Scott Joplin
Texarkana, Bowie County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(November 24, 1868 - April 1, 1917) Black composer Scott Joplin, often called the "King of Ragtime Music", was born in Texarkana, Texas, five years before the townsite was platted in 1873. His family lived in this vicinity, and he attended nearby Orr School on Laurel Street. His early musical training came from his father, Giles Joplin, an ex-slave who played the fiddle, and mother, Florence Givens Joplin, who played the banjo. By tradition, a German music teacher realized Joplin's talent and gave him lessons. Joplin left home at age 14 and wandered through the midwest entertaining in saloons and honky-tonks. In the 1890s, he was one of the originators of ragtime, a rhythmic new musical form that combined black and white musical traditions. Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag", published in 1899, launched ragtime as a national fad. Joplin defended ragtime against those who called it frivolous and worked constantly to refine his music, which included over 30 piano rags. Demand for ragtime had declined by 1917, when Joplin died in New York City. Joplin's background is revealed in his most ambitious work, the black folk opera "Treemonisha", set on a plantation "northeast of the town of Texarkana". It was not produced until the 1970s, when a revival of Joplin's music inspired public recognition of his genius. (1976) Incise on back: Texarkana Joint Bicentennial Commission, Bowie County Historical Commission, Jerry L. Atkins, Nick Demopulos
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Scott Joplin was born near this spot in Texarkana around 1868, the son of a formerly enslaved fiddler and a banjo-playing mother, and got his early schooling and music lessons here before leaving home at fourteen. Wandering through the Midwest's saloons, he became one of the creators of ragtime, a syncopated new music blending Black and white traditions. His 1899 "Maple Leaf Rag" turned ragtime into a national craze, and he composed more than thirty piano rags and the folk opera "Treemonisha" before dying in 1917 — decades before a 1970s revival crowned him a genius.
Why it matters
Joplin gave America one of its first original art forms and a direct musical ancestor of jazz, carrying African American rhythmic traditions into the mainstream of the nation's culture.
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Related people
- · Scott Joplin
- · Giles Joplin
- · Florence Givens Joplin
Themes & tags
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