TAP Program Notes 2003: Ragtime

Program Notes

With his ebony hands on each ivory key,
He made that poor piano moan with melody…
Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool,
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.
—Langston Hughes, ”The Weary Blues”

Ragtime is a lively style of music in which a syncopated melody is played against a steady, "boom-chick" accompaniment. The genre gets its name from the practice of "ragging"—transforming a "straight" musical line into something “ragged,” a tune with a bit of a swing. Syncopation is the hallmark of the rag.

Scholars sometimes distinguish three types of rags—“cakewalk rags, high-spirited and danceable,” “bordello rags, gentle and often slow and romantic,” and “firework rags, for showing off speed and dexterity.” In practice, the styles often overlapped. Over time, performers began gradually to improvise, ragging both the melody and accompanying lines. Thus ragtime music moved toward the freer style of jazz, while also giving rise to the so-called “stomp” piano style popularized by Jelly Roll Morton, the boogie-woogie style pioneered by Charles “Cow-Cow” Davenport, and the “stride piano” style created by James P. Johnson.

Mention the word "ragtime" today and most people think of Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" or “Maple Leaf Rag” and the popular movie, The Sting. In fact, this film, which won the 1973 Academy Award for Best Musical Score (and Best Picture), sparked a renewal of interest in ragtime music in the United States. But ragtime's first heyday began back in the late 1890s and lasted for two decades.

Many date the origins of ragtime music to the publication of the first rag, and it is true that the ragtime music craze (1897-1917) contributed directly to the rise of Tin Pan Alley, as the fledgling music publishing business was familiarly known. But ragtime actually emerged in the late nineteenth century in the performances of black itinerant pianists who lived and worked in the Mississippi Valley. African American musicians were playing rags long before this music made it to the printed page, and a focus on the history of ragtime publishing tends to obscure their seminal contributions to the genre. The name of Scott Joplin is well-known today, in part because he published numerous rags, thus ensuring his legacy. But the true originators of ragtime were black musicians working in an ephemeral folk tradition, and their contributions to the genre are often overlooked.

About the Artists

The piano is the instrument most closely associated with rags, and indeed the player piano was an important means of disseminating new ragtime pieces in an era before radios were commonly available. But ragtime music was also played by the ensembles that provided ambience in local music halls and on the vaudeville circuit. Resurrecting the ensemble versions of ragtime pieces is a special challenge, however, because orchestral parts were generally printed for professional musicians, who often threw them out once they were finished with them. In contrast, piano scores of ragtime music from the turn of the last century, which were marketed to amateur musicians, are still readily available.

Violinist David Reffkin has been collecting these rare ragtime orchestrations for nearly thirty years. He founded The American Ragtime Ensemble in 1973 in an effort to recreate the "tuneful, danceable, singable, embraceable melodies" of a "gentler" era. Using orchestrations from Reffkin's collection, the group performs lively and engaging selections by well-known composers like Joplin and by forgotten geniuses of the genre.

David Reffkin’s weekly radio program, “The Ragtime Machine,” has been on the air since 1981 and is the only show of its type in the country. You can check it out on Monday nights from 9 to 10 PM on KUSF (90.3 FM) in San Francisco or on the web at www.kusf.org.

Performing in this program:

David Reffkin, violin
Marsha Gonick, viola
Poppy Doram, cello
Perry Thoorsell, bass
James Langdell, clarinet
Gene Reffkin, drums