![]() But his wife, Freddie Alexander, died just three months later. But Joplin was not as successful in love as he was in music. Joplin moved to Saint Louis with a woman named Belle Hayden. He decided to move his music business to the big city of Saint Louis, Missouri. John Stark decided that Scott Joplin was going to become too popular to stay in the small town of Sedalia. It is music for a dance called the two-step. Scott Joplin and John Stark published "A Breeze From Alabama" in 1902. Most experts agree that the traditional music and dance of American slaves played a big part in the development of ragtime. It combines a solid, often lively, beat with a looser, complex melody. The agreement was very good for both Scott Joplin and John Stark. Usually, white publishers paid only a small amount of money for full ownership of music written by African-Americans. This was an extremely unusual business agreement for a white publisher and black composer at that time. Stark offered to pay Joplin a percentage of each sale of "Maple Leaf Rag" sheet music. In eighty ninety-nine, Stark published the song "Maple Leaf Rag." It was not Joplin's first published music. He met John Stark, the owner of a local music store. Something even more important happened to Joplin in Sedalia. The job permitted Joplin time to write and play his own work. Sedalia's most important citizens visited the Maple Leaf Club. Joplin also got a permanent job in Sedalia playing the piano in a new nightclub. ![]() He attended college classes to learn to become a composer. Scott Joplin began his music-writing career in Sedalia. The group sometimes traveled great distances to perform. He formed a group called the Texas Medley Quartet. In his twenties he settled in Sedalia, Missouri. He worked as a piano player and gave lessons in the guitar and mandolin. They included a German immigrant named Julius Weiss who probably had the strongest influence on the boy. That kind of music was played in dance and drinking places and was not considered acceptable.Scott first studied classical music with several teachers. Scott Joplin's early piano lessons did not include ragtime. For example, the character "Treemonisha" receives music lessons paid for by her mother who cleans people's houses. Many experts also think Scott Joplin's opera "Treemonisha" included incidents of his life with his mother after Giles Joplin left. Some experts think Scott blamed himself for the break-up. Florence Joplin also got permission for her son to use a piano in one of the houses she cleaned in Texarkana.įlorence and Giles Joplin separated before Scott became a teenager. The Joplins were poor, so Scott's mother paid for the weekly lessons with food. When Scott was about seven years old he began taking piano lessons with a music teacher at his school. But Florence Joplin wanted her son to learn how to play the piano. Scott learned to play several musical instruments. And all the Joplins enjoyed singing together at home. His father was a freed slave who worked on the railroad. Scott was the second of seven children born to Giles and Florence Joplin. The Joplins moved to Texarkana, Texas sometime after 1875 and Scott grew up there. ![]() He was born in Texas, probably near the border with Arkansas. ![]() Official population documents suggest Scott Joplin was born in 18. There is conflicting information about the most basic facts, like when and where he was born. He also became famous.īut, even today, much about Scott Joplin remains a mystery. The composer earned a good living from the sales of the sheet music. ![]() That song is called "Maple Leaf Rag." Scott Joplin wrote it more than one hundred years ago. Today we tell about the life and work of one of America's greatest music writers: Scott Joplin, the King of Ragtime. And I'm Barbara Klein with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Scott Joplin, 1867?-1917: The King of Ragtime Musicĭownload MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) ![]()
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