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Music that demanded a physical response: Ragtime and

Race in James Weldon Johnsons The Autobiography of an
Ex-Colored Man (1912)

Kristin Rose

Senior Honors Thesis

Submitted In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements of the
College Scholars Honors Program
North Central College

May 11th, 2015

Advisor: Dr. Lisa Long

Second Reader: Dr. Ann Keating

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Acknowledgements
The year-long process of writing a senior thesis cannot be accomplished by a single person. I am
thankful for the many encouraging professors, faculty, and friends who have helped me along in
this project.
To my thesis advisor, Dr. Long: Thank you for providing me with a comfortable space to bounce
around my ideas. Even though you didnt initially know much about ragtime music, your
expertise in American literature has been a huge help to me. Thank you for proofreading,
suggesting texts for me to read, and then patiently proofreading again. The completion of this
project would not be possible without your endless support. Thank you for challenging me and
pushing me to develop my analytical writing. Youre wonderful!
To my piano professor, Barb Vanderwall: Thank you for letting me play ragtime music anywhere
and everywhere, and for taking my interest in ragtime seriously. Youve always believed in me. I
have learned how to be a better person and a better musician under your instruction.
To Dr. Keating, my second reader: Thank you for providing feedback on my thesis and for
getting me excited to start on the project, way back in January of 2014. Your enthusiasm for
undergraduate research has been an invaluable source of encouragement for me.
To Starbucks: Its only fair that I acknowledge the magical palace of iced coffee and unlimited,
free tea refills -- the place where I was most productive. So thank you, Starbucks, for your
continued support of my academic endeavors.

Music that demanded a physical response: Ragtime and Race in James Weldon
Johnsons The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912)

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Take some music,

start to fake some music in a lag time
Then you have some ragtime.
Steal from the masters any classic you see
Rag it a little bit with his melody
Dont try at all to hide
Call it the Gaby Glide
No matter what it may be
Other writers will give brother writers inspiration
Handy opra will be dandy just for syncopation.
~ Louis A. Hirschs The Bacchanal Rag (1912)
The country is awakening to the real harm these coon songs and rag-time are doing It is an
evil music that has crept into the homes and brains of our American people
~ Edward Baxter Perry (1918)
And so by fateful chance the Negro folk-song the rhythmic cry of the slave stands to-day
not simply as the sole American music, but as the most beautiful expression of human experience
born this side of the seas. It has been neglected
~ W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903)

Despite its reputation as evil music, the American people loved ragtime when it first
became popular in the late 1890s. Ragtimes critics were shocked by its brash, lively tempo and
its sprightly, syncopated harmonies; they dismissed it as a crude and impolite. However, from its
national debut at the 1893 Chicago Worlds Fair, the American public embraced the curious,
rhythmic, honky-tonk sound of ragtime because it was unlike any existing musical form. In
both vocal and instrumental arrangements, ragtime evolved from simple, whimsical minstrel
sketches to developed, foot-tapping melodies which still ring through the quaint theme parks of
today -- a vague, nostalgic slice of Americana.

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African American musicians crafted ragtime from rich musical traditions: slave songs and
dances were the foundation for early ragtime. While Black America created ragtime, white
America promptly marketed the music and consumed it ravenously. From its conception, the
genre was highly racialized due to its African American origins. Ragtime emerged from the
South and spread rapidly by way of theater and travelling vaudeville acts, dance halls, saloons,
and even operas. However, by the 1900s, ragtime was printed on sheet music and distributed to
white musicians as an authentic piece of American culture.As it continued to grow beyond its
Southern roots, white musicians began to compose in the ragtime style, deracializing the music
in the process.
After dominating the nations popular music scene for almost twenty years, ragtime
emerged as the first truly American musical genre. By the 1920s, ragtime was nearly abandoned
in favor of a new wave of music that swept the nation: jazz. Like most popular music, ragtime
was initially considered a fad. However, ragtime paved the way for jazz to take over public
consciousness by preparing listeners and musicians to experiment with new sounds, new
melodies, new rhythms, and new identities. Despite its brief period of popularity, ragtime is
worth studying because it offers an important glimpse into Americas struggle to find and
establish its voice.
Because of its influence in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, ragtime made
its way into literature. James Weldon Johnson, a songwriter, activist, diplomat, poet, and
teacher, wrote The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man in 1912 and based much of the material
on in the novel on his experiences as a black lyricist in New York City (Morrissette 16). In his
novel, Johnson writes about ragtime as music that demanded a physical response, and he

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depicts the ragtime clubs that were crucial to the development and popularity of ragtime. As a
black artist, Johnson studied various black clubs in the Tenderloin District, a center for black
musical and theatrical talent from the turn of the twentieth century well into 1915 (Morrissette
16). These clubs provided a space for black entertainers to perform for a mostly black audience,
although curious white patrons would often wander into the black clubs on occasion. In this
environment, black art was treated seriously, and members of this creative community were not
limited to portraying Southern stereotypes.
Black music and theater in particular flourished in these clubs, from 1915 until the
Harlem Renaissance, in an area then called Black Bohemia (Morrissette 17). As a resident of
Black Bohemia, Johnson witnessed the thriving black culture of the Tenderloin District. Johnson
teamed up with several different black songwriters to break out of the segregated world of
performance in musical comedy and paved the way for black artistic talent to develop and
flourish (Morrissette 18). Johnson experienced firsthand the racism and cruelty that black
performing artists faced. As a result, Johnson envisioned black art as a means to uplift the race.
His work imagined a proud black cultural identity, and he firmly believed that black culture
launched America into the realm of classical civilizations, such as ancient Rome and Greece
(Morrissette 22). Johnsons primary goal was to highlight black contributions to American
culture, thus valuing the work of black artists. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man takes
these ideas and arranges them into the story of a biracial musicians attempt to find his identity
and his artistic voice.
In his novel, Johnson examines the racial tensions associated with ragtime music at the
height of its popularity at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By using

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ragtime as a racial metaphor, Johnson explores the misconception that music, particularly
American music, must be labeled as either high-brow or low-brow, as black or white.
He also addresses the complex issue of national identity by investigating the tension between
authentic American music and European music and tensions between the racialized North and
South. The biracial narrators internal struggle to identify as a black American or to pass as a
white American parallels his external struggle as a musician to choose between the melodic
European classical tradition and the rhythmic American popular music of black bohemia.
Furthermore, Johnsons novel highlights the incredible significance of black culture and its
important contributions to American culture as a whole.
A Brief History of Ragtime
Ragtime music will forever be entangled with race because of its complex, hybrid origins
and Americas dark history of racism and discrimination. In its earliest form, ragtime originates
from the coon songs of the South, popular beginning in the 1880s. Coon songs are Negro
dialect songs perceived as one of the major manifestations of ragtime (Berlin 111).
Syncopation, a temporary displacement of the beat in any musical genre, but a key element of
ragtime, is closely associated with the black music tradition and was appropriated by minstrel
groups and traveling vaudeville shows from the 1880s into the 1920s (Jasen 4).

