Origins of Ragtime Music

     Ragtime is, "a musical form or style that is defined as a syncopated (shifting of the normal accent, usually by stressing the normally unaccented beats) melody (usually 2/4 time) over a regular, march tempo bass line" (dictionary.com).  Ragtime was primarily preformed by just piano, and rarely had vocals.  The most common patterns include: AABBACC, AABBCCDD, or AABBCCA.  Its' syncopation (as mentioned earlier) is what separates it from the other contemporary music at the time.  The best way an artist could represent ragtime, would be by piano rolls and printed music, this was essentially its' identity.



Ragtime

     Ragtime reached its' greatest popularity between 1897 and World War I.  Looking back, its' main roots included: cakewalks, banjo playing, minstrel-shows, plantation songs, and black folk music.  The 1893 Colombian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois is known in by musical historians as, essentially the publication of ragtime music as a whole.  But by the 1920's ragtime was considered "old hat".  Its' era was short and sweet.
     Scott Joplin is the musical image of "rag or "ragtime".  But he is not the father.  Many people suspect that since he is the most well known and started producing right as ragtime first began, that he is the father.  But its' real father is Shep Edmonds, and given the nickname, "father of ragtime", for obvious reasons.  Scott Joplin did not invent ragtime music.

     Although Joplin is the most influential and widespread ragtime artist and producer, not all ragtime music fits under his style.  Examples of this include: Russian Rag, Frog Legs, The Frisco Rag, The Louisiana, Dynamite Rag, Good Gravy, and the Ragtime Engineer.  All of these were not under Joplin's style of ragtime.  However, "The Entertainer", possibly the most popular ragtime song ever created is under his style, and one of his production at that.  Joplin is also considered the most talented ragtime artist ever, this is ironic, considering he wished to be recognized as a classical composer.


Scott Joplin, looking good

     Scott Joplin sets big goals for himself and aspired to them greatly.  His main goal was to be a, "successful composer for the lyric stage and continually worked toward this end."  But unfortunately he was not much a a lyrics guy.  He did end up becoming one of the top twenty-five musicians of all time though.  His interest in classical music was spurred by his teacher at a young age, Julius Weiss.  Julius was a German-born musician that caught view of Joplin at Texarkana one year.  Julius placed special emphasis on Joplin's European and opera musical habits, improving him as an all-around artist.



Scott Joplin on the cover

     Joplin was born somewhere in Texas, no one is exactly sure when or exactly where though.  He guessed birthday is November 24, 1868, but we know that that is incorrect for sure.  As a child he lived on both sides of the Texas-Arkansas border.  His father was a slave, but was freed from the Thirteenth Amendment.  Joplin's "musical home", although he only live there for a short while, was Sedalia, Missouri.  As an adult though, he lived mainly in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was great friends with Tom Turpin.  Turpin (a saloon owner and ragtime pioneer) offered his saloon up to Joplin anytime he wanted (to preform).  But Joplin preferred teaching and composing rather than preforming. 






 

 

Sources

Parlorsongs
CNX
Scott Joplin
Stargoldmusic
lcweb2
Dictionary.com

Faces of America

     In the movie, Faces of America, I learned a lot about genealogy and the history of immigration into America.  Personally I found the records of entry and the pictures very interesting.  It is incredible how Mr. Gates and his teams were able to retrieve all of this information.  I more specifically learned that Europe contributed to the mass number of immigrants that came to America in the 19th-20th centuries.  I found this movie extremely entertaining and motivating because it emphasizes the significance and importance of your own family's history.

What do you think it means to be a "nation of immigrants"?

"Nation of Immigrants"

     Being a nation of immigrants can be considered both good and bad.  People can claim that we have no true original traditions or originality in general.  Also people can treat us as the greatest and biggest long-term gathering of different types of people.  America is in the making of becoming traditional and unique.  Although if you were to go back and trace the genealogy of every person in the United States, almost none, if any would only consist of only americans.  I believe that being this way is the most significant aspect of our modern culture and our past influences contributing to our modern architecture and many, many currently standing monuments and traditions.  Being a nation of practically no originally, we have done pretty darn good at making it our own.
     It is incredible to think of how millions or people literally dropped everything and left.  This movie and thought has made me totally aware of my connection to my ancestry.  But having all of these driven immigrants, with great new ideas and sights for their and their family's future, is what has shaped our nation and economy up to date.

Henry Ford

Henry Ford in 1888

     On July 30, 1863 Henry Ford was born in Dearborn, Michigan.  His parents, Wiliam and Mary Ford went on to have five children after Henry, but Henry was the first.  As a child his family lived on a farm.  In 1888 he married Clara Bryant.  And it was not even until 1891 that he got his first job.  Unfortunatelly for those three years, his wife and he were not under the best living conditions.  Little did he know, that everything would soon change and he will go on to become the 7th wealthiest human to ever walk this earth.  In 1891, Edison Illuminates Comany in Detroit hired him asa n engineer.  And it did not take until 1893 for Ford to be promoted to Chief Engineer.  This new position supplied the time and money for him to also work on some personal projects and experiments.  And with that time, Henry worked on internal combustion engines, which fascinated him more than anything else.  By 1896 he completed his first big project, the Quadricycle.  It was a self-proppelled vehicle with only two different speeds and no reverse.  The tires were similar to bicycle tires, but were a bit stronger and thicker.  And in 1903, Ford went off on his own and established Ford Motor Company.
     The establishment of Ford's new comapny was an entirely new adventure for him.  It only took five short years for the release of Ford's Model T.  By 1918, half of the cars in America were Model T's.  This fact made his company the largest automobile manufacturer in the world at the time.  But backing up to 1913, Henry Ford introduced a very futuristic invention that influences industry and production up to this date, the moving assembly line.  This new invention reduced assembling time drastically, reduced the cost of his products, enabled him to lower wages, and allowed for the mass production of products.  This invention was a giant contributer to the boom of industry in the early 20th Century and enabled comapnies around the world to mass prduce products faster and for a lower price.

