The following is a complete list of musical compositions by Scott Joplin ( 1867 – April 1, 1917). Scott Joplin 19072

Scott Joplin was born in Arkansas in around 1867, just outside Texarkana, and was a street performer before settling in

Sedalia, Missouri Sedalia is a city located approximately south of the Missouri River and, as the county seat of Pettis County, Missouri, United States, it is the principal city of the Sedalia Micropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the city had ...

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, and finally

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

where he died in 1917. He was an American composer and pianist, who achieved fame for his

ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott J ...

compositions, and was dubbed "The King of Ragtime." During his career, Joplin wrote over 40 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first pieces, the " Maple Leaf Rag" (1899), has been recognized as the archetypal rag and influenced subsequent rag composers for thanks to its rhythmic patterns, melody lines, and harmony. His finances were precarious throughout his career, despite a steady income from the "Maple Leaf Rag." Joplin had the majority of his works published by

John Stark Major-General John Stark (August 28, 1728 – May 8, 1822) was an American military officer who served during the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. He became known as the "Hero of Bennington" for his exemplary service at the Batt ...

, although he did use other lesser-known companies including his own "Scott Joplin Music Publishing Company." His first opera, '' A Guest of Honor'', was lost after an unsuccessful tour in 1903. After the 1953 death of his widow, Lottie, a number of manuscripts of unpublished work were lost and no copies of them are known to exist. When Joplin was learning the piano, serious musical circles condemned ragtime because of its association with the vulgar and inane songs of

Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley was a collection of music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It originally referred to a specific place: West 28th Street ...

. As a composer, Joplin refined ragtime, developing it from the dance music played by pianists in brothels in cities like

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. This new art form, the

classic rag Classic rag (short for classical ragtime) is the style of ragtime composition pioneered by Scott Joplin and the Missouri school of ragtime composers. These compositions were first considered "classic" by Joplin's publisher, John Stark, as a way t ...

, combined Afro-American folk music's syncopation and nineteenth-century European romanticism, with its harmonic schemes and its march-like tempos, in particular the works of

John Philip Sousa John Philip Sousa ( ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military marches. He is known as "The March King" or the "American March King", to dis ...

. With this as a foundation, Joplin intended his compositions to be played exactly as he wrote them – without improvisation. Joplin wrote his rags as "classical" music to raise ragtime above its "cheap bordello" origins and produced work which opera historian Elise Kirk described as "...more tuneful, contrapuntal, infectious, and harmonically colorful than any others of his era." Many inconsistencies can be found among Joplin's own titles, his subtitles, and titles printed on the covers of sheet music. For the editor of the collected works this reveals publishers' "editorial casualness" as well as a view that dance-steps in the genre could be interchangeable. Many of the works cannot be dated with certainty, and the pieces were not always submitted for

copyright registration The purpose of copyright registration is to place on record a verifiable account of the date and content of the work in question, so that in the event of a legal claim, or case of infringement or plagiarism, the copyright owner can produce a cop ...

. In many cases the publication date is the only suggestion of when a piece was composed.Index p. 325, ''Scott Joplin Complete Piano Works'', New York Public Library, 1981. __TOC__

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Joplin, Scott, List of Compositions Lists of compositions by composer African-American music *Joplin, Scott Music of St. Louis Texas classical music Lists of piano compositions by composer Piano compositions by American composers Piano compositions in the 20th century

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