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An example of syncopation in Scott Joplins Maple Leaf Rag (1899). The accented notes are the weaker
beats, which occur after the second beat of the second and fourth measures, and after beat one in measure three
(http://www.omf.cloud.connect4education.org/images/rhythm/joplin_mapleleaf_beats.gif).

The early coon songs, which used syncopated rhythms, were a Negro dialect song frequently,
but not always, of an offensively denigrating nature, and included popular songs such as Ernest
Hogans All Coons Look Alike to Me (1896) and Theodore Metzs A Hot Time in the Old Town
(Berlin 5). These racist songs were written and performed almost exclusively by white actors
and musicians. Coon songs were an integral part of blackface minstrelsy, a Southern musical
theater show characterized by a set of self-humiliating rules designed by white racists for the
disenfranchisement of the black self (Ostendorf 575). Extremely popular in the American
south, minstrel shows used racial stereotypes from the period, including: the ideal, obedient
black slave, the stupid, lazy, trickster slave, the northern black city-dweller considered to
be a foolish dandy, and others (Sussman 84).

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Ragtime music cover art depicting various racial stereotypes: A Tennessee Tantalizer (1900 - Berlin 124),
Remus Takes the Cake (1896 - Berlin 105), and A Tennessee Jubilee (1899 - Jasen 71). A Tennessee Tantalizer in
particular highlight in three separate pictures the African American as a thief, a savage brute, and a lazy bum. A
Tennessee Jubilee also depicts the grinning Coon and the wide-eyed Pickaninny, racial caricatures which paint
the African American as a foolish trickster, an energetic tribal dancer, or a lazy, gullible slave. Remus Takes the
Cake emphasizes these stereotypes in the exaggerated facial features.

Blackface minstrelsy, in its attempt at racial performance, demonstrated what many

Americans feared most: what Ostendorf calls the blackening of America (575). Minstrelsy
actors literally blackened their white faces in order to impersonate and interpret blackness. Both
musically and physically, the actors in blackface attempted to caricature racial difference in

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accordance with their own racial anxieties. In this way, minstrelsy set the stage for early
American theater and vaudeville shows, which formed the foundation of American entertainment
(Sussman 84). Ragtime would come directly from the syncopated rhythms of blackface
minstrelsy and coon songs. Musically, the two forms are intertwined. Both use syncopated, socalled ragged rhythms (Berlin 11). Thus, the ragtime song was a more developed, more
complex version of the highly racialized coon songs of the early nineteenth century (Jasen 13).
Although the popularity of blatantly racist coon songs faded out of fashion by 1906, this same
style of music evolved into the popular ragtime song of the early twentieth century, thus retaining
heavily racialized elements (Berlin 5). In its attempt at racial performance, coon songs stained
the beginning of ragtime. However, black musicians reclaimed these racist musical forms.
Despite this change, James Weldon Johnson - along with other prominent black thinkers
of the period - viewed this shift away from dialect and racialized ragtime as a theft from the
black community:
The first of the so-called Ragtime songs to be published were actually Negro
secular folk songs that were set down by the white men, who affixed their own
names as composers. In fact, before the Negro succeeded in establishing his title
as creator of his secular music the form was taken away from him and made
national instead of racial. It has been developed into the distinct musical idiom by
which America expresses itself popularly, and by which it is known universally.
For a long while the vocal form was almost absolutely divorced from the Negro;
the separation being brought about largely through the elimination of dialect from
the texts of the songs. (Johnson quoted in Berlin 6)

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Johnsons perspective clearly demonstrates an understanding of ragtimes roots in African folk
music and spirituals. The deracialization of ragtime occurred roughly from 1900 - 1906, and
eventually transformed ragtime into the nostalgic theme-park music that we think of today when
we hear tunes such as Scott Joplins The Entertainer. Johnsons criticism centers on the theft
of ragtime, specifically white Americas obsession with ragtime and the nations desire to claim
black music as its own, as if to harvest the music of its slaves without giving credit where credit
is due. One example of deracialization is Lewis Muirs Waiting for Robert E. Lee, a popular
ragtime song which focused on more generally Southern themes (Berlin 5). As Johnsons
statement indicates, many black musicians were aware of the cultural appropriation of black
music and popular song before the effects of such appropriation were fully realized. Johnsons
novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man raises the issue of ragtimes origin and the
white worlds theft of ragtime.
Ragtime began as a predominantly vocal form. However, the genre grew to
accommodate all types of musicians, and ragtime bands, brass ragtime ensembles, and ragtime
orchestras formed across the country. These groups often performed at county fairs or in
vaudeville traveling shows (Berlin 6). Because such groups were made up of itinerant
performers and musicians, the music was by its very nature not notated (Berlin 9). The
early African American music tradition relied heavily on oral/aural skills. The musicians had to
modulate between keys with ease, and at a moments notice, in contrast with the classical
European music tradition, which was first and foremost notated and, consequently, always
public. Conversely, the black music tradition was not notated and resulted mainly from
improvised melodies that could be nearly impossible to replicate because nothing was written