He's got some Swag...

     Throughout the late 1910's and the early 1920's, Henry Ford was working on one his biggest projects ever, the Rogue Plant.  This was the largest industrial plant ever built in the world at the time.  This great, new resource for his research production, perfectly characterized his ideas of mass production.  About a decade later, in 1932, Henry built and released the first V-8 Ford vehicle.  And 15 years later, in 1947, Ford died at the age of 83 in Dearborn, Michigan at his home.

Source(s)
-HFMV

Jim Thorpe

Football at Carlisle Indian Industrial School

     Jacob "Jim" Francis Thorpe was born on May 28, 1887 in Prague, Oklahoma.  He was born into the Thunder Clan, Sac and Fox Tribe on a Sac and Fox reservation.  He was born into a strong Roman Catholic family and his parents name's were Hiram P. Thorpe (his father) and Mary James (his mother).  As a child he was given the name of "Wa-Tho-Huk", a tribal indian name meaning "Bright Path".  This was extremely fitting for the life that was soon to happen.  He had black hair and brown eyes.  His twin brother Charlie was his best childhood memory, considering he died at the age of nine from pneumonia.  Jim was extremely impacted from this event and continuely ran away from school.  After awhile, his father sent him to a boarding school.  This way he would be under supervison at all times and couldn't run away.  About two years later, at age eleven, his mother passed away.  This was a very bad time for Jim, and he became deeply depressed.  This depression led to many arguments with his father, and eventually he ran awy from home and went to work on a horse ranch asa young teenager.  At the age of sixteen he returned home and was enrolled in the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.  Shortly after enrolling, his athletic talent was noticed and recognized greatly by the famous coach, Gleen Scobey "Pop" Warner.
     As an athlete, Jim was one of the greatest to ever live in my opinion.  He played basketball, baseball, and football all professionally.  He was 6'1" and weighed 190 pounds.  He was also was the first person to win gold medals in both the pentathalon and decathalon in the same olympics.  He did so in the 1912 Stockholm, Sweden olympics.   "(Jim Thorpe) was the greatest athlete who ever lived.... What he had was natural ability.  There wasn't anything he couln't do.  All he had to see is someone doin' something and he tried it... and he'd do it better." - 1912 Olympic Silver Medalist, Abel Kiviat.  That is the best complement any athlete could get from anyone, especially there competitor.  Unfortunately These wins were revoked from him due to the Non-Professional rule.  Basically you could not have been paid as an athlete previous to the olympic in which you were competing.  And Jim had played a few years of minor league baseball prior to 1912.  The funny thing about him participating in this olmpics, representing not only his "country" but also his tribe, is that was not even granted citizenship until 1917.  But in 1983 they were re-instated into the books due to the abolishment of the Non-professional rule that applied to the olympics.

Native American Son

     Throghout his life, and even after his life ended, Jim won many awards.  In 1951, he was initiated into the College Football Hall of Fame.  In 1963, a Charter Enshrinee was made of him and placed in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.  In 1911 and 1912 he was voted All-Amercican in college football.  In 1950, he was voted AP Most Outstanding Athlete of the First Half of the 20th  Century.  He was voted ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Century in 2001.  And last but not least he is in the Track and Field Hall of Fame.  And as if winning awards isn't enough, in 1986 in honor of James Francis Thorpe, the Jim Thorpe award was developed.  This award is annually given to the best collegiate defensive back and is voted on by a comitee made entirely of members of the Jim Thorpe Association.

Jim Thorpe at his prime

     If you guessed sports was the most important thing in Jim's life, hen you are wrong.  his family his tribe influenced his life more than anything else, his athletics were third in line behind, God, and his family/tribe.  The Sac and Fox Nation lives to have much respect for life within themselves, their comunities, their families, and all of creations.  This tribe is spiritually based.  Many old religious practices include; namings (like Wa-Tho-Huk), clan feasts, adoptions, and burials.  Many new religious practices associated with this tribe include Drum Dances, native american churches, and having a one-on-one realationship with God.  As far as his family goes, his parents both dies before he reached the age of twenty and he didn't have much luck with his spouses.  He married Iva Miller in 1913 and had four children.  In 1926, he married Freeda Kirkpatrick and they had four children as well.  His eight children's names were; Gale, Charlotte, Frances, James Francis Jr., Phillip, William, Richard, and John.  And in 1945 he married Patricia Cladys Askew, obviously he was only married to one at a time. He had no children with Patricia and was with her until he died on March 28, 1953 in Lomita, California.


Sources
- Biography
- CMGWW
- Claifornia Indian Education
- Denton Genealogy
- Native American Encyclopedia
- Sac and Fox Nation

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