Scott was able to practice on the pianos of some of her employers and received lessons for free from a German music teacher who heard of his talent. His father left soon after and Joplin's mother began cleaning homes to support the family. His father, a farmer and a former slave, played the fiddle and his mother sang and played banjo, creating for Scott an early exposure to music and rhythm.Īround 1871, the Joplin family moved to Texarkana, Texas. Both of his parents were musically talented. Joplin was the second of six children, having three brothers and two sisters. His date of birth was thought to be November 24, 1868, but new research based on a census taken in 1870 places his birth date around one year earlier. Joplin was born in East Texas, near Linden, to Florence Givins Joplin and Giles (sometimes listed as 'Jiles') Joplin. Joplin remains the best-known ragtime figure and is regarded as one of the three most important composers of Classic Rag, along with James Scott and Joseph Lamb. One of his most notable pieces, 'The Entertainer,' was popularized by the film, The Sting. With the rival of interest of ragtime in the 1970s, Joplin's contributions have come to be recognized as a milestone in the development of American music. Joplin particularly sought to bring recognition and respect to African American cultural contributions, and he composed operas, a symphony, and a piano concerto based on the musical characteristics of ragtime. Joplin (along with Louis Moraeu Gottschalk, with whose music he was undoubtedly familiar) was one of the first American composers to look to America's musical heritage as a resource for formal compositions. In an era when African-American music was known largely through demeaning minstrel shows in which white entertainers performed in blackface, and most American instrumental music was derivative of European classicism, Joplin emerged as a ground-breaking musical innovator. Joplin is considered the 'Father of Ragtime' by many, not because he invented the style, but rather due to the refinement and unprecedented popularity of his ragtime compositions.

Ragtime combined African-American syncopation and folk melodies with European classical conventions to create an original American musical style recognized as a precursor to jazz. Interest in his works waned after his death in 1917 and he was forgotten until interest in his music was stimulated in the 1970s by the use of his music in the Academy Award-winning score to the film The Sting it earned him his only award, a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in music.Scott Joplin (January 1868 - April 1, 1917) was an African-American composer and instrumentalist who became the leading exponent of ragtime music. His most popular piece is Maple Leaf Rag.

At the age of 27, he managed to publish his first work and wrote over 100 original ragtime pieces during his brief career. He spent a large part of his early years in St. Leaving home around the age of nineteen, Scott Joplin first became a traveling musician, playing in brothels because nobody was willing to provide scope to the Black musicians. By eleven, he caught the attention of a German music teacher, who gave him lessons free of cost. He is credited for upgrading and introducing “banjo piano”, a plebian form of entertainment often affiliated to salons and brothels, to elite American art form. Born into a music-loving working class African-American family, he learned to play the banjo as a child and the piano at the house of his mother’s employer around the age of seven. Scott Joplin, known to the world as the King of Rags, was an American composer and pianist.

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