My time in Scotland, unfortunately, came to a close today and I find myself gliding over the North Atlantic at thirty-eight thousand feet. Having reflected my deep connections to both sides of the ocean, I found myself exploring the musical dialogue between Europe and America. I recalled a snippet from my piano teacher that ragtime is, in many ways, a recognizable evolution of European classical art music. A crude (yet oddly effective) realization of this is by playing a Mozart piece with the melody set a quaver behind the accompaniment, extra points if it’s a waltz. Blasphemous? Perhaps, yet it sounds uncannily like some jaunty melody that Joplin would dream up.
So here I am, no wifi, no fact checking, let’s see what plausible links I can make. Will it be a Cambridge level essay? Likely not, so buckle up!
Often, the clearest link between ragtime and classical music lies in their structural similarities, particularly dance forms and rondos. Whilst studying both Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca and Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag, I noticed this first-hand. Let’s break it down. Alla Turca takes the form of a rondo ( just in case you missed the name of the piece), in which a recurring main theme is punctuated by episodes of contrasting musical ideas and includes clear modulations to related keys. Structurally, it’s clean and symmetrical, qualities we see mirrored directly in Joplin’s rag. Interestingly, Alla Turca ends with a rather hefty coda, if you could call it that, which tenuously, I would argue is almost like a ragtime trio.
Another aspect of their similarity is that their notations are similar, In classical music, what’s on the page is essentially what is expected to be played. While there is always room for nuance, classical music is relatively restricted when it comes to performative tangents. Ragtime shares this trait. Unlike jazz which evolved to embrace improvisation and personal interpretation, ragtime is meant to be played as written. The rhythms are syncopated, yes, but they are certainly not up for debate. In this way ragtime aligns more with classical traditions than with the jazz it’s all to often compared to.
Both genres have massive solo piano tradition. A significant portion of both Mozart’s and Beethoven’s repertoire is for solo piano — sonatas, fantasies, variations — designed to showcase both compositional craft and technical brilliance, Similarly, ragtime is built almost entirely on the piano rag. Its a genre defined by its keyboard idiom, syncopated melodies in the right hand, steady stride patterns in the left. In both traditions, the piano is the central vehicle for musical expression.
At the end of what has, admittedly been a rather shaky essay, I had planned to offer some poignant and reflective thoughts of the lasting beauty of these works. But to be quite frank, my food has just arrived and I’d very much like to dig in. So, in the spirit of Joplin and Mozart, both masters of timing, I’ll end it here.