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down, making it a private genre of music that could not be printed and replicated like the
European music. With advantages like education and wealth and whiteness, the European music
tradition was established as superior to the musical customs of any other culture. However,
Americans at the turn of the twentieth century were captivated by ragtime precisely because it
was so unpredictable.
Berlin describes the 1890s as a time of new musical experience for most Americans
and the literature from the period provides a great variety of explanations as to where, when,
and how the music developed (21). Many people assumed, for example, that ragtime came
directly from Africa because the syncopated rhythms were so unusual to American listeners
(Berlin 22). Even in the speculations of ragtimes origins, Americans made racist assumptions:
The division of one of the beats into two short notes [in ragtime] is perhaps traceable to the
hand-clapping; every American is familiar with the way that the darkey pats his hands with two
quick slaps alternating with the time-beating of the foot (Berlin 22). This demonstrates the
anxiety many Americans expressed at what they thought was an intrusion of a music that
stemmed not from Europe, but from Africa, a music that represented to them not civilization and
spiritual nobility of European art, but its very antithesis -- the sensual depravity of African
savagery (Berlin 32). Through literature from this period, we can learn how contemporaries of
the period considered ragtime music (Berlin 21). Furthermore, we can use literature from this
period as a lens to examine how ragtime was used in the context of race and national identity.
Specifically, James Weldon Johnsons novel uses ragtime music as a racial metaphor for the
narrators ability to pass as white, despite his mixed racial heritage.

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The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is a fictional account of one biracial mans
decision to pass as a white man. The unnamed narrator is a musician, raised and educated by
his single black mother in Connecticut in the late nineteenth century. Because his white father
sends his mother money, the ex-colored man is able to benefit from a middle-class education at a
public school, where he discovers a love of literature, music, and languages. He learns English
and comes to love literature and reading; he also becomes a piano prodigy. Eventually, the
narrator meets his white father, who gives the boy a piano, but they do not see each other again.
When the ex-colored mans mother dies, he is orphaned and alone. He struggles at first,
but decides to go to Atlanta University to return to his Southern roots. However, after he realizes
his money has been stolen, the narrator is forced to forego school and find work immediately.
He learns Spanish as a result of his job with a cigar-making factory. When the factory closes, the
narrator and a few of his friends move to New York.
While in New York City, the narrator first encounters ragtime in the racially diverse
clubs. He masters the genre and secures a job playing ragtime at a black club. A rich, white man
overhears the ex-colored mans ragtime performance at the club one night and is completely
captivated. The white man offers the narrator a job playing ragtime exclusively for him and his
cultured, white guests, an offer the narrator cannot refuse. After a troubling incident at the club
in which the narrator witnesses a murder, he tells the rich man that he needs to leave the area.
The rich man invites the narrator to accompany him to Europe. The narrator agrees.
The white man takes the narrator to Paris, where the narrator learns French in addition to
performing regularly for his employer. The duo spends time in London, Amsterdam, and Berlin

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before the narrator decides he needs to go back to America and compose a ragtime symphony.
He is inspired by a German musician who, after hearing the narrator perform a rag, turns the
song into a more classic piece by unragging the rhythms.
For inspiration, the narrator spends time in the South visiting black churches and listening
to spirituals. Although he is enraptured by the soulful black music, he flees when he witnesses a
lynching. The narrator cannot escape the trauma of the lynching, so he decides to pass as a
white man and completely distance himself from ragtime and his heritage. Although he
experiences success in a business college in New York, the ex-colored man feels broken. He
later falls in love with a white woman, who also falls in love with him when she hears him play
Chopin at a local club. Unable to hide the truth about his race, the ex-colored man tells his lover
the truth. The woman flees the city for the summer, but returns and the couple is reconciled and
they marry. When his wife dies during childbirth, the ex-colored man wonders if he made the
right decision in choosing to pass. He struggles with doubt, but knows that his child will have a
better life because of his choice to pass as white.
The Colored Boys Education: Music and Literacy
Although the ex-colored man finally abandons his ragtime composition, the bulk of his
story revolves around his musical identity and his racial identity. The ex-colored mans identity
is shaped by his experience and by his taste in music. The horrors of the lynching he witnesses
are enough to convince him that he cannot identify any longer with blackness. However, his
desire to pass is achieved, at least in part, through music. The musical metaphor that
permeates the novel is central to the ways in which the narrator negotiates his biracial identity.
Because he can perform European classical piano and ragtime piano, the narrator occupies a

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unique in-between space, both musically and racially. Johnsons novel uses ragtime as a racial
metaphor through which the narrator can define himself.
Music is an integral part of the narrators life from his early childhood. As his story
begins, the unnamed narrator fondly remembers how his mother picked out hymns on the
piano on a Sunday evening (Johnson 5). This is the beginning of the narrators life-long interest
in music. Although his mother can read sheet music, her tempos are decidedly largo, or slow,
because she is not a classically-trained musician and therefore struggles to read sheet music
(Johnson 5). This is deeply ingrained in the narrators memory, especially because of the
contrast he notices when his mother plays by ear. When she would play simple
accompaniments to some old southern songs, the narrator notes that she plays with more
expression, and is overall freer (Johnson 5). The narrator does not specifically say what old
southern songs his mother plays, but it is possible that these songs are spirituals from her
childhood. This contrast between playing familiar songs by ear and reading music from a book is
foundational for the narrator.
While the narrator develops a deep respect for classical piano and the European classical
music tradition, he is naturally drawn to the southern songs that his mother picks out by ear
because he associates expressiveness and passion with this music. The act of playing by ear is
extremely significant because the musician is not bound to a specific musical text. Rather, the
musician is unrestricted and has free reign over all elements of the piece, such as the style, key,
tone, tempo, etc. Playing without sheet music requires some degree of natural talent. By
extension, then, the narrator and his mother possess a certain naturalness which enables them
to pick out melodies on the piano without the help of a text. The narrators music takes on a sort

