Overview

In the early 20th century, as Americans enjoyed ragtime, they danced to a black man's tune. This biography, recounts the life of Scott Joplin, the African American ragtime composer whose musical genius helped break down racial barriers and bring America to a new cultural frontier. Born in 1868 to former slaves, Scott Joplin lived at a time when white Americans routinely denied African Americans basic civil rights, economic opportunities and social standing. In spite of these tremendous obstacles, Joplin and other musicians created a musical form that was eagerly embraced by white, middle-class Americans. By the early 20th century, many writers agreed that ""Negro"" music - especially spirituals and ragtime - was the only true American music. As one of the creators of ragtime, Joplin moved between black and white society, and his experience offers a window into the complex forces of class, race and culture that shaped modern America. Framed by two decisive events in American history, the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1868 and America's entrance into the Great War in Europe in 1917, Scott Joplin's extraordinary life reflects a crucial period in the evolution of American culture. During those years Joplin lived in a variety of communities, and his experience permits a glimpse into the lives of black and white Americans in Reconstruction Texas, small-town Missouri, and two important urban cultural centres - St Louis and New York. Echoing the ragtime music she celebrates, Curtis counterpoints the story of American cultural history with the events of Joplin's life.

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9780826209498

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Reviews

<p>&quot;What makes this biography truly outstanding is the author's skillful and always sharply analytical exploration of the varied worlds in which Joplin traveled. . . . Curtis has composed an appealing tune of her own--a fine book that deserves a hearty ovation.&quot;-- Historian

Dancing to a Black Man's Tune renders Scott Joplin as a man and an artist whose musical genius served as his weapon in the struggle toward a whole America. Susan Curtis's book is more than biography, more than cultural history. It is a skillfully interwoven telling of Joplin's story within the mosaic of America's social and cultural evolution at the turn of the century. --John Hope Franklin If one is to know American culture and the place and trials and tribulations' of African American music in setting the foundation and flavor of American music, Dancing to a Black Man's Tune is, to date, the primary source....This is a book that students of American serious and popular culture should quickly read and place in their libraries. --Journal of American History

Not really a biography, but an episodic social history centering on the life of ragtime composer Scott Joplin. Historian Curtis (Purdue; A Consuming Faith, not reviewed) has selected as her focus several key events in Joplin's life: his rural upbringing in Northern Texas; his undocumented visit to the 1903 St. Louis Exposition, where he may have performed; his years in Sedalia, Mo., where he created his greatest works; the Chicago World's Fair, another venue that he likely visited; and pre-WW I New York City. Part of the author's frustration (and the reader's) is what she calls Joplin's invisibility ; little documentary evidence, whether in Joplin's own hand or from contemporary newspaper accounts, survives to verify the often sketchy memories of his younger contemporaries. Curtis correctly states that part of the reason for Joplin's failure to leave much of a mark on his time was that he was a transitional figure, still subscribing to Victorian ideas of culture even as he announced a new musical world through his compositions. And she correctly notes the inherent racism in white America that denied Joplin performance opportunities or even much income from his work. But in analyzing Joplin's failure to leave a mark on either white or black culture, Curtis misses a fundamental point about his music: Joplin accepted the myth that European music was superior to his own ragtime and so wasted his last years toiling on the failed classical opera Treemonisha. The work's failure in both white and African-American communities was due to its old-fashioned, turn-of-the-century musical character, not to either racism or provincialism, as the author suggests. The text is also unfortunately marred by the author's use of trendy academic jargon. While it's refreshing to read a book about a popular musician written by someone with real credentials as a historian, Curtis sadly lacks enough knowledge about music to carry off her task. (Kirkus Reviews)

<p> For those who have fallen in love with Joplin's joyfully syncopated rags . . . or those who simply want to better understand the roots of the black contribution to American music, it is a rewarding read. -- Christian Science Monitor

Author Information

Susan Curtis is Professor of History and American Studies and Director of Interdisciplinary Studies at Purdue University. She is the author of several books, including A Consuming Faith, The First Black Actors on the Great White Way, and Colored Memories (all with the University of Missouri Press).

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