“The Maple Leaf” is one of the most famous ragtime songs. Composed by Scott Joplin, Maple Leaf Rag became a new national trend, evolving into ragtime music. Maple Leaf Rag was named for a ragtime club, only open for a month, which contributed to the spread of the music’s popularity. Ragtime was piano-based, lively, and like any new trend, was met with both excitement and disgust. As we see in E.L. Doctorow’s novel Ragtime, ragtime provided both professional and social opportunities, as well as unease. When Coalhouse Walker, a ragtime pianist, plays for the family, we see the family’s reaction. Doctorow describes it by saying “The melodies were like bouquets. There seemed to be no other possibilities for life than those delineated by the music. When the piece was over Coalhouse Walker turned on the stool and found in his audience the entire family, Mother Father, the boy, Grandfather, and Mother’s Younger Brother, who of all of them he was the only one who knew ragtime. He had heard it in his nightlife period in New York. He had never expected to hear it in his sister’s home” (159). Doctorow uses the simile of bouquets to compare the elaborate musical notes to a collection of flowers. However, that is not how the family perceives the music. While some find it entrancing, and one member finds it familiar, the Father cannot recognize it at all; it is foreign to him, and, therefore, he is uncomfortable with the melodies. The family’s reaction is directly reflective of the nation’s reaction: mixed with appreciation, enjoyment, and disapproval.
1. Jasen, David A. Rags and Ragtime: A Musical History. New York: n.p., 1989.
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2. Levang, Rex. "100 Years of the Maple Leaf Rag." Music. Minnesota Public Radio,
n.d. Web. 12 May 2011. <http://music.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/
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3. Maple Leaf (Scott Joplin). N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2011. <http://imslp.org/
wiki/Maple_Leaf_Rag_(Joplin,_Scott)>.
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