Definition
Ragtime is an African American piano music that flourished between about 1895 and 1918 in the American Midwest (Sedalia and St. Louis, Missouri). It combines the European march form (16-bar strains, trio on the subdominant) with a syncopated right hand (“ragged”) over a regular left hand in 2/4. Key figures: Scott Joplin (c. 1868–1917), James Scott, Joseph Lamb (the “big three” of classic rag), Eubie Blake, Jelly Roll Morton (who made it a bridge to jazz). Ragtime is the root of stride piano (James P. Johnson, Fats Waller) and therefore of all jazz piano.
The form
Each section (strain) is 16 bars (4 phrases of 4), almost always repeated. The “classic” form is:
Intro (4) – A A – B B – A – C C – D D
- A and B in the home key (B often more chromatic or in a nearby key).
- C is the trio, in the subdominant (IV), sometimes with its own introduction.
- D can return to the tonic or stay in IV (as in the march).
Scott Joplin, “Maple Leaf Rag” (1899)
| Section | Bars | Key |
|---|---|---|
| A | 16 ×2 | Ab major |
| B | 16 ×2 | Ab major |
| A | 16 | Ab major |
| C (trio) | 16 ×2 | Db major (IV) |
| D | 16 ×2 | Ab major |
Scott Joplin, “The Entertainer” (1902): introduction – A A – B B – A – C C (trio in F, IV of the key of C) – short transition – D D (return in C). The piece became hugely popular again in 1973 thanks to the film The Sting, with Marvin Hamlisch's arrangements.
The rhythm
- Left hand: in 2/4, bass on the strong beat (note or octave on beats 1 and 2, often alternating root and fifth) and chord on the offbeats (the “ands”): the classic “oom-pah.” Indicative tempo ♩ = 80–100 (Joplin recommended not playing ragtime too fast: “Not fast”).
- Right hand: sixteenth-note syncopation, especially the sixteenth–eighth–sixteenth figure (which shifts the accent to the second sixteenth note) and ties over the bar line. The 3+3+2 cell in sixteenth notes (the “tresillo” in miniature) creates the effect of secondary polyrhythm.
The harmony
- Simple tonal basis: I, IV, V7, but with many secondary dominants (II7, VI7, III7: chains of dominants by fifths such as E7–A7–D7–G7–C in C).
- Passing diminished chords (C – C♯°7 – Dm7 – D♯°7 – C/E).
- Chromaticism in the inner voices and bass lines in octaves that descend or ascend chromatically in the transitions.
- Breaks: bars in which the left hand stops and the right plays a fragment alone.
How to analyze a rag
- Mark the 16-bar sections and the repeats, check where the key changes (the trio).
- Analyze the harmony of each strain in Roman numerals.
- Find the recurring syncopated cells of the right hand.
- Compare the form with that of a Sousa march.
Exercise for a producer
- At 90 BPM, 2/4 (or 4/4 with the accents doubled), program an oom-pah left hand: C2 on beat 1, C–E–G chord on the offbeat, G1 on beat 2, chord on the offbeat.
- Write a 4-bar melody with the sixteenth–eighth–sixteenth cell and a tie over the bar line.
- Build a 16-bar A (I – I – V7/V – V7 | I – VI7 – II7 – V7…) and a trio in F.
- Play it with an upright “honky-tonk” piano (slight detuning of 5–15 cents between the strings) or, in a modern take, with a Rhodes and a swing drum kit: ragtime is at the base of many electro-swing samples.
Related
The march, Syncopation and anticipation, Clave and tresillo, Secondary dominants and extended dominants, Passing diminished chords, Blues forms.