Maple Leaf Rag & Ragtime: Study Notes

Context and Recap

• The current focus is on the early American music industry and the shift from selling sheet music to broader audiences.
• Last class discussion centered on how sheet music, not just performances, helped shape what was listened to and sold in the US.
• Issues raised include access to sheet music, literacy (who can read sheet music), and what sheet music purchases imply about socioeconomic class and who can learn to read and play music.
• A key idea: sheet music allowed notated music and new styles to be bought and sold, reflecting music that hadn’t previously been sold as sheet music in the early 20th century.
• Today’s focus: a new style called ragtime, which became popular as sheet music from the 1890s through around 1920, illustrating the influence of folk music on notated music and the influence of African American musicians on early 20th-century notated music.
• Visuals and artifacts: vinyl records and box sets (e.g., a large Salute to Tim Penalty/Tim Penner-style compilation) show how people collected and accessed older music; these collections made famous music accessible and affordable for broader audiences.
• The class also references how offices in New York City were sites where songs were written and then published as sheet music to be sold widely, reflecting Tin Pan Alley’s role in the early music industry.
• The focus piece for today: Maple Leaf Rag, written by Scott Joplin in the context of ragtime. Published in 1890s and popular up to the 1920s. The piece is studied through video that shows performance and notation, so students can follow along visually if they read music, while others can focus on listening and the sense of notation.

Focus Song: Maple Leaf Rag

• Title and authorship: Maple Leaf Rag, written by Scott Joplin (written by, not performed by). Joplin is a central figure in ragtime.
• Date context: Composed around 1898, after the 1892 laws that affected publishing and copyright landscapes and after ragtime’s emergence as a distinct style.
• The piece is studied in class with a video that lets students see the pianist’s hands and the musical notation, aiding those who read music as well as those who listen.
• Class note: The teacher emphasizes not grouping students into rows for this exercise, preferring an open discussion instead.

Ragtime: Definition, Origins, and Influences

• Ragtime is a style of music often performed on the piano, but can involve other instruments and singers.
• Geographic roots: Originates loosely in the American South and Midwest, developed by African American piano players and bandleaders in the 1890s, with peak popularity between the late 1890s and the early 1900s and continuing into the 1910s.
• Core musical characteristics:
  • Syncopation: A defining feature that introduces rhythmic emphasis on off-beats or “upbeats” in a march-like framework.
  • March-like form: Ragtime pieces often take a march-inspired rhythm and infuse it with syncopation.
  • Notation: Ragtime is typically notated; Joplin and others treated it as music to be read and published rather than purely improvised performance.
• Major influences:
  • Folk roots: African American folk styles from urban and rural communities in the 19th century, including street performances and the creation of new musical vocabularies in the American context.
  • Classical elements: Ragtime drew on formal training and notated music; composers like Joplin viewed themselves in a more “classical” light, incorporating notational rigor and formal structuring.
• Rhythm and form:
  • Form described as four main sections, each of which is repeated; this is more sectional than the earlier strophic forms and differs from a looping chorus structure.
  • The opening often features a march-like tempo with a notable use of syncopation, where the melody often enters on the offbeat while the bass (left hand) maintains a steady downbeat.
• Terminology:
  • Marche tempo: Ragtime pieces often begin in a march tempo, indicated by markings such as
  • Notation and form: Maple Leaf Rag is fully notated; Joplin treated it as sophisticated music with formal structure rather than purely folk music.

Notation, Tempo, and Form in Maple Leaf Rag

• Tempo and performance notes:
  • The score often leaves tempo directions somewhat flexible, allowing performers to decide on tempo changes depending on technique and section difficulty.
  • There are tempo changes and accelerations/decelerations at the ends of sections, reflecting performance choices rather than rigid instructions in the score.
• Repetition and form:
  • Maple Leaf Rag consists of four main sections, each of which is repeated.
  • After completing each section, there is a return to the first section and then into the harder concluding section, followed by a final return to a concluding material.
  • The overall form is regimented and sectional rather than a simple verse-chorus structure; this reflects a blend of classical forms with ragtime’s rhythmic innovations.
• Performance difficulty and implications:
  • The piece is challenging for the average amateur pianist, with a level of difficulty that can be demanding but is not the most extreme in the piano repertoire.
  • The skill level raises questions about who would have performed this music and where it would have been heard when published as sheet music; it suggests that sheet music targeted middle-class amateur pianists as well as professional settings.
• Musical notation as a bridge between cultures:
  • Notation made complex African American-influenced rhythms accessible in the broader market (via sheet music).
  • The combination of notational discipline (classical influence) and rhythmic innovation (African American influence) helped Maple Leaf Rag become commercially viable and musically influential.

