Elite Syncopations

At a glance

• What it isa ragtime piece for piano.
• Who, whenpublished by Scott Joplin in 1902, the same year The Entertainer appeared.
• What to listen forthe 'oom-pah' step of the left hand, and the right hand slipping in between the beats above it.

Listen for

• Syncopationlisten for the moments when the right hand strikes between the beats rather than on them and leaps forward. That is the very rhythm the title points to.
• A steady left handin a rag the left hand usually alternates a low note and a chord to keep the beat even. However far the right hand strays, the left hand does not change its step.
• When the section changes: a classic rag usually presents several sections of around sixteen bars each, one after another, with repeats. Try to catch where a new melody begins and the shape of the piece becomes clear.

When it was written

Ragtime is piano music that arose among African American musicians in the late nineteenth century. There was no radio yet, so people bought sheet music and enjoyed new music by playing it on the piano at home.

At this time Joplin was living in St. Louis, Missouri. Born in Texas, he had travelled from town to town playing piano, and he had already made his name with Maple Leaf Rag (1899), published in Sedalia, Missouri. In 1902 alone, The Entertainer and this piece both came out.

Joplin disliked ragtime played in a hurry, and in 1908 he published a book of exercises, School of Ragtime, asking players not to play it fast. He died in New York in 1917, and his music was loved widely again when his pieces were used in the 1970s film The Sting.