Editing Ragtime (section)

==Musical form==
The rag was a modification of the march made popular by [[John Philip Sousa]], with additional [[polyrhythm]]s coming from African music.<ref name="rb2"/> It was usually written in {{music|time|2|4}} or {{music|time|4|4}} [[metre (music)|time]] with a predominant left-hand pattern of bass notes on strong beats (beats 1 and 3) and chords on weak beats (beat 2 and 4) accompanying a [[Syncopation|syncopated]] melody in the right hand. According to some sources the name "ragtime" may come from the "ragged or syncopated rhythm" of the right hand.<ref name="Berlin"/> A rag written in {{music|time|3|4}} time is a "ragtime waltz".

Ragtime is not a meter in the same way that marches are in duple meter and waltzes are in triple meter; it is rather a musical style that uses an effect that can be applied to any meter. The defining characteristic of ragtime music is a specific type of syncopation in which [[Melody|melodic]] accents occur between metrical beats. This results in a melody that seems to be avoiding some metrical beats of the accompaniment by emphasizing notes that either anticipate or follow the beat ("a rhythmic base of metric affirmation, and a melody of metric denial"<ref name="rb7">''Scott Joplin: Black-American Classicist'', p. xv.</ref>). The ultimate (and intended) effect on the listener is actually to accentuate the beat, thereby inducing the listener to move to the music. American composer and pianist [[Scott Joplin]], known as the "King of Ragtime", called the effect "weird and intoxicating." He also used the term "swing" in describing how to play ragtime music: "Play slowly until you catch the swing...".<ref name="Lawrence">{{cite book |last=Joplin |first=Scott |editor-last=Brodsky Lawrence |editor-first=Vera |title=The Collected Works of Scott Joplin |date=1971 |publisher=New York Public Library |isbn=0-87104-242-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/collectedpianowo00jopl/page/284 284] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/collectedpianowo00jopl/page/284 }}</ref>

The name [[Swing music|swing]] later came to be applied to an early style of jazz that developed from ragtime. Converting a non-ragtime piece of music into ragtime by changing the time values of melody notes is known as "ragging" the piece. Original ragtime pieces usually contain several distinct themes, four being the most common number. These themes were typically 16 bars, each theme divided into periods of four four-bar phrases and arranged in patterns of repeats and reprises. Typical patterns were AABBACCC′, AABBCCDD and AABBCCA, with the first two strains in the [[Tonic (music)|tonic]] key and the following strains in the subdominant. Sometimes rags would include introductions of four bars or bridges, between themes, of anywhere between four and 24 bars.<ref name="Berlin"/>

In a note on the sheet music for the song "Leola" Joplin wrote, "Notice! Don't play this piece fast. It is never right to play 'ragtime' fast."<ref name="Berlin2016">{{cite book|last=Berlin|first=Edward A. |title=King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TCoRDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT276|access-date=12 September 2018|date=30 March 2016|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-024605-1|pages=276–}}</ref> [[E. L. Doctorow]] used the quotation as the epigraph to his novel ''[[Ragtime (novel)|Ragtime]]''.