...Assignment 3 – Ragtime Introduction The novel Ragtime takes place in America in the early 1900's. It illustrates several life stories and destinies all woven together in different ways. Most of the characters in the novel are pure fictitious but some historical men and women from the era are featured. We get to met Houdini, the biggest illusionists of his time, JP Morgan, one of the wealthiest men in America, Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company and Emma Goldman, an anarchist and political activist. One of the main characters, and the main focus of this analysis is the Latvian, Jewish immigrant referred to as Tateh. We follow Tateh and his daughter Sha's progression through the different stages of becoming assimilated in the American melting pot that is the American culture. Main Body Tateh and his family arrived to America in the beginning of the nineteenth century. This was a time in history when immigrants, mostly europeans were flowing into New York. Between 1901 and 1910 as many as 8.8 million people arrived from overseas (Duncan and Goddard, 2009:66) all stepping of the boat filled with dreams and hopes of a better life in “the land of opportunity”. The reality in New York was different. The streets were dirty, crime was increasing along with the growing population and assimilation was not easy. “The officials changed names they couldn't pronounce and tore people from their families... “They were despised by New Yorkers. They were filthy...
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...The turn of the century brings about many significant cultural and social changes. Throughout the novel Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow characters face problems due to gender, race, and classes. Some become rich and others become poor. From the revolution of black rights to the creation of the middle class, Doctorow gives insight on how rapidly the United States is changing during the Progressive Era. The two characters who most show these differences are Tateh and Coalhouse. In the early twentieth century, it is the job of the man to be able to provide for his family. The family expects the man to contribute a stable income and safety, along with love to his wife and children. Tateh is a Jewish immigrant, of which between 1900 and 1914, one and a half million arrive at Ellis Island. He who works painting silhouettes on a New York street, making a modicum of money. However, his purpose in life is to take care of his family. Tateh’s daughter, Young Girl, goes to work with him everyday as he is an only parent. At the time in these...
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...Blake was seven, he received music lessons from their neighbor teacher, Margret Marshall, an organist form the Methodist church. In 1901 Blake danced and played melodeon with Dr. Frazier's Medicine Show. In the following year, he joined the touring company in Old Kentucky, which took him briefly to New York City. From New York, Blake returned to Baltimore and received a job as a relief pianist for Big Head Wilbur at Alfred Greenfield's saloon, an establishment built by light weight boxing Champion Joe Gans. After two years at Greenfield's, Blake found steady work at Annie Gilly's sporting house. In this is Ragtime, Blake related how he “ragged” popular songs and classics from Wagner to Viennese waltzes. Able to compose numbers in any key, and possessing a finger span of twelve notes, which was unheard of in this time period, Blake earned a reputation as one of the finest ragtime pianists of the eastern school. In 1911, Blake wrote...
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...popularity for such a long time due to its structure building, the laying of lyrics is awesome and the form makes the music flow well. The performance is totally in its own compared to the latest versions of music. There is creative which follows along and make it enjoyable. The dance rhythm of the music “kills” other versions since the natural balance of the accents remains to be superior all over. These writers began from amateur stage and their writing was perfect, coon songs which were rough and risqué made the unusual popularity to the music. Performances of Tin Pan Alley music I do like the way in which the performance was done by the Tin Pan Alley artists. This is because of their assimilation of the rhythm which remained to be ragtime. Once listening to the flow of the music, you will notice repeat choruses which maintain the theme in the song. You will find happiness once listening and watching the performance and you cannot avoid having different mood on the music. Even the latest version of the music is very cool. Response According to the discussion which was held on Friday January 24th 2014 at 5:43 pm, the students were seen to have made a very good approach in analyzing the music of Tin Pan Alley. This is because it’s evident that they really know the music genre and might have made great research. There is a great connection and they rhyme with my research based on the music. This gives out detailed and well explained content and one is able to witness...
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...Born in the late 1860s in Texarkana, on the border between Texas and Arkansas, Scott Joplin took up the piano as a child and eventually became a travelling musician as a teen. He immersed himself in the emerging musical form known as ragtime and became the genre’s foremost composer with tunes like "The Entertainer," "Solace" and "The Maple Leaf Rag," which is the biggest-selling ragtime song in history. Joplin also penned the operas Guest of Honor and Treemonisha. He died in New York City on April 1, 1917. Scott Joplin (1867/1868 – April 1, 1917) was an African-American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions and was dubbed the "King of Ragtime Writers". During his brief career, he wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first pieces, the "Maple Leaf Rag", became ragtime's first and most influential hit, and has been recognized as the archetypal rag. "Scott Joplin." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 30 Mar. 2015. www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMAtL7n_-rc The story of the piano begins in Padua, Italy in 1709, in the shop of a harpsichord maker named Bartolomeo di Francesco Cristofori (1655-1731). Many other stringed and keyboard instruments preceded the piano and led to the development of the instrument as we know it today. Cristofori's piano was developed from the harpsichord and consequently rather small and made entirely out of wood. As time passed, however, the development of larger instruments...
