Joplin also got a permanent job in Sedalia playing the piano in a new nightclub. Sedalia’s most important citizens visited the Maple Leaf Club. The job permitted Joplin time to write and play his own work.
Something even more important happened to Joplin in Sedalia. He met John Stark, the owner of a local music store. In eighty ninety-nine, Stark published the song “Maple Leaf Rag.” It was not Joplin’s first published music. But it was the he was most proud of.
Stark offered to pay Joplin a percentage of each sale of “Maple Leaf Rag” sheet music. This was an extremely unusual business agreement for a white publisher and black composer at that time. Usually, white publishers paid only a small amount of money for full ownership of music written by African-Americans. The agreement was very good for both Scott Joplin and John Stark.
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VOICE ONE:
Ragtime music is dance music. It combines a solid, often lively, beat with a looser, complex melody. Most experts agree that the traditional music and dance of American slaves played a big part in the development of ragtime.
Here is a perfect example. Scott Joplin and John Stark published “A Breeze From Alabama” in nineteen-oh-two. It is music for a dance called the two-step.
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Scott JoplinVOICE TWO:
John Stark decided that Scott Joplin was going to become too popular to stay in the small town of Sedalia. He decided to move his music business to the big city of Saint Louis, Missouri. Joplin moved to Saint Louis with a woman named Belle Hayden. Later they were married. But Joplin was not as successful in love as he was in music. He and Belle separated in nineteen-oh-two.
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2013-11-25
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