Scott Joplin, Born November 24th

I saw this post (thanks to Bobby Sanabria) about my hero, Scott Joplin, in an online musicians' group. My grandfather was apparently a great pianist. My dad inherited the hands but not the technique. Thanks to The Sting, my dad bought an "easy piano" version of several rags used in the movie. I learned to play them and my love for rags has persisted to this day (my favorites are Bethena and Solace: A Mexican Serenade). I hope someday I can approach some sort of ragtime semi-virtuosity--who knows? I need to practice more!

Scott Joplin was born on November 24, 1868. He was an
African-American composer and pianist, one of the most
important developers of ragtime music.

Born in Texarkana, Texas, Joplin taught himself piano
as a child, learning classical music from a German
neighbor. In his teens he became an itinerant pianist
in the low-life districts that provided the chief
employment for black musicians. He settled in St.
Louis in 1885. In 1893 he played at the World's
Colombian Exposition in Chicago, and in 1894 he moved
to Sedalia, Missouri.

There he published his "Original Rags" and "Maple Leaf
Rag" and opened a teaching studio. Scott Joplin moved
to New York City in 1907 and four years later at his
own expense, he published his ragtime opera
Treemonisha, a work intended to go beyond ragtime to
create an indigenous black American opera. Staged in a
concert version in 1915, it failed with the audience,
leaving the composer's spirit permanently broken.

Joplin's music underwent a great revival after some of
his compositions, including "The Entertainer" , were
used as the background music in the film The Sting and
Treemonisha was staged with great success in 1975 by
the Houston Grand Opera. He died in 1917.

Reference:
Africana The Encyclopedia of the African and
African American Experience
Editors: Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates
Jr.
Copyright 1999
ISBN 0-465-0071-1