ragtime

pronunciation

How to pronounce ragtime in British English: UK [ˈrægtaɪm] word uk audio image

How to pronounce ragtime in American English: US ['ræɡtaɪm] word us audio image

Word Origin

ragtime (n.): also rag-time, "syncopated, jazzy piano music," 1897, perhaps from rag "dance ball" (1895, American English dialect), or a shortening of ragged, in reference to the syncopated melody. Rag (n.) "ragtime dance tune" is from 1899. If rag-time was called tempo di raga or rague-temps it might win honor more speedily. ... What the derivation of the word is[,] I have not the faintest idea. The negroes call their clog-dancing "ragging" and the dance a "rag." [Rupert Hughes, Boston "Musical Record," April 1900] Conceive the futility of trying to reduce the intangible ragness to a strict system of misbegotten grace notes and untimely rests! In attempting to perfect, and simplify, art is destroying the unhampered spirit in which consists the whole beauty of rag-time music. The very essence of rag-time is that it shall lack all art, depending for the spirit to be infused more upon the performer than upon the composer himself. ["Yale Literary Magazine," June, 1899] Her first "rag-time" was "The Bully," in which she made great sport by bringing a little coloured boy on the stage with her. Miss [May] Irwin says the way to learn to sing "rag-time" is to catch a negro and study him. [Lewis C. Strang, "Famous Actresses of the Day in America," Boston, 1899]

1. Jazz music borrowed syncopated rhythms from ragtime , and syncopation is what makes jazz the lively , energetic music that it is today .

2. There was still another element contributing to the development of jazz . This was a kind of piano music which was called ragtime .

3. He has recorded every major work for the violin , and has also recorded jazz , ragtime and jewish folk music .

4. By the 1900s , scott joplin ( maple leaf rag ) had made ragtime popular by bringing it out of the red-light district onto the legitimate stage .