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of raw, authentic quality when he is not confined to notes on a page. Furthermore, the narrator
resonates with the soulful style in which his mother plays when she picks out songs by ear. He
learns to imitate her by chiming in with strange harmonies in the bass the low keys or the
treble the high keys (Johnson 6). The narrator later stresses that he always plays with
feeling, claiming that is what sets him apart from other musicians (Johnson 17).
It is important to note that the narrators first encounter with music is participatory. Even
as a young boy, he cannot help but join in with his mother, although his melodies are strange
and do not necessarily fit with the music. Hands-on experimentation is a large part of the
narrators early encounters with the piano. Although he goes on to take piano lessons, the young
narrator initially learns to play the piano in the same way his mother learned: by participation
rather than formal study. Not long after his first encounter at the piano, the narrator can pick
out a few tunes at the age of seven (Johnson 6). He adds that he had also learned the names of
the notes in both treble and bass clefs; however, he preferred not to be hampered by notes
(Johnson 6). As a boy, the narrator is clearly willing to learn the theory behind his musical
passion. Yet he admits that, initially, the technicalities of the music were more inhibiting than
liberating.
In addition to his classical music education, the narrator experiences the unrestrained,
unwritten music of the church. The black church music tradition is one that captivates the
narrator because of its physicality and the deeply emotional call/response participation it
demands. These slave songs and plantation music created a space for black artists to claim a
privileged relationship to the genre, a privilege that eventually extends to ragtime and the
syncopated prelude to the jazz era (Ruotolo 256). Although he does not encounter the Southern

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black church until much later in his life, we can assume that the narrators mother came from this
tradition because of the southern hymns and spirituals that she plays by ear on the piano.
Although the educated middle class black community is rather ashamed of the Southern black
church (they prefer to sing hymns from books [Johnson 4]), the emotional component of this
music is what drives the narrator to the piano. He notices his mother plays more freely, with
more expression, when she is playing by ear.
Furthermore, this emotional-spiritual music is also deeply private: I can see her now, her
great dark eyes looking into the fire, to where? No one knew but her (Johnson 6, emphasis
added). He later notes the same qualities in the Southern black church, and labels this pathos
the spell of religious fervor (Johnson 108). Like black musicians in the church, who must have
a keen sense of pitch in order to modulate between keys and keep up with the congregation, the
narrators mother plays with feeling and sensation. He eventually describes this music as more
than mere melody; there is sounded in them that elusive undertone, the note in music which is
not heard with the ear. I often sat with tears rolling down my cheek and my heart melted within
me (Johnson 107). This emotional music awakens in the narrator a love of the oral tradition and
helps him discover his natural ear for music. He prefers the unwritten, improvised qualities of
black music because it is more sincere and less restrained. His musical instincts mirror that of
his mothers from an early age.
The young narrator begins his education at the local elementary school, which is clearly
his mothers highest priority; however, he both begins his music education with a private piano
teacher, and he takes English lessons from her daughter. These two pursuits are clearly linked
because both are part of the narrators proper education as a boy. While learning to read and

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write proper English, the boy also learns to read and write music and begins his classical
training. His teacher, who he graciously describes as a fairly good musician, tries, with some
difficulty, to pin him down to the notes (Johnson 6). At first, she is unsuccessful because the
narrator is able to reproduce the required sounds without the slightest recourse to the written
characters (Johnson 6). Even at a young age, the narrators preference for playing by ear
reflects his mothers. There is no question that he is talented, and the music comes naturally to
him without the help of any written musical text. These freer musical impulses remain
unnamed because the narrator has not yet experienced complete racial awareness by this point in
the narrative (Ruotolo 259). However, he learns that, in order to explore other varieties of music,
he must learn to read and write in the language of music. In other words, in music and
language, he must be disciplined and trained in the classics rather than be free and unrestricted.
Although he is not yet racially conscious, the narrator is conditioned to learn the white way.
The narrators music lessons and English lessons are further linked by the idea of
improvisation. In his reading lessons, the narrator admits that he is prone to bring my
imagination to the rescue and read from the picture (Johnson 6). Rather than read the written
words on the page, the boy interprets the pictures and writes his own story, much to his teachers
disapproval. In many ways, these literary improvisations are similar to the musical
improvisations. The narrator experiences more freedom when he is able to set his own creative
course and give some new and sudden turn to the plot of the story (Johnson 6). Although the
boy eventually excels in his studies, both academically and musically, he prefers to improvise
and create rather than be confined to what is explicitly written on the page. This desire is one

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that follows him into his adulthood, but eventually leads to conflicting conceptions of musical
identity.
The link between music and literacy is reinforced when the narrator cites what he
considers to be four of the most significant cultural contributions to American culture made by
African Americans: the Uncle Remus stories the Jubilee songs the ragtime music and the
cakewalk (Johnson 54). Notice that three out of the four artistic contributions are types of
music. Revealed in this list is the connection between music and literature, which is reflective of
the narrators childhood, when his reading lessons and his music lessons were paired together.
This list of cultural contributions once again highlights the importance of literacy. Whether it be
basic textual literacy or cultural literacy, the narrator realizes that the ability to read and write in
a given subject, or the ability to read and write at all, is indicative of progress and
sophistication.
Again, language and music literacy are linked together for the narrator when he travels
abroad later in his life. He learns to speak French by spending time in the company of several
French women who frequent a caf that he visits. The narrator claims that the language taught
itself [where] I learned to speak merely by speaking (Johnson 80). Similar to his
improvisations on the piano, the narrator is not bound to any text while he is learning French.
Like his experience with learning music, he is thrown into the French language without any
proper lessons. He does not receive any instruction on French grammar and pronunciation. He
simply learns by speaking with the French and imitating them. Much like his early encounters
with the piano, the narrators experience with the French language is participatory. By engaging
with the locals, the narrator picks up the language with little effort. Although he does eventually

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purchase a French-English dictionary, his overall learning strategy is very hands-on. To support
the validity of his method, the narrator mentions that he later tries the same process with
German, and found that it worked in the same way (Johnson 80). It is worth noting that he
uses a similar process when learning Spanish in the States. He claims that he possesses a talent
for languages as well as for music (Johnson 45).
In both musical literacy and English literacy, the ex-colored man must learn, as a boy, to
negotiate between what is instinctual and what is produced from formal education. Musically
and more generally, the narrator is severely limited because he must learn the dominant cultural
language in order to be considered legitimate (Ruotolo 260). In this case, as in most cases, the
dominant cultural language is coded as white. Education is perceived as a white. For this
reason, before he begins to question his musical identity, the narrator starts to personally struggle
with his racial identity at a young age. He calls this struggle dwarfing, warping, distorting,
strong descriptive words that resonate with respect to the ragged music he will later adopt as his
own (Johnson 13). This racial tension leads him to believe that he has no place in society as a
biracial child. Although his classmates tell him he belongs with the colored people, he feels
out of place and disgusted with himself for not fitting neatly into one category (Johnson 15). As
an adolescent, the narrator is repulsed by the lower class of African Americans he sees in Atlanta.
He feels he cannot identify with their unkempt appearance and their loud talk and laughter
(Johnson 36). However, he admits that he is fascinated by their dialect, and the unrestricted way
the people speak, as if he does not already experience this freedom. The narrator occupies the
in-between space. He is caught between the white us and the other of the black
community, believing he belongs with neither group.

