Life In The Arts
Professor Tosh's World of Music
"Ragtime-The Missing Link in American Popular Music"
Wednesday, January 17, 2001 - 10:30 - 11:30 AM
Explore the roots of today's popular music with Professor Tosh.
Brought to you by
LONGTIMERS PRODUCTIONS and
THE MONTEREY COUNTY OFFICE OF EDUCATION
Guests include: Stephen Tosh , a local composer, arranger, conductor and teacher, together, with television personality and series host Maia Carroll, they will introduce your students to the world of music.
PROGRAM GUEST
STEPHEN TOSH, is a local composer, arranger, conductor and teacher who has been very active in musical theater and opera all around the Monterey Bay for the past 30 years.
And he has also composed original music scores for feature motion pictures and also for all three of Longtimers Documentaries. He also composed the opening music for Life in the Arts.
At the "Life in the Arts" summer concert in 1999, Professor Tosh premiered his newest works a Quintet for Woodwinds. The concert also included, Three American portraits for flute & piano and three poems by Robinson Jeffers set to music for piano and bass vocalist.
The Project
Ragtime: The Missing Link of American Music.
Ken Burn's documentary Jazz which recently aired on PBS focused on the development of this unique American art form. All modern forms of popular music from Rhythm and Blues to Rock and Roll to Hip-hop derive from a common musical ancestry.
I. African Heritage.
A. Syncopation
1. Accent Between Beats (Upbeat Or Off Beat.)
2. Origins Of "Social Dance" Rhythms.
B. Work Song
1. Leader Answered By A Group
2. Beginnings Of Song form.
II. Slave Experience In America.
A. Banjo Is Significant New Instrument.
1. Based On The Older "Hakum" an African Instrument.
2. Rhythms Picked By The Right Hand On Banjo Inspire Ragtime Rhythms To Come.
B. Minstrel Show Develops "Popular" Song.
C. Slide Guitar Introduces Field Blues.
1. Bottleneck Used to Slide on Guitar.
D. Spirituals Reflect The Early Blues And Rhythms Of Black Culture.
III. Ragtime.
A. From "Ragged-Time" Referring To Syncopation Of Right Hand Against Left Hand On The Piano.
1. When Ragtime Was Popular 1890 To 1920 The Songs, Not The Piano Solos, Were The Rage, And The Dances Were Considered To Be Scandalous.
2. White Composers And Performers Copied The Style Of The Black Performers And Exposed To The Only Rags They Might Hear Since Black Ragtimes Weren't Published.
B. Ragtime Might Of Disappeared From Our Awareness When It's Day Was Over.
1. A Movie, The Sting, Brought It Back To Public Attention And Scott Joplin Became World Famous.
a) Without This Event Only Specialist Like Max Morath Would Have Been Aware Of It.
2. Ragtime Help To Shape Almost All American Musical Expressions.
C. Influences On Ragtime.
1. The Form And Left Hand Patterns Are From Marching Band Music.
2. The Banjo Music Of The Late 19th Century Shaped The Right Hand.
3. Early "Ragging" Was To Improvise On A Familiar Melody, But To "Rag" It Up Stylistically.
IV Scott Joplin-King Of Ragtime.
A. Showed Talent In Early Life.
1. Studied Classical Piano.
B. Help Fellow Blacks Get Published.
1. Encouraged Education.
C. Knew All Of The Major Ragtime Pianist Of His Time.
V. What Happened To Rag?
A. Ragtime Was Absorbed By Many Types Of Jazz Music.
1. Ragtime Band Became The Dixieland Band
2. Ragtime Piano Became "Novelty And Stride" Both Of Which Influenced George Gershwin.
B. Introduction Of "Swing" Rhythm And Changed The "Marchy" Quality Of Rag
1. In Swing The Even 8th Notes Found In Rag Became Dotted Giving The Music A Lilt.
2. This "Swing" Rhythm (And Walking Bass Developed In Kansas City) Help Define Jazz As We Know It Today.
C. Rag Brought Black American Country Music To The City Mostly Through Publishing.
1. No Longer "Missing" Rag Is The Link That Binds So Many Popular American Musical Styles, That It Is To Our Country What Baroque Music Is To Classical.
Some Musical Examples Which Will Be Used:
By Joplin: Maple Leaf Rag, The Entertainer (Excerpt.)
Joseph Lamb: Bohemia.
George Gershwin: Rialto Ripples (Shortened)
Zez Confrey: Dizzy Fingers
F. Arndt: : Nola
Steve Tosh: Abstract Rag
Gottschalk: The Banjo
Other Examples Will Be Fragments To Illustrate Points Along The Way.
SUGGESTED READING LIST
BOOKS:
Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow (May 1997)
That American Rag : The Story of Ragtime from Coast to Coast
by David A. Jasen, Gene Jones
Ragtime (Modern Library)
by E. L. Doctorow (December 1997)
Ragtime Rediscoveries : 64 Works from the Golden Age of Rag
by Trebor Jay Tichenor ( June 1979)
Ragtime & Early Blues Piano
by Amy Appleby (March 1996)
Links
http://members.aol.com/ragtimers/
http://www.ragtimers.org/~ragtimers/
FOCUS QUESTIONS
1. What group people bought those most piano rag sheet music?
2.When ragtime was it its height "from 1890-1920" what other new developments were happening on the american scene?
3. What is ragtime?
Return to the Life in the Arts 2000-2001 Broadcast Season