Tag Scott Joplin

Scott Joplin’s piano rolls

Scott Joplin left no recordings except several piano rolls. They were incapable of capturing changes in volume, and some appear to have been posthumously edited. One can hear them replayed on YouTube: they sound like bar room music. The Entertainer in…

John McWhorter on Scott Joplin

It all began with ragtime. With Scott Joplin, then. John McWhorter has a long piece on the composer in The American Interest. McWhorter is a generalist so every claim and conclusion in the article needs to be triple-checked. But even if…