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A Burgeoning Racial Consciousness
After the narrator moves to Jacksonville, Florida, he feels he has finally been initiated
into the freemasonry of the race (Johnson 47). He is noticeably more at home in the
community once he experiences the musical tradition and begins to teach music lessons. There
is no doubt that the link between racial identity and musical identity is of extreme importance to
the narrator. Moreover, he claims that the best of his race are associated with music: Through
my music teaching and attendance at church, I became acquainted with the best of class of
colored people (Johnson 46). The narrator links music with the upper class, which indicates
that he values music in various forms, including, but not limited to, formal music education (the
classics) and the call/response music tradition of the black church. He develops a theory of
what it is to be colored, and part of this theory certainly includes music (Johnson 47). Now
that the narrator identifies as African American, he begins to view his world in terms of black
and white:
Because the colored man looked at everything through the prism of his
relationship to society as a colored man, and because most of his mental efforts
ran through the narrow channel bounded by his rights and his wrongs, it was to be
wondered at that he progressed so broadly as he has. (Johnson 47)
From this point on, the narrator begins to consider his options as a musician caught between two
racial identities and two musical traditions. He fondly remembers the Southern songs of his
childhood, but he cannot separate himself from the classical tradition that helped him become
literate.

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The narrator takes pride in his ability to analyze the condition of his race in relation to
white society. For example, he distinguishes between the desperate class, the servants, and
the educated colored people in every Southern community (Johnson 48 49). Education,
cultural capital, and income are the factors that, according to the narrators observations, separate
these three main classes of African Americans. This translates to the music to which each class
listens. Ragtime is indicative of the lower class, the uneducated.
Although the narrator admires the affluent and progressive members of the black
community, he notes that white society believes the sole purpose of this upwardly mobile attitude
is to engage in a monkey-like imitation of whiteness (Johnson 50). For example, the cakewalk
-- both a dance and a march-like type of ragtime music -- was made popular by slaves on
Southern plantations. The dance itself was a grand-promenade type of dance in which the
slave couple performing the most attractive steps and motions would take the cake (Berlin
104). Many thought the cakewalk music and dance were merely a poor slaves imitation of the
wealthy, upper class white Southerners. However, the cakewalk was actually intended as a
mockery of the balls and parties of the plantation owners.
This idea of mimicry echoes throughout the text in many ways, especially in relation to
music. Although the white community believes the educated black community is only
mimicking their accomplishments, it is from the black community that the first original, truly
American music comes. Rather than mimic the classical narrative written by the European
tradition, the African American music tradition is an authentic representation of American art,
relatively uninfluenced and unspoiled by the classical tradition.

Rose 22
As the author explores his identity and digs deeper into racial issues, he begins to make a
strong case for what he calls the originality and artistic conception of African Americans
(Johnson 54). According to this theory of cultural uplift, educated middle class blacks are
responsible for affirming and maintaining a positive reputation for the black identity. Thus, the
African American creators and performers of ragtime can reclaim this once-degrading form of
music and use it to promote the race. Cultural uplift applies to literature, music, and other artistic
pursuits. The ultimate goal of cultural uplift was to showcase the intelligence and sophistication
of African Americans -- a way for the ex-slaves to prove and demonstrate their worth to white
America.
Through displays of progress, such as the powerful influence of ragtime in American
popular music and music around the globe, elite members of the black community could uphold
a progressive, confident image for their race while fighting racism. Although this appears to
divide the black community into upper class and lower class rather than unite them, the narrator
claims that the idea of cultural uplift has merit because:
The whites have not yet been able to realize and understand that these people in
striving to do better in accordance with their financial and intellectual progress
are simply obeying an impulse which is common to human nature the world over.
(Johnson 50)
By appealing to intellect, the narrator reasons that the accomplishments of the middle class
ultimately reflect what potential good the entire black community could do, if uninhibited by
racist laws and ideas. In fact, many from the prosperous black communities in the city

Rose 23
considered themselves more American than any white person due to their large cultural
contributions to American popular music (Morrissette 17). The narrator latches on to this idea
of cultural authenticity and uses it to fuel his argument for the uplift of the race.
The national becomes global when the narrator argues that his people have the power of
creating that which can influence and appeal universally and therefore cannot possibly be
labelled inferior. By this logic, art functions as a marker of high society but, more importantly,
the quality of the art determines the value of the people. It is primarily through musical literacy
that this community proves it is educated and talented and therefore possesses sufficient cultural
capital as a marker of their civilization. This is made clear when the narrator expresses his
fascination and regard for the affluent black leaders with whom he interacts in the music clubs of
New York City. He is greatly impressed by their society, a word he uses frequently to describe
the elite community they have formed. This community is made up of performers, writers, and
others in the fine arts. They have musicals and literary societies that serve as a further
marker of their cultural literacy (Johnson 51). A glaring contrast to his childhood visit to
Jacksonville, the narrators experience in New York City stirs excitement and anticipation as he
explores fast-paced urban life. He is impressed to discover a well-established, elite black
society, whose members frequent social clubs, bars, and restaurants that cater exclusively to their
tastes.
The narrator also learns a great deal about the middle class black community. He notes
their ambitious attitude and admires how they rose out of the chaos of ignorance and poverty
to form an active, well-read community familiar with the fine arts (Johnson 51). Even with these
accomplishments, the narrator notices that this community is marked by very specific rules. For

