Scott Joplin\'s the Entertainer Scott

Scott Joplin's The Entertainer

Scott Joplin was born in Linden, Texas in approximately 1868 and died at about 50 years of age, after a wild and illustrious musical career that began as a child. He was born of poor parents, but was considered gifted in music, so received an education in classical music. Even though he was trained classically, Scott loved Ragtime music and began playing and composing music of that genre. Eventually, just before Jazz became popular, Scott was considered the best known composer of Ragtime. Even though he did not make much money from the publication of his music, his Maple Leaf Rag was one of the best-selling pieces published at the turn of the century and remained popular for many years. He also published waltzes, marches and popular songs. Considered to be guided by and competitive with classical composers in the perfection of his music, Scott Joplin "lifted ragtime from its low estate and lined it up with Beethoven and Bach," said John Stark in Ragtime Review (Stark p. 83).

His piece entirled the Entertainer was written along with other tunes destined to become famous, during 1901-1902. In 1973 it became the theme song for a contemporary movie the Sting and won an Oscor for Best Film Scoring. It was played by Martin Hamlisch on the soundtrack of the movie the Sting and is so well-known because of this, that the piece is even sometimes call the Sting (Waterman, p. 232).

The tune itself is a lively, synchopated, upbeat ragtime tune, called a two-step. Described as a "rag" with a decided sense of humor, the Entertainer is a light and likeable composition that combines straight major chords with minors to effect a happy sound with plaintive backbeats. Since it has a brisk beat with a slow interior sound, it is suitable to be used for foxtrot and quickstep dancing, as well as enjoyable listening (Tichenor, p. 23).

Joplin, it was said by Jasen and Tichenor, was looking for black Midwestern Folk rag ideas to utilize in his music. He combined pentatonic rhythms with blues timing and notes and created a synthesis of the past. In melody and harmony he utilized black folk music, creating a new format. He also synthesized march music, which he loved and had been composing, into rag, with, as a student of his recalled, a strict emphasis on the upbeat. "The traditional march became the dominant form, and the result was a new art form, the Classic rag" (Jasen p. 83).

However, if one were to analyze the Entertainer more closely, the tonal harmonies are those that one would hear in classical music, such as in Bach's sonatas, where the subcoordinate harmonies of contemporary music are in play and the first chord is in progression with a second and the second with a third. These cycles create the overall feeling, founding a tone, whereas the melody carries on the direct relationship with the listener. Joplin uses these techniques to create in this piece of music a feeling of overall coordination and wholeness. Yet he does so in a "ragtime" beat that brings the technique up-to-date. This piece of music is timeless because of this, and therefore "classical" (Dahlhaus, p. 25).