King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era

By Edward A. Berlin

Book Overview

In 1974, the academy award-winning film The Sting brought back the music of Scott Joplin, a black ragtime composer who died in 1917. Led by The Entertainer, one of the most popular pieces of the mid-1970s, a revival of his music resulted in events unprecedented in American musical history. Never before had any composer's music been so acclaimed by both the popular and classical music worlds. While reaching a "Top Ten" position in the pop charts, Joplin's music was also being performed in classical recitals and setting new heights for sales of classical records. His opera Treemonisha was performed both in opera houses and on Broadway.
Destined to be the definitive work on the man and his music, King of Ragtime is written by Edward A. Berlin. A renowned authority on Joplin and the author of the acclaimed and widely cited Ragtime: A Musical and Cultural History, Berlin redefines the Scott Joplin biography. Using the tools of a trained musicologist, he has uncovered a vast amount of new information about Joplin. His biography truly documents the story of the composer, replacing the myths and unsupported anecdotes of previous histories. He shows how Joplin's opera Treemonisha was a tribute to the woman he loved, a woman other biographers never even mentioned. Berlin also reveals that Joplin was an associate of Irving Berlin, and that he accused Berlin of stealing his music to compose Alexander's Ragtime Band in 1911.
Berlin paints a vivid picture of the ragtime years, placing Scott Joplin's story in its historical context. The composer emerges as a representative of the first post-Civil War generation of African Americans, of the men and women who found in the world of entertainment a way out of poverty and lowly social status. King of Ragtime recreates the excitement of these pioneers, who dreamed of greatness as they sought to expand the limits society placed upon their race.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195087399
• ISBN13: 9780195087390
• Release Date: July 1994
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.6" x 1.1" x 6.4"

Customer Reviews

"Most complete biography on Scott Joplin"

The reason I purchased this book was for my Jazz history class presentation on the 'King of Ragtime'. I could not find any recorded live performances by the classical ragtime composer because talking movies were not invented until 1920's long after his death in 1917. This book is just as good as recorded interviews from people who knew him as a friend, a composer, a performer, and a teacher. My teacher complimented me on my presentation for the interesting and valuable information I have shared with the class. This book contains speculations and contradicting facts about the composer. The author did a very diligent research on Joplin's life. It is an excellent book.

Excellent

We have searched for biographies of Joplin to sell in our book shop at the Scott Joplin House SHS in St. Louis and Dr. Berlin's is great. He is the most thorough researcher we have come across in regards to Joplin. He is also a music historian and sometimes it is confusing for non-music people, but all in all you cannot beat the research and the information.

Great

This book is by far the best Joplin biography out there. It gave me all the information I needed to know about Scott Joplin. It's highly recommended to everyone who is a ragtime or Scott Joplin fan.

Thorough

My review in two words: BUY IT.This book is probably as thorough of a study into the life of Scott Joplin as is possible. Edward Berlin has obviously exhausted every resource available to him, and throughout, the book is well-noted - that is to say he gives credit to probably 99.9% of the sources of his information in the section for notes. Berlin has went through census records, newspapers, other books on ragtime, interviews with/statements given by numerous people affiliated with Scott Joplin and countless other sources for this book. This book is 99.9% true, solid facts; he seldom states a personal opinion, and when he does, it is made blatantly clear that that is what he is doing. This book also includes a listing of the complete known works of Scott Joplin, and the sheet music for the three songs "Good-bye Old Gal Good-bye", "Snoring Sampson" and "Lovin' Babe". (I would like to say in response to someone else's review that it is very difficult for me to see how the biography of a *musician* can be "interrupted" with music scores.)

Excellent Piece of Reporting and Scholarship

Despite years of detective work by musicologists, Joplin's life remains something of a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing. Berlin's work is the most coherent and robust work on Joplin's life to date, and barring some miraculous finding (such as the Sweatman files), it is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. The depth of Berlin's reportage and the obvious breadth of his detective work (he's a superb "triangulator") give his assertions and educated guesses on Joplin's life, work and motivations far greater academic vailidity than that of many authors who have chased this musical ghost.