Netscape 3 is highly recommended. A Little History Ragtime is probably the first pure American popular musical genre. It is characterized by a heavily syncopated melody over a regularly accented bass. Ragtime was originally created by itinerant professional performers in the saloons and brothels of the post civil-war years. The artists rarely sold their work, making enough money to live well by way of the tips that accompanied their performances in bars and on stage.
Ragtime is an extremely sophisticated genre that requires no small amount of technical skill.
It was eventually widely distributed in the form of both piano rolls and printed music. Joplin established a structure and form for ragtime compositions to which the majority of the composers of the time adhered. This structure comprises four 16-bar strains or themes. Then the A strain is reprised once, followed by the C, repeated C, D, and repeated D strains. Some Examples Basic Ragtime could be defined as a left hand bass part consisting of octaves and chords played on the beat and a right hand melody part which contains several notes which were played between the beats.