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...early 1900s, a time of change brought many prosperous beginnings, a time for capitalism, a time for opportunities. However, with them came a time of conflict and turmoil for the poor, the immigrants, and the ostracized—women. In society a woman was classified as the maiden, the nurturer, the Madonna, the sex goddess, the witch, or the whore. In the novel Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow portrays these different types of women as Mameh, Mother, Evelyn Nesbit, and Emma Goldman. Doctorow uses fictional characters along with real historical characters to paint a colorful and vivid picture of these times, to portray the social class distinctions, the morality of women, and the many undergoing changes of this era. Like an hour glass figure the social classes were very distinct among women; there were the rich, the poor, and a few in between. The women of higher social status, the wealthy were embedded with the idea that sexual purity was a must in order to get married. It was considered a stain in a family’s reputation for a woman to have premarital sex and worse promiscuous sex. The importance of reputation is clearly illustrated in Ragtime. “Runaway women died in the rigors of ecstasy. Stories were hushed up and reporters paid off by rich families” (Doctorow 4). To women of wealth marriage was their goal, and their reputation was the only thing they had. In contrast to the wealthy, the poor were not worried as much about their reputation, but more on hunger and struggling to survive. “Thousands...
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...How African-American Culture Conceived Jazz Near the beginning of the twentieth century, Jazz was a new style of music being invented by African-American musicians who lived in New Orleans, Louisiana. The city of New Orleans during the beginning of the twentieth century was loaded with individuals of different ethnicities and backgrounds. Before the early twentieth century, New Orleans was colonized by the French and Spanish. When the French and Spanish colonized New Orleans, they brought with them their slaves from various regions of the African continent; mainly, the slaves came from West Africa. In the book The Story of Jazz Marshall W. Stearns states: …the various stages in the development of the slave trade had a decisive influence on what part of Africa the slaves came from... the majority of slaves came from the West coast of Africa…inter-tribal raids and dynastic wars in West Africa led to the selling of kings and priests into slavery, people who were specialists in their own tribal music and rituals (16). When the French sold the Louisiana Purchase to the United States, the slave trade existed until it was banned sometime in the early nineteenth century. However, even though the trade was banned, slavery in the United States existed until after the Civil War. Within the confines of slavery, a new tradition was made from a mix of African and American traditions. The mix of African and American traditions started when the slaves were brought...
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...A conflict can be defined as a state of opposition between two forces and is central to the human experience. There are a countless amount of factors which can cause a conflict between individuals, established groups, or within one’s self. The way conflicts are dealt with, can cause a person to better themselves by producing strength and skills or can destroy one’s spirit and cause a great amount of agony. Within “Ragtime” by E.L. Doctorow, Mother is confronted with several key conflicts which include her relationship with Father, her struggle to find personal meaning in society and also her emotional, physical and intellectual change. Sexual activity is a major theme and conflict in “Ragtime” and although many characters are changed and affected by sexual activity, the relationship between Mother and Father is most defined by it and creates a conflict for Mother. After reading “Ragtime”, one can see that sex and sexual desires are the foundations of the relationship between Mother and Father. At the beginning of the novel, Doctorow writes, “On Sunday afternoon, after dinner, Father and Mother went upstairs and closed the bedroom door” (page 4). This is the first reference of sexual activity and right away, one can get the impression that they have a very physical relationship. While reading the novel, it is understood that as long as their relationship was physical and full of sexual activity, their marriage was happy and easy going. In the beginning of the novel, their relationship...
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...Ragtime for Rock Throughout its history, Rock and Roll has been influenced and molded by many different artists and genres. A more prominent catalyst for the evolution of rock would be Ragtime. One of the earliest forms of jazz, ragtime was characterized by its syncopated and “ragged” rhythms, and blazed the path for almost every modern day music genre. Ragtime was a variation of the then popular type of music, march. Even before the 1900’s, this was a popular dance music of red-light districts in African American communities of places such as St. Louis and New Orleans (Rock and Roll). Rhythmically broken up melodies made the sounds lively and springy, and therefore ideal for dancing. Eventually, the genre began being published as piano sheet music. This transition gave ragtime much more exposure to the public and created a lot of buzz. With the help of composers such as Scott Joplin, Joseph Lamb, and James Scott, ragtime took the music community by storm. It’s the innovative styles were demonstrated years beyond ragtime’s fifteen minutes of fame and influenced many artists later to hit the scene. Artists such as the great Ray Charles, who was famous for his syncopation and his seemingly improvised music (Ray). Ragtime was an essential part to the development of rock and roll because of its use of syncopation, talented composers, lively music, and influence it had on many great artists to come. The most prominent composer in the ragtime music genre was undebatably Scott...
