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Of all musical styles, ragtime had perhaps the quickest descent into obscurity, and the most unlikely comeback over a half-century later.
From the time that Scott Joplin's “Maple Leaf Rag” caught on during 1899-1900 until the composer's death in 1917, ragtime was America's popular music. Ragtime was different from jazz in that all of the music was written down as it is with classical music. In its pure form, it does not include any improvising or blue (or bent) notes. The “ragged” syncopations are what gave the music its name. Influenced by marches (particularly in its structure), classic ragtime is a collection of beautiful and often-catchy melodies, generally with four different themes per piece. While ragtime is best known as solo piano music, during the ragtime era it was often performed by large bands (including that of John Phillip Sousa) and smaller ensembles.
By 1912, the songwriters of Tin Pan Alley and elsewhere began to take advantage of ragtime's popularity by using the words “rag” or “ragtime” in all kinds of pop songs (including Irving Berlin's giant hit “Alexander's Ragtime Band”), most having nothing to do with ragtime. That misrepresentation and the music's association with the 1890s resulted in ragtime being considered passe by 1915, and replaced completely by jazz two years later. While “Maple Leaf Rag” was adopted by jazz musicians and survived, other than occasional appearances in nostalgia shows, ragtime became largely extinct.
In 1973, 56 years later, a very surprising thing happened. The soundtrack of “The Sting,” a con man Hollywood film actually based in the 1930s (when ragtime was nowhere to be found), included several Scott Joplin rags, most notably “The Entertainer.” By the following year, “The Entertainer” was on the pop charts, launching a ragtime revival. Even though no other rags were best sellers on that level, ragtime was alive again and it has stayed that way. Ragtime festivals were launched, recordings of ragtime pianists became common, and new rags were composed. The music had been resurrected and finally recognized as an American art form..
In 1974, violinist William Zinn recorded Great Scott, a collection of ten rags, with a string quartet, one of the very first times that classic ragtime had been recorded with the instrumentation of two violins, viola and cello. Zinn arranged six Scott Joplin rags and pieces by Eubie Blake (the delightful “Chevy Chase”), Luckey Roberts, Joseph Glover and Tom Turpin (“Harlem Rag”). The rich melodies sound fresh and new in this setting, the musicians put a lot of emotion into their interpretations and the results give a new definition to “beautiful music.”
Review
"Around the time that ragtime emerged from extinction in the mid-1970s, violinist William Zinn recorded the music on Great Scott! with a string quartet. Zinn arranged six Scott Joplin rags and songs by Eubie Blake, Luckey Roberts, Tom Turpin and Joseph Glover that were normally heard by solo pianists for the ensemble. The strings really bring out the beauty of the rich melodies and the results are both unique and memorable.
Scott Joplin would have loved this album." -Scott Yanow
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