Ragtime (from “ragged time”) is built on the contrast between the steady march bass of the left hand and the syncopated, displaced melody of the right. It is chiefly piano music, written in notation and intended for home and parlour music-making.
The “King of Ragtime” was Scott Joplin, whose Maple Leaf Rag (1899) sold steadily as sheet music for years and gave him a lasting income, and whose The Entertainer is still known today. Ragtime fused the European piano tradition with African-American rhythm and became the soil from which jazz soon grew. In the late 20th century ragtime enjoyed a revival — Joshua Rifkin's scholarly recordings (1970s) and the film The Sting (1973), scored with Joplin's music, returned it to millions of listeners.
