Editing Ragtime (section)

===Origins===
Ragtime music was developed long before it was printed as sheet music.<ref name="waldo-ragtime-piano" /> While its precise origins are unknown, scholars like Terry Waldo believe it to stem from music played by [[Field slaves in the United States|plantation slaves]] for dance events called “rags” (these were mentioned in newspaper articles as early as the 1820s).<ref name="waldo-ragtime-piano" /> The musician ensemble would generally only consist of a [[banjo]] player and a [[fiddle]] player.<ref name="waldo-ragtime-piano" /> They would play dance music like jigs, reels and schottisches, with the way the banjo is played providing the syncopation that ragtime came to be known for.<ref name="waldo-ragtime-piano" />

While no examples of music from this era survives, there are nevertheless some examples from before ragtime’s heyday in the 1890s.<ref name="waldo-ragtime-piano" /> Believed to be one of the oldest preserved pieces of ragtime music is ''The Dream Rag'' (originally titled ''The Bull Dyke’s Dream'') by [[Jessie Pickett]].<ref name="waldo-ragtime-piano" /> While its year of composition is unknown, [[Eubie Blake]] (who Pickett taught it to around 1900), believed it to have been written some time before the [[American Civil War]].<ref name="waldo-ragtime-piano" /> Unlike the march-style left hand pattern of many later rags, ''The Dream Rag'' uses a rhythm more closely related to the [[Contradanza|habanera]], providing a good example of how Spanish music influenced the ragtime genre.<ref name="waldo-ragtime-piano" /> Jesse Pickett performed ''The Dream Rag'' at the 1893 [[World's Columbian Exposition|Chicago World’s Fair]], where the greater American public were first introduced to what would become known as ragtime.<ref name="waldo-ragtime-piano" /><ref name="parlor-songs">{{cite web |url=http://parlorsongs.com/insearch/ragtime/ragtime.php |title=Ragtime Piano, Musical Origins |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=<!--Not stated--> |website=Parlor Songs |access-date=December 11, 2024 |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241211020536/http://parlorsongs.com/insearch/ragtime/ragtime.php |archive-date=December 11, 2024}}</ref> Others present at the exposition were such names as [[Scott Joplin]], [[Ben Harney]], and [[Shep Edmonds]]<ref name="parlor-songs" /> (referred to by some as the “father of ragtime”{{Who|date=December 2024}}<ref name="parlor-songs" /><ref name="musical-crossroads">{{cite web |url=https://musicalcrossroads.wordpress.com/2010/01/31/the-attucks-music-publishing-co/ |title=The Attucks Music Publishing Co. |last=Meyers |first=David |date=January 31, 2010 |website=Columbus, The Musical Crossroads |access-date=December 11, 2024 |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241211022500/https://musicalcrossroads.wordpress.com/2010/01/31/the-attucks-music-publishing-co/ |archive-date=December 11, 2024}}</ref>).

Another surviving example of early ragtime is the music of [[Louis Moreau Gottschalk]].<ref name="parlor-songs" /> While not a ragtime composer per se, there are elements in his music that are distinctly reminiscent of ragtime.{{Explain|date=December 2024}}<ref name="parlor-songs" />

The composed ragtime of the 1890s had its origins in [[African Americans|African American]] communities of the [[Mississippi River|Mississippi Valley]] in general and [[St. Louis]] in particular.<ref name="waldo-ragtime-piano" /> Most of the early ragtime musicians could not read or [[Musical notation|notate]] music, but instead [[Playing by ear|played by ear]] and [[Musical improvisation|improvised]]. The instrument of choice by ragtime musicians during this time was usually a [[banjo]] or a piano. It was performed in brothels, bars, saloons, and informal gatherings at house parties or [[juke joints]]. These places were an excellent breeding ground for new music as European classical music was mixed with African-American folk songs.

[[File:Las ma la.jpg|thumb|260px|Cover for "La Pas Ma La" sheet music (1895). Words and music by Ernest Hogan.]]

The first ragtime composition to be published was "[[La Pas Ma La]]" in 1895. It was written by [[Minstrel show|minstrel]] comedian [[Ernest Hogan]]. [[Kentucky]] native [[Ben Harney]] composed the song "You've Been a Good Old Wagon But You Done Broke Down" the following year in 1896. The composition was a hit and helped popularize the genre to the mainstream.<ref name="rb1">{{cite book |last1=Blesh |first1=Rudi |title='Scott Joplin: Black-American Classicist, Introduction to Scott Joplin Complete Piano Works |date=1981 |publisher=New York Public Library |page=xvii}}</ref><ref name="Penguin History">{{cite book |last1=Brogan |first1=Hugh |title=The Penguin History of the United States of America |date=1999 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-025255-2 |page=415 |edition=2}}</ref> Another early ragtime pioneer was comedian and songwriter [[Irving Jones]].<ref name="Ragged">{{cite book |last1=Abbott and Seroff |first1=Lynn, Doug |title=Ragged But Right: Black Traveling Shows, 'Coon Songs' and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz |date=2009 |publisher=University of Mississippi |isbn=978-1-4968-0030-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KwSiDwAAQBAJ&q=Ragged+but+Right+Irving+Jones |access-date=January 21, 2024}}</ref><ref name="Miller">{{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Karl Hagström |title=Segregating Sound: Inventing Folk and Pop Music in the Age of Jim Crow |date=2010 |publisher=Duke University Press |page=43 |isbn=978-0-8223-9270-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QfkOv_3Gc0oC&dq=%22coon+shouters%22&pg=PA128 |access-date=January 22, 2024}}</ref>

[[File:Scott Joplin in 1912.jpg|thumb|left|[[Scott Joplin]], considered the “King of Ragtime” (1912)]]
Ragtime was also a modification of the [[March (music)|march]] style popularized by [[John Philip Sousa]]. Jazz critic [[Rudi Blesh]] thought its [[polyrhythm]] may be coming from African music, although no historian or musicologist has made any connection with any music from Africa.<ref name="rb2">''Scott Joplin: Black-American Classicist'', pp. xv–xvi.</ref> Ragtime composer [[Scott Joplin]] (''ca.'' 1868–1917) from Texas, became famous through the publication of the "[[Maple Leaf Rag]]" (1899) and a string of ragtime hits such as "[[The Entertainer (rag)|The Entertainer]]" (1902), although he was later forgotten by all but a small, dedicated community of ragtime aficionados until the major ragtime revival in the early 1970s.<ref name="rb3">''Scott Joplin: Black-American Classicist'', p. xiii</ref><ref name="rb4">''Scott Joplin: Black-American Classicist'', p. xviii</ref> For at least 12 years after its publication, "Maple Leaf Rag" heavily influenced subsequent ragtime composers with its [[melody]] lines, [[Harmony|chord progressions]] or [[Metre (music)|metric patterns]].<ref name="rb5">''Scott Joplin: Black-American Classicist'', p. xxiii.</ref>

In a 1913 interview published in the [[black newspaper]] ''[[New York Age]]'', Scott Joplin asserted that there had been "ragtime music in America ever since the [[Negro]] race has been here, but the white people took no notice of it until about twenty years ago [in the 1890s]."<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> | title = Theatrical Comment: Use of Vulgar Words a Detriment to Ragtime | work = [[New York Age]] | date = April 3, 1913 | page = 6}}</ref>