SCOTT JOPLIN By Emma Devereaux and Fatemeh Asadi Scott Joplins History Scott Joplin (born on November 24 th 1868 April 1 st 1917 at the age of 49) was an African-American composer and pianist, born near Texarkana, Texas, into the first post-slavery generation. He achieved fame for his unique ragtime compositions, and was dubbed the "King of Ragtime." During his brief career, he wrote forty-four original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first pieces, the "Maple Leaf Rag", became ragtime's first and most influential hit, and remained so, for a century. He was blessed with an amazing ability to improvise at the piano, and was able to enlarge his talents with the music he heard around him, which was rich with the sounds of gospel hymns and spirituals, dance music, plantation songs, syncopated rhythms, blues, ect. Scott Joplins Greatest Hits Maple Leaf Rag Solace The Entertainer Magnetic Rag Bethena Waltz Stoptime Rag The Easy Winners Elite Syncopation Ragtime Dance Heliotrope Bouquet Cleopha Weeping Willow Wall Street Rag Pineapple Rag Scott Joplins Era is Jazz! YOUNG SCOTT JOPLIN According to tradition, young Scott first had access to a piano in the house where his mother worked. Supposedly he taught himself the rudiments of the keyboard and how to play. His was a raw, undeveloped talent, and luckily a German-born local music teacher by the name of Julius Weiss was prescient enough to recognize it. Weiss taught the youngster an appreciation of the European music tradition, particularly opera. Scott Joplin was the second of six children, having three brothers and two sisters. Both of his parents were musically talented. His father played the fiddle and his mother sang and played banjo, creating for Scott an early exposure to music and rhythm. Picture of Scott Joplin SCOTT JOPLINS FAMILY His father, Jiles, was a farm laborer and his mother, Florence, worked as a domestic. His family was a musical one: Jiles Joplin played the violin, and Florence played the banjo and sang. Around 1871 the family moved to Texarkana, Texas, where young Scott was given access to a piano in a house where his mother worked. He began to learn to play on his own, until his talent came to the attention of a German-American music teacher, Julius Weiss, who provided Scott with further training in classical music forms. By 1882, Scott's mother had purchased a piano for him to practice on at home. Bibliographywikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_JoplinJoplinamericanhistory.suite101.com Google.ca/google images