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Article: After 100 years, Scott Joplin's ragtime music remains a cultural treasure.
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- June 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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One hundred years ago, while Gustav Mahler pushed the symphonic tradition to monumental heights and Claude Debussy invented musical impressionism, an equally remarkable event took place in a dark, upstairs ``gentlemen's club'' for African-American men in Sedalia, Mo.
There, a young African-American musician who made his living playing the piano in barrooms, brothels and dance halls fused the European tradition and the march forms of John Philip Sousa with the thriving _ albeit degrading _ black minstrel tradition, the leading popular idiom of the day.
The result was ragtime music _ perhaps the best-known example of which is the ``Maple Leaf Rag'' _ ...