Cultural Context: Folk, Classical, and Popular Music in Early American Industry

• Folk vs. classical:
  • Folk music: Exists in world traditions, passed down orally, often not commercial; tends to be outside formal publishing until later commercialization.
  • Classical music: Notated music with formal training; highly executed performance; widely practiced in the United States; sheet music played a major role in disseminating notated music.
• Street and commercial paths:
  • Tin Pan Alley: The commercial hub in New York where songwriters published sheet music and marketed it to a broad audience; mass production of sheet music made songs widely accessible and commercially viable.
  • The transition from “folk” to “popularity” occurred as notated forms (like Tin Pan Alley songs and ragtime) reached wider audiences through sheet music and later recordings.
• Early film and animation connections:
  • Early silent films and cartoons often used ragtime and early jazz as accompanying music, illustrating a connection between new media (film, animation) and the popularization of ragtime and related styles.
• The role of Broadway and stage performances:
  • Tin Pan Alley songs were often performed in early Broadway-style theaters, before or alongside publication as sheet music; sheet music sales could number in the millions, illustrating mass-market reach.
• The Maple Leaf Rag’s place in the spectrum:
  • Maple Leaf Rag sits between classical and popular music, showing how notated music could be both a serious art form and commercially viable; it helped create a middle-class income for Scott Joplin and demonstrated the viability of black composers within a mainstream economy.
• Economic and social implications:
  • The ability to earn royalties from sheet music provided a path to middle-class status for black composers like Joplin, which was unusual for the era and indicative of ragtime’s economic potential.
• The role of notation in culture:
  • Joplin’s self-perception as a classical composer highlights how notated music allowed artists to position their work within established musical hierarchies, even as the music was rooted in African American experiences.
• Cross-cultural influences:
  • Ragtime’s rhythms and forms draw from African American folk music, street music, and European classical notation, illustrating a synthesis characteristic of early American popular music.

The Banjo and Black Import: Roots, Transmission, and Controversy

• Origins of the banjo:
  • An instrument with African roots, linked to West African string and loop instruments; brought to the Americas with enslaved people, where it became a plantation instrument and a cornerstone of early American musical life.
• Transition to white performance:
  • In the 1840s-1850s, entertainers like Joel Sweeney brought the banjo to wider audiences in the United States and beyond, popularizing it among white performers.
  • The instrument spread internationally (UK, Australia, Europe) as part of the American cultural export.
• Blackface minstrelsy and ethical implications:
  • The banjo’s rise in white entertainment occurred alongside blackface minstrel shows, a practice in which white performers painted their faces black and performed caricatured depictions of Black life. This is widely considered a racist and problematic tradition.
  • Despite the racist aspects, blackface minstrel shows contributed to spreading familiarity with banjo-based music and African American musical characteristics to broad audiences.
• Musical significance:
  • The banjo is often cited as a crucial link in the diffusion of syncopated rhythms and early American musical vocabulary that influenced ragtime and later jazz.
• A modern perspective:
  • Contemporary discussions acknowledge both the historical popularity of this tradition and its ethically troubling aspects, using it as a context to understand how American music developed and how cultural exchange occurred within oppressive frameworks.
• Rhiannon Giddens and the banjo:
  • The lesson introduces Rhiannon Giddens, a contemporary banjo player and musicologist, who discusses the banjo’s African origins and its trajectory into American culture.
  • Giddens explains that the banjo emerged from a synthesis of West African instruments and European influence, traveling from Africa to America with enslaved communities and later becoming a widely recognized American instrument.
• Video discussion highlights:
  • The banjo’s popularity as a symbol of Americana, its early association with Black communities, and its later appropriation and transformation within white entertainment contexts.
  • The moral and historical complexities of blackface minstrelsy and its long-standing presence in American entertainment.
• Takeaway:
  • The banjo’s history exemplifies how American music contains deep cross-cultural roots and is deeply entangled with social and racial dynamics, rather than being a single, straightforward lineage.

Scott Joplin: Biography, Rights, and Classical Affinities

• Early life and move:
  • Scott Joplin was born near Texarkana, Texas, and as a young man moved to Saint Louis, Missouri—a major hub of cultural exchange in the early 20th century.
• Saint Louis and Maple Leaf Rag:
  • Joplin wrote Maple Leaf Rag in Saint Louis; the piece reflects his engagement with both African American musical traditions and formal notational practices.
• Copyright and royalties:
  • Joplin uniquely retained royalties for Maple Leaf Rag through an arrangement with a white patron, which allowed him to receive royalties from every sold copy of the sheet music. This was unusual for Black composers at the time and provided a stable middle-class income for the rest of his life.
• Later life and operatic work:
  • After achieving commercial success, Joplin moved to New York and framed himself as a classical composer. This designation enabled him to pursue other kinds of work, including operas.
  • He composed two operas; one is lost (the score is not available today), while the other survived and was performed relatively frequently.
• The Entertainer and other works:
  • Maple Leaf Rag is part of Joplin’s broader corpus, alongside other famous pieces like The Entertainer; Joplin’s work contributed to the ragtime repertoire as a substantial early influence on American popular music.
• Classical influences and notated music:
  • Joplin’s approach to ragtime was not purely folk-inspired; he studied with music professors and engaged with formal composition techniques, merging notational discipline with African American musical idioms.
• Legacy and significance:
  • Maple Leaf Rag and Joplin’s broader work illustrate how African American musicians shaped the early American music industry within a system that often denied them equitable rights, yet allowed for significant artistic and economic influence through sheet music and public performance.

