Ragtime music is often considered the forerunner or jazz, but more importantly it introduced widely to America loose and swinging rhythms. These rhythms in turn came to define American music and the late 19th century became a turning point in the history of American music. For the first time Europeans became interested in what was happening on the other side of the pond. Black musicians began arriving in Berlin, Paris, and London where they were treated better than in the segregated states and jazz strains and influences were appearing in the new operas of berlin, the ballets in paris and bellowing from dance halls and cabarets.
But how do we explain the swing of jazz? Now, a hundred years later it is fluent to our musical vocabulary. We can take advantage of syncopation, that raggy rhythm that symbolizes all things fast and loose. But how did these syncopating rhythms arise from the melting pot of African America? Or more specifically, what part of African music informed rag?
Let’s look at polyrhythm, one of the defining characteristics of traditional west African drumming. Polyrhythm can be found hiding in the right hand patterns of piano rag pieces. A closer look at Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag, as Alex Ross points out in his book The Rest is Noise, demonstrates that the syncopated rhythms are actually creating a polyrhythm between the left and write hands.
The polyrhythm conveyed by western instruments, harmonies and forms creates a lilting syncopated rhythm and a uniquely African American music that in turn has defined American music for the past one hundred years.