Rose 24
example, he notices that the word nigger was freely used in about the same sense as the word
fellow, and sometimes as a term of almost endearment; but I soon learned that its use was
prohibited to white men (Johnson 56). With rules like these, the narrator learns to interpret and
navigate the racial tensions of the clubs and bars in the black community of New York City.
The Ex-Colored Ragtime Pianist
While visiting an exclusive club in the city, the narrator has his first encounter with
ragtime, the music that will transform his musical career and his life. With richly descriptive
language, he paints an image of the pianist at the piano and the syncopated sounds he hears:
Then he began to play; and such playing! I stopped talking to listen. It
was music of a kind I had never heard before. It was music that demanded
a physical response, patting of the feet, drumming of the fingers, or
nodding of the head in time with the beat. The barbaric harmonies, the
audacious resolutions often consisting of an abrupt jump from one key to
another, the intricate rhythms in which the accents fell in the most
unexpected places, but in which the beat was never lost, produced a most
curious effect. And, too, the player, the dexterity of his left hand in
making rapid octave runs and jumps was little short of marvelous; and
with his right hand, he frequently swept half the keyboard with clean cut
chromatics which he fitted in so nicely as to never fail to arouse in his
listeners a sort of pleasant surprise at the accomplishment of the feat.
(Johnson 60-61)

Rose 25
In order to understand the way in which ragtime was racialized, it is crucial to understand the
narrators description of the music. Adjectives like barbaric and audacious reflect the
broader cultural anxiety with syncopation and evoke an unsophisticated, even an uncivilized,
tribal sort of image. The description is extremely physical and exotic a spectacle yet it is
juxtaposed by a description of the ingenuity and remarkable skill of the musician. The ragtime
musician is a natural, and his natural abilities are a sort of spectacle at which the audience can
gawk. His music is at once physical and participatory, with strong African connotations. The
audience marvels at his feat. Although the narrator depicts the performance as exotic and
foreign, he also comments on the players dexterousness and skill. Early American music did not
stray far from the European music tradition because it was already well-established and society
had already accepted this music as the norm. However, as even the narrator demonstrates, the
alien rhythms of ragtime initially caught many listeners off guard. The adjectives the narrator
chooses reflect a preoccupation with tribal rhythms and a cultural other. Because the
harmonies are not conventional, they are barbaric. Because the accents do not fall on the beat,
as in most traditional music, they are unexpected. This word choice presents ragtime in a
racialized manner, a manner that others the listener because the concept of syncopation is
alien.
Furthermore, the narrators depiction of ragtime is extremely physical. In fact, the music
demands physical response, and it needs to be felt and experienced by the listener (Johnson
60). The narrators description of ragtimes physicality implies that the music does not allow the
listener to be still. Marking time with the hands, feet, or head are just a few ways the narrator
suggests the listener move. In order for the music to be felt, the rhythm must be internalized by

Rose 26
the listener. Indeed, the listener is rendered powerless under the captivating, syncopated spell
that the musician produces, and the ex-colored man chooses a particularly strong word to
describe this experience: demanding. As some scholars have pointed out, ragtime music
demanded new ways of hearing because it contains syncopation and harmonies that are foreign
to European music (Ruotolo 261). Ragtime music, then, served to empower black musicians
because it so wholly captivated its listeners to the point of powerlessness, as the ex-colored man
describes. The narrator claims that the syncopation of ragtime is so physical that the listener
cannot help but respond in a physical way. In this way, the listener loses power and the musician
is empowered.
Although this first encounter with ragtime occurs in a black club, this description
suggests that, in other social contexts with white audiences, black musicians can gain power
over white bodies by engaging in the physicality of ragtime (Ruotolo 261). Clearly, the narrator
is affected by this exciting, arousing music. He identifies the power of the musician and
pinpoints the way in which the syncopation seizes the listener. As a person of mixed race who
occupies a unique space in between white and black culture, it is interesting to note that the
narrator is initially under a sort of ragtime spell. He is, in fact, seized by the syncopation; he
cant resist physical movement. However, the ex-colored man is eventually empowered by his
ability to perform ragtime in front of white audiences. White listeners seem to experience the
same shock and captivation with ragtime that the narrator first experiences.
Because ragtime so completely challenged white notions of melody and rhythm, the
white public initially dismissed ragtime as a fad and an inherently immoral genre of music. In
fact, the temporary displacement of the beat and syncopation on the whole was thought to cause

Rose 27
irregular heartbeats in the listeners (Biers 104). This obviously inaccurate assessment is another
reflection of the extreme physicality of ragtime and the demanding nature that the ex-colored
man describes. As 20th-century American literature and culture scholar Bruce Barnhart points
out, musical time is highly racialized in this period (552). If classical music in Johnsons novel
represents white society, white societys conception of time revolves around necessity,
calculability, and the expected (Barnhart 552). By contrast, ragtime comes from the literal
description ragged time. If the classical music tradition was based on the expected, ragtime
was founded on the unexpected. In this way, time is one example of how whites used music to
create otherness (Barnhart 552). Improvisations, ragged rhythms, unfamiliar harmonies, and
temporary displacement of the beats -- all under the banner of an unwritten music tradition -formed the foundation for ragtime as a cultural phenomenon.
To further support this idea of ragged time as a symptom of otherness, one need only
look at the publics earliest perception of the genre. Ragtime was frequently associated with
hysteria because of its ragged beat (Biers 105). This suggests that white America recognized,
almost immediately, the very physical nature of the this ragged music and the apparently
irresistible physical power it exerted over the listener. One critic wrote ragtime was symbolic of
the primitive morality and perceptible moral limitations of the negro type (Berin 43). By this
method, ragtime was discredited and associated with racial impurity; thus, ragtime was branded
as the music of the illiterate, unsophisticated, and primeval.
Because it was so controversial, the music received a lot of attention. Regardless of the
fierce attacks on ragtime, the music prospered -- heard primarily in brothels, saloons, and
nightclubs at first, and then in opera and theater at large . As ragtime made its way into

