around the same time, by a French inventor named Charles Cros • The energy from sound waves was transferred to a foil or wax cylinder, which could then be used to reproduce the original sounds.

17. Phonograph Discs • Two companies dominated the American market in phonograph discs at the turn of the century: • Columbia Records (formed in 1887) • Victor Talking Machine Company (1901)

18. Phonograph Discs • 1890s: The first nickelodeons—machines that played music hits for a nickel—were set up in public places. • 1902: Enrico Caruso recorded a series of Opera arias in London. Victor sold over two million dollars’ worth of discs after his death in 1921. • 1902: Twelve-inch shellac discs were introduced.

19. Radio • 1920: The first three commercial radio stations in the U.S. were established (KDKA in Pittsburgh, WWJ in Detroit, and WJZ in Newark). • 1926: The first nationwide commercial radio network was established (National Broadcasting Company [NBC]). • 1927: There were over 1,000 radio stations in the United States.