Summary
This instructive biography includes fascinating information about Scott Joplin's accomplishments, provides an engaging account of his life, and explores the controversies and legacy of his music. As the son of a former slave, a musical pioneer, and posthumous winner of a Pulitzer Prize, composer Scott Joplin fought a lifelong campaign to have ragtime music accepted by the American public. Born in Texas in 1868, Joplin showed enormous musical talent at an early age. When he was 20 years old, he began to tour the Midwest, demonstrating his command of the piano. He became famous for writing and playing ragtime music, a predecessor of jazz, which features a strong syncopation in its jaunty, African-based rhythms. Before Joplin, ragtime was considered vulgar, but after Joplin became one of the first black composers to publish his songs, his compositions, such as "Maple Leaf Rag" and "The Entertainer," helped ragtime attain national prominence.