Rose 28
American popular music and theater, the public connected ragtime with licentiousness and
sensuality, perhaps because of the bold, unrestrained quality of the music, which made it ideal for
dance halls (Robinson 89). As the immensely popular ragtime dance began to creep into
American culture, many continued to resist (Kenney 61).
With the rise of ragtime and the ragtime dance, ragtime critics and straight-laced
Victorians expressed concerns that the syncopation would infect young America and cause
immoral behavior (Ruotolo 254). These critics were primarily concerned with racial pollution
and the mixing/infection of black music into white culture. For this reason, early ragtime
critics were mainly criticizing blackness and linking blackness with sensuality and
licentiousness, rather than the identifying the music itself as the root of the problem. This attitude
reflects a broader cultural anxiety with the mixing of races and racial purity. For instance, in his
article Demoralizing Rag Time Music, ragtime critic Walter Winston Kenilworth wrote in 1913
America is falling prey to the collective soul of the negro (quoted in Berlin 44). The narrator
himself is a physical embodiment of the infection of black culture into white culture. Not only
his obvious mixed race heritage, but also his mixed interests in black music and white music puts
the ex-colored man in a unique, in-between cultural space.
Johnsons ex-colored man specifically notes the ragtime musician at the club, who seems
to have internalized the pulse of the music, which gives the effect of an instinctual performance.
He is gifted with lavish natural endowment (Johnson 62). Without a sense of rhythm, the
performer would not be able to continuously match the syncopated melody in the right hand with
the steady stride bass in the left hand. He feels the music in a very visceral way. For these
reasons, the music is immediately racialized. The musician possesses a sense of control and

Rose 29
power while he plays, especially because his audience cannot resist physical movement. In this
dazzling first encounter with ragtime, the narrator begins to develop an understanding of this
music that is natural rather than disciplined, improvisatory rather than composed, and oral
rather than textual (Ruotolo 260).
Remembering his childhood music experience and experimentation with playing by ear,
the narrator wonders what might have become of this performer if he were properly trained in
the classics. Captivated by the performer and the rousing syncopation, the narrator asks if the
performer has any formal training, and found out that he was just a natural musician, never
having taken a lesson in his life. Not only could he play anything he had ever heard, but he
could accompany singers in songs he had never heard (Johnson 62). Although the musician
lacks basic music literacy, he is able to create music without written text, indicating that he does
not need a text to guide him. Like the oral tradition, this music is rooted in memory, a perfect
sense of pitch and rhythm, and natural musicality.
The stereotype of the black musician as a natural musician is still very much part of
American culture. Throughout the slavery era and for years after, this stereotype was
perpetuated in ads and popular culture. For example, ads published in the late-eighteenth century
claimed that ex-slaves or runaway slaves could be identified by their musical abilities:
Tom, about 25 years of age thick lips, a little bow legged fond of
whistling, which he performs in a peculiar manner with his tongue.
James, about 30 years of age his jaw teeth are out, is remarkabl[y] fond
of singing.

Rose 30
Cajah, about 5 feet 9 inches high, of yellow complexion, a downcast look,
well made [has a] voice [that] sounds as if coming out of a hollow tree.
(Radano 365)
In using musical talents or qualities to identify slaves, the stereotypical idea of a black musician
came about, although the perpetrators of these stereotypes would hardly call the slaves
musicians. Not only does this establish blackness as inherently musical or rhythmic, but it
reinforces the idea that black music belonged to whites. In fact, slaves with musical abilities
were often more desired than others because their talents would benefit the slave owner if he
should decide to rent the slave out to a dance hall or music event (Radano 366). In the above
examples, the musical talents exhibited by the runaway slaves are used as a means of reclaiming
property (Radano 365). This formed what Radano terms black auditory culture (365).
In his novel, Johnson lays the foundation for this stereotype of the black musician as
innately rhythmic, where race is deeply tied to music and notions of meter and beat are
racialized. The ex-colored man comments:Perhaps he wouldnt have done anything at all; he
might have become, at best, a mediocre imitator of the great masters It is certain that he would
not have been so delightful as he was in ragtime (Johnson 62). The narrator is implying that the
pianist has a natural affinity for ragtime that would otherwise be stifled by any proper training,
essentially buying into the racist paradigm. Because of the way musical traditions are racialized,
the narrator implies that the ragtime pianist would lose his natural touch at the piano if he were to
learn piano by focusing on the textual, a predominantly white notion of music. In fact, it seems
that the narrator is also suggesting that the black musician would not be capable of learning

Rose 31
music even if he tried, because his race prevents him from becoming anything more than an
imitator.
Interestingly, the ex-colored man specifically uses the word imitator to describe what
the black musician would have been, had he learned to read music and perform from a written
text rather than improvise. However, imitator is exactly what the ex-colored man becomes
when he attempts to link his oral music tradition with the classical tradition of Europe. The
narrator occupies the in-between space because of his parentage. He represents the mixing of
black and white. Ultimately, in whichever tradition he performs, he is an imitator by definition.
Due to his lack of racial authenticity in both traditions, his performances are illegitimate, in a all
sorts of ways. The narrator engages in a sort of racial performance when he switches from
playing classical music and ragtime. He is an other in both traditions, which puts him in a
unique and perhaps unfortunate position. In the black music tradition, music remains
inseparable from the moment of its performance and from the body of the performer (Ruotolo
262). However, in the textual white music tradition, the music is reproduced on the page and can
be interpreted and performed by anyone (Ruotolo 262). For this reason, the music becomes
detached from its originator and endlessly repeatable (Ruotolo 262). By ragging the
classics later in the novel, the narrator attempts to bridge the oral music tradition and the textual
music tradition and make sense of his heritage. However, he is not successful in this endeavor
and leaves the project unfinished, mainly due to his decision to pass as a white man and marry
a white woman. The complications of trying to join the two music traditions are too great for the
ex-colored man.

Rose 32
Although he brings all of his knowledge of classical music to bear and made ragtime
transcriptions of familiar classic selections, the ex-colored man violates the privateness of
ragtime when he writes it down and changes it to fit the mold of the classics (Johnson 114). His
attempts to clean up ragtime and make it presentable to white society, while well-intentioned,
are actually detrimental to the authenticity of ragtime. If white music is public because it is
tangible and appears in text, then ragtime was initially private and completely unwritten. If we
view the very act of printing music as inherently white, then the ex-colored man is trying to
blend textual and oral traditions (Ruotolo 258). And if musical literacy - or any literacy - is
white (an obviously problematic concept), then the very nature of transcribing ragtime
compromises the musics integrity and cultural authenticity. By transcribing and preparing for
what we can presume to be the eventual publishing of ragged classics and a ragtime symphony,
the narrator is participating in the same process of cultural appropriation that brought white
music publisher John Stark more fame and fortune than the black musicians that he worked with,
most notably Scott Joplin.
As Ruotolo points out, the ragtime pianist in the club achieves the status of originator
and rightful owner because he cant write his music down (261). In a world where white
musicians can only be classified as imitators of ragtime, the ex-colored man is problematic.
Although his mother is African American, the narrator cannot be a completely authentic ragtime
pianist because his father is a white man. The narrators formal training in piano and the classics
prevents him from becoming a truly authentic ragtime pianist and he seems inevitably to occupy
the deprecated position of the white imitator (Ruotolo 262). Overall, the ex-colored man's

Rose 33
willingness to bring classical music and ragtime together, although clearly well-intentioned,
violates the authenticity of the music.

