Scott Joplin

Scott Joplin, born on March thirty-first, eighteen sixty-eight, was an influential American composer and pianist, renowned as the "King of Ragtime." He created over forty ragtime pieces, including the iconic "Maple Leaf Rag," which is celebrated as the genre's first major hit and a quintessential example of ragtime music. Joplin's vision for ragtime was that of a sophisticated form of classical music, intended for concert halls, rather than the honky tonk style often associated with saloons.

Growing up in a musical family in Texarkana, Texas, Joplin's early exposure to music set the stage for his future career. In the late eighteen eighties, he traveled throughout the American South as a musician, eventually making his way to Chicago for the World's Fair of eighteen ninety-three. This event played a pivotal role in popularizing ragtime, leading to its national craze by eighteen ninety-seven.

In eighteen ninety-four, Joplin relocated to Sedalia, Missouri, where he worked as a piano teacher and began publishing music in eighteen ninety-five. His breakthrough came with the publication of "Maple Leaf Rag" in eighteen ninety-nine, which not only brought him fame but also a steady income. By eighteen ninety-nine, he had moved to St. Louis, where he composed his first opera, "A Guest of Honor," which unfortunately became lost due to financial difficulties.

In eighteen ninety-seven, Joplin moved to New York City in search of a producer for a new opera, but his efforts were met with challenges. His health declined in the years that followed, and by nineteen sixteen, he was suffering from dementia caused by neurosyphilis. Joplin passed away in nineteen seventeen, marking the end of the ragtime era. However, his music experienced a resurgence in the early nineteen seventies, notably with a million-selling album by Joshua Rifkin and the Academy Award-winning film "The Sting," which featured several of his compositions. His second opera, "Treemonisha," was produced in nineteen seventy-two, and in nineteen seventy-six, Joplin was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize.