Joplin, Scott (1868–1917)

US ragtime pianist and composer. He was considered the leading representative of ‘classic rag’, in which the standard syncopated rhythm was treated with some sophistication. His ‘Maple Leaf Rag’ (1899) was the first instrumental sheet music to sell a million copies, and ‘The Entertainer’ (1902), as the Academy Award-winning theme tune of the film The Sting (1973), revived his popularity. He was an influence on Jelly Roll Morton and other early jazz musicians.

Joplin first came to attention as a pianist at brothels in St Louis and Chicago. He formed the Scott Joplin Opera Company in 1903 for the performance of his opera A Guest of Honour (the music is now lost). Treemonisha, an opera about a black baby girl found under a tree by a woman called Monisha, was completed in 1911 and performed in concert in 1915. Joplin did not achieve fame until after his death, starting with the revival of Treemonisha at Atlanta in 1972, and he was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1976.