Joplin, the Ragtime King

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Written By Edward Wolfe

Sometimes Johann Strauss is called the "Waltz King."  American composer Scott Joplin (1868-1917) is sometimes known as the "Ragtime King," because he wrote some amazing music in that genre during the first decades of the twentieth century, when ragtime was first being invented.  Ragtime is a forerunner of American Jazz. 

Don’t play this piece fast. It is never right to play ragtime fast. Scott Joplin

According to Wikipedia and Britannica, Joplin was famous for his ragtime compositions, which included hundreds of original ragtime pieces, a set of études, a ragtime ballet, and two operas.  As a pianist, I have a special place in my heart for ragtime music, because learning to play it forced me to learn how to count and get a feel for syncopation.  I invite my readers to listen to recordings of the four pieces linked here: “Maple Leaf Rag.”  The 1973 movie The Sting made famous his beautiful “Solace” (dubbed a “Mexican Serenade” by Joplin), “Easy Winners,” and especially “The Entertainer.”  

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Edward Wolfe

Edward Wolfe has been a fan of Christian apologetics since his teenage years, when he began seriously to question the truth of the Bible and the reality of Jesus. About twenty years ago, he started noticing that Christian evidences roughly fell into five categories, the five featured on this website.
Although much of his professional life has been in Christian circles (12 years on the faculties of Pacific Christian College, now a part of Hope International University, and Manhattan Christian College and also 12 years at First Christian Church of Tempe), much of his professional life has been in public institutions (4 years at the University of Colorado and 19 years at Tempe Preparatory Academy).
His formal academic preparation has been in the field of music. His bachelor degree was in Church Music with a minor in Bible where he studied with Roger Koerner, Sue Magnusson, Russel Squire, and John Rowe; his master’s was in Choral Conducting where he studied with Howard Swan, Gordon Paine, and Roger Ardrey; and his doctorate was in Piano Performance, Pedagogy, and Literature, where he also studied group dynamics, humanistic psychology, and Gestalt theory with Guy Duckworth.
He and his wife Louise have four grown children and six grandchildren.

https://WolfeMusicEd.com
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