Ragtime
Syncopated piano music of African American origin around 1900 (Scott Joplin).
What it means
Ragtime is syncopated piano music of African American origin that arose in the USA around 1900 and had its heyday roughly between 1895 and 1918. The left hand plays a steady pattern of bass and chord in march manner, the right hand a lively syncopated melody. The name is derived from "ragged time".
Musical use
A rag usually consists of several sections of sixteen bars each, joined together with repeats, like a march. The composer Scott Joplin (c. 1868–1917) made the form famous with Maple Leaf Rag (1899) and The Entertainer (1902). He pointed out that ragtime should not be played too fast. In the 1970s it was rediscovered through the film The Sting. It is a forerunner of jazz.
Ragtime should be distinguished from jazz, which rests more on improvisation, and from boogie-woogie, which uses blues bass figures and a different rhythm.
Performance practice
Practise ragtime slowly first: the left hand holds the pulse securely, the right plays the syncopations above it. Pay attention to clear articulation and do not hurry the melody; Joplin wanted elegance, not haste.