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...“Ragtime: a form of syncopated music with a lively melody line and a steady bass line that was popular from 1890-1920.” Like many other jazz like styles, Ragtime has its own unique features that make it unlike any other style. It’s the composers, pianists, guitarists, and some lyricists who have made Ragtime popular. Ragtime, like many other styles, has its own unique instruments. These instruments include pianos, guitars, banjos, acoustic guitars, and drums. The instrument most associated with Ragtime is the piano. Ragtime’s tempos are also different from other tempos used in the 1890s. The usual tempo for a Rag piece is 110- 125 b.p.m or 70-120 b.p.m. However, the piano is different. The piano plays off beat to create a swing-like feel....
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...The central historical message of this film is that during this time period, people were just beginning to break away from traditional norms and find their own passion and their own path in life. While this wasn't widely accepted at first, it became the forefront for the way that society works today. This was the beginning of people choosing their own careers and making their own choices in life rather than carrying on the family occupation. The music was mainly very melancholy sounds from the classical era, but also included some upbeat ragtime jazz when Jakie began to sing. I thoroughly enjoyed the contrast between the two types of music and it was clear that they played a pivotal role in the film. The sad, slow traditional music would mark the father and his overbearing ora while the upbeat jazz music would indicate the switch to his more lively, independent, and shame free son, Jakie. It was extremely odd for me to watch a film in black and white since I’ve admittedly most likely never done that. I’ve also never seen a silent movie in general. Apparently, this film was a significant piece of history. According to my research, this film was remarkable because it was the first to synch up sound with a motion picture....
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...“Ragtime” The text under my analysis was taken from the book Ragtime written by E.L. Doctorow. He is an American author who is published in over thirty languages. He is famous for his novels ‘Welcome to hard times’, ‘the book of Daniel’ and ‘ragtime’. Ragtime was named one of the 100 best English-language novels of the twentieth century by the editorial board of the Modern Library and was adapted into a successful Broadway musical in 1998. The text belongs to the genre of novel. Narrative mode of the text are narration and description. The story is really interesting. The events take place in America in early 19th century, when the theme of racism occurred. The story is written in the 3’d person narration. The exposition starts with the author’s description of Coalhouse Walker looking for a young woman, Sarah. Finally, he found her and asks the Mother to call Sarah. While waiting he presumes to come in the door and finds a baby, who was Sarah’s baby. Sarah ignores his presence and here we come to the inciting moment when he begins appear every Sunday at their house. Coalhouse Walker has learnt the Sarah came from New York to work as a servant, but the Mother and the Father treat her well. Coalhouse Walker wasn’t admitted for a long time, because it was unusual situation for this family, especially for father. Coalhouse Walker doesn’t produce a good impression on him. But the Mother asks her husband to give him a chance and they give him more a visit. Step by step C.W. starts...
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...Throughout the 1890s and early 1900s, ragtime or “rags,” was the new American music genre influenced by the blues. Ragtime music was extremely different than anything else that was being played at the time and it was not viewed as proper music, so it was played in saloons and bars. To play rags, a pianist had to be remarkably skilled because they have to be able to keep up with their own rhythm and play every piece of the song until the 1920s, when big bands came in. Scott Joplin, “the King of Ragtime,” created this new music form, which had blues in it, but it was separate from blues. Scott Joplin was born November 24, 1868 in northeastern Texas and by the 1870s his family moved Texarkana, Texas, where his father worked as a laborer and his mother as a house cleaner and laundress (Trout). His mother washed clothes in order to pay for Joplin’s piano lessons, but when she...
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...In E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, Father is unable to change because he is a prisoner of his own beliefs. Father is someone who always likes to be in charge and wants to make all of the decisions in the household. In addition, he has a negative opinion towards race, and one could say that he is racist. In particular, his prejudice towards African Americans is something that Father really struggles with. He leaves for the North Pole and is gone for quite a long time. When he gets home, he realizes the changes that have been made in the household since he was gone. One of the biggest changes that occurred while he was gone is Coalhouse Walker Jr., an African American previously living in the community with his wife and child, has now moved in...
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...Scott Joplin: Pianist, Songwriter (1868-1917) Scott Joplin, known for “The Maple Leaf Rag” and “The Entertainer”, has influenced jazz music with his rags. Being one of the initial composers of a rag he was considered the “King of Ragtime” in the early 20th century. Before becoming a traveling musician as a teenager, Joplin became involved in the piano as a child. He was the most interested in ragtime and composed pieces that are now the biggest-selling ragtime songs. Joplin’s familial was very musical, his family was full of singers, banjo players, violinists, guitarists, piano, and more. Young Joplin was taught piano lessons by a German music teacher, Julius Weiss, who lived in his hometown. When in his teen years, Joplin worked as a traveling...
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