Thank you for joining me in learning about this important part of United States music history. Ragtime is a music created by the unique, often tragic conditions in United States culture in the mid-to-late 1800s. Enslaved Africans and their descendants took their syncopated rhythmic language and combined it with the forms and harmonic conventions of marching band music brought to the Americas from Europe. From these roots, Ragtime, which was named for the way the music sounded “ragged” to those unfamiliar with accented off-beat patterns, was born.
Here is a collection of articles, books, scholars, videos, and other resources I have used in my research on this vital music.
Videos
Articles
| Scott Joplin’s ragtime gets its dues – The Guardian |
| 100 Years of the Maple Leaf Rag – Minnesota Public Radio |
| Ragtime – Library of Congress |
| History of Minstrelsy: Ragtime and the “Coon song” – USF Libraries |
| Joplin’s Ragtime Style Lives on in Print and Song – NPR |
| The Ragtime Revival – Commentary Magazine |
| The Ragtime Revival – A Belated Ode to Composer Scott – The New York Times |
| There Was Ragtime Before ‘The Sting’ – The Washington Post |
Books
| Scott Joplin: Complete Piano Works – New York Public Library |
| Early Jazz – Gunther Schuller |
Publications
Organizations
Scholars
| Terry Waldo |
| Rudi Blesh |
| Harriet Janis |
| Edward A. Berlin |
| Bill Edwards |
Ragtime Project Posts
Note: My Patreon members receive early access to my Ragtime Project blog posts, which is the reason some of these posts may be temporarily password protected.
Sam Spear Music 