Ragtime / Early 20th-century American · 1899
Maple Leaf Rag
S. Joplin
- Key
- Ab
- Time
- 2/4
- Tempo
- ♩=76
- AO focus
- AO3
Incipit
Form
Ragtime — AABBACCDD form (multi-strain march form, inherited from Sousa's brass-band marches). Published by John Stark in 1899 in Sedalia, Missouri. The piece that launched ragtime's commercial era.
Teaching points
- Multi-strain march form — four 16-bar strains, each repeated. The C strain modulates to the subdominant; D returns to tonic
- Syncopation — the RH plays against the LH steady stride. Don't rush the LH
- AO3: foundational text in jazz history — every jazz pianist studies this. Discuss ragtime's social context (African-American composers in segregated America)
Full score ↓Public domain
Score: IMSLP (1899 first edition, public domain).