Rhythms and minstrels around the country

December 23rd, 2009 by admin

Attended by over 20 million people, the Exposition exposed a large population to ragtime style music from the likes of Scott Joplin, Ben Harney, Shep Edmonds and Jesse Pickett. What many point to as the watershed event in the spread of ragtime was the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. After 1885, march-patrols were appearing in minstrel shows that carried syncopated sheet music for piano, raggy rhythms and minstrels around the country were syncopating songs. The exact date ragtime emerged is debatable as there are distinct elements of ragtime in the music of Louis Moreau Gottschalk, especially in his work La Bamboula published in 1847.

Posted in Arts