The Exact Details of Scott Joplins Birth - Essay Example

Scott's talent was noticed by a German music teacher, Julius Weiss, who decided to teach him for free. His experience with Weiss probably spurred him on his musical career. He went to George R. Smith College in Sedalia, where he studied composition. Around 1891 Joplin was in a minstrel troupe, and by 1895 he was in New York, selling some songs. In 1894 he moved to Sedalia, where he worked as a pianist in various places, including gentlemen's clubs.

In 1899 Joplin sold one of his most well-known pieces, the “Maple Leaf Rag,” to the music publisher John Stark & Son. “Maple Leaf Rag” gave him national fame and made Joplin the foremost ragtime performer of his time, and also made ragtime a popular musical form. In 1900 he moved to St. Louis, where for the next three years he produced some of his most popular works, such as “The Entertainer” and “Ragtime Dance.” He became the best-selling composer of sheet music in his day.

Joplin died on April 1, 1917, when he was about 50 years old. Around this time jazz was fast replacing ragtime as the prominent musical form.

The Entertainer is one of Joplin's most well-known works today, particularly because it was revived and popularized in the 1973 movie The Sting. Joplin produced The Entertainer during the time of the rise of industrialization in America, when the Civil War's effects could still be felt, and when slavery had just been abolished. The piece has a short introduction that does not recur. A duple meter upbeat piece with a strongly homophonic melody, it features a syncopated rhythm in the melody, with a steady pulse in the accompaniment.

It is a little known fact that The Entertainer actually has lyrics. The song is about a stage entertainer (stage entertainment being a primary form of recreation during this time). In the lyrics, the Entertainer, “the star of the show,” “does his dance step and sings his song” and with his “Snappy patter and jokes, he knows what pleases the folks.”