King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era

Oxford University Press, 1994

Scott Joplin (ca. 1867–1917) was one of the most prominent and admired ragtime composers. Starting his music career as a stage minstrel and quartet singer, he took from this experience elements that enabled him to write rags of uncommon sophistication.
His Maple Leaf Rag (1899) was the most famous and imitated instrumental rag and changed the direction of the genre. Although about a dozen compositions were lost, his extant works number about forty rags, almost twenty other piano pieces and songs, an instructional manual, and an opera.

Most ragtime compositions faded quickly into obscurity in the 1920s and 1930s as other styles came to prominence, but his Maple Leaf Rag remained in the repertory.
The 1940s saw a revived interest in his music, the interest growing slowly through the 1960s. A spectacular, unprecedented revival of Scott Joplin's music emerged in the early 1970s. His opera Treemonisha received its first full performance, his piano rags were performed and recorded by both popular and classical artists, and he was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for his contribution to American music.