Joplin was born on November 24, 1868, in northeastern Texas to Florence and Giles Joplin. His parents encouraged musical interest in their children; Florence played the banjo and sang, and Giles played the violin. Joplin was the second eldest of his four brothers. In 1880, the family was living in Texarkana, which straddled the border between Texas and Arkansas.

At the age of seven, Joplin started taking piano lessons in a neighbor’s house in return for his mother’s labor. His German teacher, Julius Weiss, was a private tutor to the children in Texarkana in the late 1870s. Weiss gave Joplin free lessons and exposure to European art music. He had a profound influence on young Joplin, helping shape his ambitions to excel both culturally and musically. Because of Weiss, a constant theme in Joplin’s life was a profound dedication to education, both as a student and a teacher.

Joplin guided many young pianists in town; they looked upon him as a hero. Through life, Joplin�

Ragtime was the Negro’s music, but it was the white man who made it popular. Ragtime’s roots are in cakewalks, minstrel-show plantation songs, black folk music, work songs, hollers, spirituals, blues, and the percussive rhythms of the banjo. The ragtime song had the generic name of “coon song,” which mimicked and demeaned African Americans. Before about 1897, ragtime was also generally referred to as a “jig-time” music. ‘Rag’ was then substituted for ‘jig,’ and it became ragged or ragtime music—the music with the broken, jagged melodic line.

Six Joplin numbers appeared in 1909, two of which were Euphonic Sounds, and Solace (Mexican serenade). Solace was Joplin’s only work in tango rhythm. Euphonic Sounds, one of Joplin’s masterpieces, was a difficult challenge to many pianists. It became the kind of test piece that, years earlier, Maple Leaf Rag had been. Joplin refers to it not as a rag, but as a “Syncopated Two Step,” because he avoids the left-hand octave-chord “oom-pah” alternation pattern that is so closely associated with ragtime. In listening, one can hear that the left hand is busy with scales and chords. Joplin, with this piece, was trying to break away from the stereotypical ragtime octave-chord alternation in the bass and to expand the language of ragtime with a banjo-like strumming.

��s intelligence could have been judged by what he had to say. He equated manner of speech with education; through the use of cultivated speech patterns, Joplin hoped to avoid the stereotypes of an African American dialect.

the pop music world, classical performers and their audiences also loved him. Pianist Joshua Rifkin made 1970s recordings of Joplin’s music, and helped to spark the revival.

This was the beginning of one of the legendary relationships in American music history. In the years to come, though they had differences, Stark, the white businessman, and Joplin, the black composer, dealt with each other with mutual respect, an extraordinary relationship for the times.

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