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>> My name is Jared DiBartolomeo. I am a fifth-year student of civil engineering at the University
of California, Irvine. And when I am not studying or working on design projects, I am playing
ragtime piano. When I was about maybe 2 years old, I remember my father playing the Maple
Leaf Rag on our old upright piano in our living room. I guess that got me. The bug had bitten.
Ragtime is a style of music that was popularized in the early part of the 20th century, actually
beginning in the 1890s and going to the end of World War I. It is characterized by a march-like
bass where there's alternating note and chord. There is what is called a syncopated melody
on the top. What I mean by syncopated is that the accents rather falling directly on the
beats, they fall in between the beats. This is the first truly American music in that
it developed in this country. Of course, its roots were from the plantation songs, which
go all the way back to Africa, and also in the European tradition with marches and waltzes.
And it's sort of a fusion that produced this uniquely American music called ragtime.
>> There is a lot of freedom for creativity, but you have to stay within that framework. Sort of like engineering,
where you have a certain amount of design criteria and constraints and you have to work
within those constraints to produce something.
>> The reason I went into civil engineering is because I needed something practical to
fall back on. One of the musicians who I studied with got his degree in mechanical engineering
from UC Berkeley, but now is a full-time musician. You here a lot about starving musicians, not
so much of starving engineers.
>> As to where the name came from, these words are accredited to Joplin. He said it was due
to the ragged time or ragged movement of the syncopated melody. It is incredible fun. There
is certainly a good amount of technical skill required, but it is very rewarding in the
entertainment value. It is also really good stress relief when studying, too.