Ragtime artists and songs8/11/2023 ![]() The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz opens with back to back renditions of Maple Leaf Rag by ragtime pianist Scott Joplin and early jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton. Although ragtime first appeared in 1892, Scott Joplin would begin to dominate and define the genre in 1895. Likewise, in a style similar to classical music, ragtime's rhythmic syncopations don't swing quite to the degree that they do in New Orleans jazz performance. A simple way to look at ragtime is to consider it as a form of composed jazz, or possibly America's first classical music. 6 The form of this work is AA-B-Transition-A’-C-D- EE-A-Coda.Technically Ragtime isn't really jazz because it does not involve improvisation, but ragtime ran a parallel career to the early New Orleans jazz and featured similar melodies and rhythms. 5 Yeung Yu, “A Style Analysis of William Bolcom’s Complete Rags for Piano” (D.M.A paper, University of Cincinnati, 2007), 47. Gaines (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981), 157. 4 William Bolcom, “Song and Dance,” in The Lives of the Piano, ed. ![]() 3 The revival reached its peak in 1973 when the movie The Sting showcased Joplin’s rags and made his music famous again. 2 Eric Charles Melley, “William Bolcom’s 3 Ghost Rags: An Orchestration for Chamber Ensemble with Commentary on the History and Propagation of Ragtime” (D.M.A paper, Arizona State University, 2013), 9. His contribution to the revival of ragtime provides more sophisticated rag repertoire and extends the reach and influence of ragtime as quintessentially American music.ġ Edward A., Berlin, “Ragtime,” Grove Music Online, accessed 28 Oct. In fact, Bolcom did not focus on composing rags after 1974 but ragtime idioms can still be found in his later works, such as the Twelve New Etudes for Piano (1977-1986), which was awarded Pulitzer Prize in 1988. Ragtime music has inspired Bolcom not only to compose rags for piano, ragtime has also become part of his compositional idioms. Through connecting classical and popular musical styles, Bolcom’s piano rags have successfully attracted classical pianists and are performed regularly at professional level. Twentieth century compositional techniques like dissonance, tone clusters are used in this piece but more interestingly, Bolcom also included some theatrical effects such as footsteps, finger tappings and tongue clickings. 6 Through frequent changes of tempo, tonality, dynamics, texture, and musical expressions, each section contrasts with each other dramatically and effectively. It is a rag fantasy with an expansion from the traditional ragtime structure. In The Serpent’s Kiss, Bolcom incorporated “new” elements in the piece. It also shows the expansion of musical complexity, incorporating twentieth-century compositional idioms into the traditional ragtime style. Eubie’s Luckey Day and Knight Hubert demonstrate many techniques borrowed from Blake. This period represents the influence from Eubie Blake and his stride style. ![]() The second period, between 19, includes twelve rags and two famous rags, Graceful Ghost Rag from the suite Three Ghost Rags and The Serpent’s Kiss in the suite Garden of Eden, were both written during this period. His unique compositions brought him numbers of prestigious awards and one of his contributions, as well as one of his biggest interest, is the area of ragtime music. One of Bolcom’s unique styles is to merge popular music into traditional classical music. He was appointed to be the visiting professor at the University of Washington, faculty member in Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY), Composer in Residence at Yale University Drama School and New York University School of the Arts, and he spent most of his teaching career at the University of Michigan’s School of Music. Bolcom had served in many professional positions before his retirement in 2008. He received the Pulitzer Prize, National Medal of Arts, four Grammy awards. A student of Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) and Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), Bolcom studied in Paris Conservatoire and he received a doctorate degree at Stanford University. Born in Seattle, Washington, his musical talent was developed at an early age. William Bolcom (May 26, 1938-) is a celebrated American Composer. © John Pollock / University of Washington ![]()
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