Fun Facts About Scott Joplin
- Scott Joplin lay in an unmarked pauper's grave for 57 years. It finally got a marker in 1974, the year The Sting, which showcased his music, won Best Picture.[1]
- Joplin got a 1% royalty on the Maple Leaf Rag. Biographer Edward Berlin found its first print run of 400 copies took a year to sell, earning Joplin about $1.[1]
- Joplin never made an audio recording. His playing is preserved on seven piano rolls for player pianos, all made in 1916.[1]
- Joplin predicted his own late fame, telling a friend that people would recognize him when he had been dead twenty-five years. Recognition came just over thirty years later.[1]
- A crater on the planet Mercury is named for Joplin, and so is Joplin, an open-source note-taking app named after him in 2016.[1]
- Joplin's German-born teacher Julius Weiss taught him for free. After Joplin became famous, he sent Weiss gifts of money when the old teacher was ill.[1]
- Scott Joplin was alive at the same time as Alexandre Dumas — their lives overlapped for 2 years (1868–1870).[1][2][3][4]
- Scott Joplin shares a birthday with Baruch Spinoza: both were born on November 24.[1][2][5][6]
Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist. Dubbed the "King of Ragtime", he composed more than 40 ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first and most popular pieces, the "Maple Leaf Rag", became the genre's first and most influential hit, later being recognized as the quintessential rag. Joplin considered ragtime to be a form of classical music meant to be played in concert halls and largely disdained the performance of ragtime as honky tonk music most common in saloons.[1]
Read more on Wikipedia →Contemporaries
Their World
Questions About Scott Joplin
When was Scott Joplin born?
Scott Joplin was born on November 24, 1868, and died on April 1, 1917.
How old was Scott Joplin at death?
Scott Joplin was born on November 24, 1868, and died on April 1, 1917, at age 48.
What was Scott Joplin known for?
Scott Joplin was known for: King of Ragtime. Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist. Dubbed the "King of Ragtime", he composed more than 40 ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first and most popular pieces, the "Maple Leaf Rag", became the genre's first and most influential hit, later being recognized as the quintessential rag. Joplin considered ragtime to be a form of classical music meant to be played in concert halls and largely disdained the performance of ragtime as honky tonk music most common in saloons.
Who was alive at the same time as Scott Joplin?
Scott Joplin's closest contemporary was Andrew Carnegie. Their lives overlapped for 49 years.
Sources
- Scott Joplin — Wikipedia. Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Scott Joplin (Q191499) — Wikidata
- Alexandre Dumas — Wikipedia
- Alexandre Dumas (Q38337) — Wikidata
- Baruch Spinoza — Wikipedia
- Baruch Spinoza (Q35802) — Wikidata
- Portrait: Scott Joplin.jpg — Wikimedia Commons. Palisades Virtuosi, Public domain