Tin Pan Alley, Sheet Music, and the Early Music Industry

• Sheet music as mass media:
  • Notation and publishing allowed songs to reach wide audiences beyond live performances, creating a mass-market culture around music.
  • The economics involved involved high-volume sheet music sales, enabling composers and performers to earn royalties and maintain livelihoods.
• The role of Broadway and theater:
  • Tin Pan Alley and early Broadway scenes contributed to a thriving ecosystem where songs could be showcased on stage and then sold as sheet music for home performance.
• cultural crossover:
  • The period saw a fusion of classical training, folk roots, and commercial popular music, with sheet music acting as a bridge among these streams.
• The social dimension:
  • Access to sheet music and the ability to perform at home enabled a broader cross-section of society to participate in musical life, though access varied by reading ability and socioeconomic status.

Key Takeaways and Connections

• The Maple Leaf Rag embodies a crucial moment when folk traditions and classical notation intersected in a form that could be commercially produced and widely consumed.
• Ragtime popularized syncopation in American music, introducing a rhythmic vitality that would later influence jazz and other genres, and establishing a template for much of 20th-century American popular music across various media.
• Notation mattered: Scott Joplin’s use of sheet music and his pursuit of royalties demonstrate how notated music could empower African American composers to achieve financial stability and broader recognition, even within a segregated society.
• The cultural landscape was complex: African American musical innovations were transmitted through both direct performance in Black communities and mediated forms like blackface minstrelsy, which simultaneously popularized certain musical ideas and perpetuated racial stereotypes.
• The convergence of folk, classical, and popular tendencies produced a distinctive American soundscape in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—an era often described in retrospect as the ragtime era and, in broader cultural memory, as the Jazz Age.
• The lesson from Maple Leaf Rag and ragtime more broadly is not only about musical technique, but about how music travels across social boundaries, how ownership and rights affect artists, and how media (sheet music, recordings, film) shape which sounds become part of the public imagination.

Quick References to Terms and People

• Maple Leaf Rag: Notated ragtime piece by Scott Joplin (1898 context).
• Scott Joplin: Prominent ragtime composer, born near Texarkana, Texas; lived in Saint Louis; later moved to New York; pursued classical composition; held royalties on Maple Leaf Rag; wrote operas (one lost; the other performed).
• Ragtime: Piano-centered genre blending African American folk rhythms with European march forms and notational discipline; highly syncopated; four-section form with repeats.
• Syncopation: Emphasis on off-beats; key rhythmic feature of ragtime and much of later American popular music.
• Tin Pan Alley: The publishing hub of New York that helped popularize sheet music and mass distribution of songs.
• Blackface Minstrelsy: A historical, racist entertainment practice that helped disseminate Black musical styles to white audiences, while propagating stereotypes.
• Rhiannon Giddens: Contemporary banjo player and musicologist who explains the banjo’s African origins and its journey into American culture.
• Annie (video discussion): Banjo history through a contemporary musician discussing the instrument’s roots and cultural trajectory.

Notes on How to Study This Material

• Focus on the relationships:
  • How notated music (sheet music) enabled a wider audience for ragtime and other styles that originated in African American communities.
  • How the same music can be positioned differently (folk vs. classical vs. popular) depending on context, notation, and performance practice.
• Practice discussion prompts:
  • Describe the four-section ragtime form and how repetition works within each section in Maple Leaf Rag.
  • Explain syncopation in ragtime and how it contrasts with a more straightforward march rhythm.
  • Discuss the social and ethical implications of blackface minstrelsy in the dissemination of African American musical ideas.
  • Reflect on Joplin’s legacy as a composer who saw himself within a classical tradition while writing popular music that achieved broad financial success.
• Suggested connections for exams:
  • Identify the role of Maple Leaf Rag in the broader ragtime era and its significance for the commercialization of Black American music.
  • Explain how sheet music publication contributed to the spread of early 20th-century American popular music and provide examples from the Maple Leaf Rag context.
  • Discuss the cultural cross-pertilization among folk, classical, and popular spheres during Tin Pan Alley’s rise and its implications for who could engage in music as a career.