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Ragtime
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At the end of the 19th century, a new style of music was
born in the United States. In the "saloons", black pianists mimicked
the classical pianists to entertain the audience, and rendered the European romantism
in their way of playing, mainly by breaking the classical rhythm. That was
"ragged-time". At the beginning of the century, the occidental
world was drawn little by little in the happily syncopated rhythm of
rag-time. It's probably the first style of music leading
to such infatuation around the world (long before rock 'n roll), as we can notice when watching
films of that time.
But then came blues, and jazz, the two
little brothers of ragtime. From the 20's to the 40's, ragtime survived
through its jazz forms, namely stride
music (with pianists such as Fats Waller),
and novelty piano.
Since then, people
forgot ragtime, till it came back in the 60's, with the film 'The Sting'
featuring Scott Joplin's music. By that
time, Claude Bolling recorded
his wonderful album "Original Ragtime". Nowadays, ragtime is
still known only by a few lovers, who nonetheless organise many festivals
in North America.
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