This files can be downloaded individually by clicking on each title, or they can be downloaded as a zip file by clicking on the collection title under each composer's name. Ragtime Piano MIDI Files by Warren Trachtman - The long list of MIDI files of ragtime pieces on this page were all sequenced by Warren Trachtman. Further down you will find Jeff Powell's own ragtime compositions. Keep scrolling down to reach the MIDI files grouped by composer. Jeff Powell's Ragtime Page - An interesting site for ragtime music - see the picture of Scott Joplin's gravestone in the middle of the page. Be sure to visit the home page of this site to enjoy the other ragtime information there CD's played by John Roache are offered for sale, as are piano rolls for some of his pieces and musical folios.
Click on the title at the top of the page to download the MIDI file. After you click on a song from the index, a page will appear for that tune giving you background information on the song. John Roache's Ragtime MIDI Library - This instructive library of ragtime tunes collected by John Roache provides a lot of information with each song.
Original Ragtime - This site contains a small number of classic ragtime pieces sequenced by Pascal Naidon.įats Waller - This site has Pascal Naidon's sequences of some of the most well-known pieces by Fats Waller. Just click on each "Listen" button to watch and listen to each example. They include the release of new recordings, the formation of ragtime societies and clubs, oral history projects, various publications, and live stage and television performances.What is Ragtime, Stride, and Novelty Piano? - This fascinating essay by John Roache explains clearly the differences in these three genres of piano music and includes numerous musical examples of the components of each style. The popularity of ragtime began to wane by the first decade of the 20th century, but there have been various revival efforts since the 1940s. As leader of the all-Black 369th Infantry “Hellfighters” Band, he began ragging the melodies and applying instrumental techniques that varied the timbre (as in “Memphis Blues,” 1919). James Reese Europe also introduced the ragging style and a new sound to US military bands. Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” was widely performed by pianists and instrumental ensembles and led to ragtime as a standard in the repertoire of many society bands, such as Clef Club Orchestra. The success of his “Maple Leaf Rag” (1899) and others that followed placed Joplin squarely in the American mainstream as a ragtime composer. Scott Joplin, dubbed “The King of Ragtime Writers” by his contemporaries, is the best-known composer of ragtime. Tom Turpin’s “Harlem Rag” (1897) is the first ragtime song published by an African American. Many songs commercially marketed under the ragtime label were not of this tradition. The broader society became acquainted with ragtime only after it appeared in print form and publishers targeted the white middle-class and upper-class piano players as its consumers. Printed versions of ragtime simplified the improvisatory quality of the original style, which changed the organic character of the tradition.
Beginning in 1897, ragtime became available in a written tradition when African American ragtime players and their white counterparts began transcribing and writing original rags to be published and sold as sheet music. Itinerant African American musicians developed ragtime as a playing style of music spontaneously created while performing in brothels, saloons, bars, and other venues where they played after the Civil War.