Lab 07: Roots of Jazz: Ragtime
Jazz music is a unique (one of a kind) musical art form invented in America. Jazz began around 1900 in the African American areas of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Jazz music is a mixture of the music of Africa and Europe. Jazz borrowed complex rhythms, singing style and improvisation from African music. Jazz improvisation means that a performer changes the melody of a song and invents a new melody as the song is being played.
European music gave to jazz the instruments of the marching band and the European system of harmony. Harmony means the chords that fit with the melody of the song. The chords played by the piano, guitar (or banjo) and bass (or tuba) form the song’s accompaniment.
Ragtime was a style of piano music played in the 1890’s that helped develop the early style of jazz. Although they are similar, ragtime and jazz have two important differences. Ragtime songs were written down and played the same way every time with no improvisation. Jazz songs include a great deal of improvisation.
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In ragtime (and almost all styles of music) the eighth notes are all the same length. In jazz the first eighth note is longer and the second eighth note is shorter.
Scott Joplin, the most famous of all ragtime composers and pianists, published many “rags” including “The Entertainer” and “The Maple Leaf Rag”. Maple Leaf Rag ~ Scott Joplin The link above is a piece of ragtime but no recordings of Scott Joplin exist. This recording is from a piano roll created by Scott Joplin. Player pianos, powered by someone pumping a pedal, played a long roll of paper with perforations (holes punched into it) that corresponded to the piano keys.
The Maple Leaf Rag is not improvised as the song sounds the same every performance. It is performed at a moderato tempo and in 4/4 meter. The form is listed below with video locations:
0:05 A section
0:42 B section
1:18 A