Ragtime Goes Global

Rose 34
A newspaper clipping from The St. Louis Post-Dispatch of February 28, 1901 detailing the universal
fascination with black composer Scott Joplins classic ragtime (Jasen 175).

The narrator stresses the global appeal of ragtime and the cakewalk, eventually: No one
who has traveled can question the world-conquering influence of ragtime; and I do not think it
would be an exaggeration to say that in Europe the United States is popularly known better by
ragtime than by anything else it has produced in a generation (Johnson 54). Although this may
be an overstatement, the narrator is clearly aware of ragtimes global reputation and its
popularity in Europe a huge accomplishment, considering the influence of the European
classical tradition. Thus the issue becomes not racial, but national because this music represents
the United States. Because this music appeals to a wide audience, the narrator makes the bold
claim that black music is American music, and essentially, America is black at its heart.
The narrator revels in ragtimes global reputation: In Paris they call it American music
(Johnson 54). He demonstrates that there is something about the quality of ragtime music that
foreigners identify as authentically American, which furthers his point regarding the significance
of African American contributions to American culture. As a comparatively young nation,
America has no established musical tradition like the European countries. When the European
countries label ragtime American, they are addressing, perhaps unknowingly, complex issues
of racial and national identity. In addition, the narrator acknowledges the critics who claim that
ragtime is simply a fad that is certain to fade away with time. The narrator insists that popular
music is just as valuable as classical music because of its global influence.
In refuting these critics, the narrator hits on an important idea. Ragtime and the cakewalk
(and other forms of this genre) are consistently called a lower form of art (Johnson 54).
Despite the American publics initial hesitations towards early forms of ragtime, it was received

Rose 35
into American consciousness with relative ease after the turn of the century. The narrator notes
that, although Americans considered ragtime a lower form of music, it has powerful
implications for African Americans because of its popularity with the general American public.
According to the narrator, ragtimes catchy syncopations and the appeal of the cakewalk dance
give evidence of a power that will someday be applied to the higher forms (Johnson 54).
Furthermore, he goes on to encourage African Americans to share their music proudly, rather
than be ashamed of it (Johnson 54).
In Europe, ragtime initially seems significantly less racialized, according to the narrator,
because it represents America as a nation. The narrators millionaire friend decides at the last
minute to take him along to Europe: I decided last night that Id go to Europe tomorrow. I think
Ill take you along (Johnson 75). Rather than asking the narrator if he wants to travel, the
rich man assumes that the narrator will just go with him on a whim. It is phrased as his only
option. However, once they arrive in Paris, the rich white man treats the narrator as his pet. The
rich man dresses him in fine clothes, provides him with spending money, and makes the narrator
play ragtime for him whenever he desires, even at odd hours of the night. He craves the
authenticity of ragtime, and he needs an authentic African American body to produce the music
a white musician could not produce the same effect. The narrator refers to the rich man as my
friend (Johnson 79). But the rich mans friendship has limits, particularly when it comes to his
musical tastes.
Musically, the narrator acts as the rich mans slave, performing ragtime for him and his
influential guests at elite social gatherings. Despite the repetition of ragtime, the rich man never
tires of it. As if the emotional authenticity of African American music is crucial to his survival,

Rose 36
the rich man demands that the narrator play for him every day: He seemed to take it as a drug
(Johnson 79). If ragtime is the drug, then the musician becomes the dealer. With this strong
language, the music is almost criminalized. And the rich man certainly acts as if the music is a
crime. He does not ask the narrator to play for him in public and keeps ragtime a secret, which
would indicate that he is either embarrassed of the narrator or he desires the music solely for
himself and dreads the thought of sharing his obsession.
Part of the rich mans obsession may be due to his inability to possess black music itself.
Although the ex-colored man is not the rich mans slave, the ex-colored man performs at the rich
mans command and fulfills the role of a musical slave. In this way, the rich man cannot fully
possess the music as his own property, but he possesses the ex-colored man, who stays with him
and relies on him to provide food, shelter, and funds (Radano 366). The rich man knows that he
cannot fully partake in ragtime because it is exclusive to black culture, a thing which fascinates
him and causes him to crave the consumption of ragtime1. When the ex-colored man performs
for the rich man, his performance is culturally authentic. In the privacy of his own dwelling, the
rich man demands this authenticity. This challenges the very definition of black music and the
oral tradition as inherently private. As Radano points out, a notion of black musical forms as
racially defined private property is violated when the rich man brings the narrator to Europe and
demands he play ragtime. As ragtime was defined by black culture, the rich man is challenging
1 The rich mans relationship with the narrator is one of white patronage. During the Harlem

Renaissance, select wealthy white men and women provided financial sponsorship to African
American artists, a relationship in which white capital and influence politely but pervasively
restricts black creativity (The Langston Hughes Review). For a more detailed discussion on the
complex power dynamics of white patronage, see Eric Walrond and the Varying Dynamics of
White Patronage During the Harlem Renaissance (2011).

Rose 37
the privacy of the black music tradition. He wants to be part of it, but he cannot perform it or
partake in it without the help of an authentic member of the culture; therefore, he consumes it by
way of the ex-colored man. American was captivated by ragtime, and the popularity and appeal
of black music slowly shifted what was once a private, intimate, unwritten tradition and made it
widely available to the American public (Radano 369). This is exemplified on a smaller scale
in the rich white mans relationship with the ex-colored musician.
This white desire to consume ragtime is, as some critics argue, an addiction that
demonstrates the white mans fascination with black culture and the supposed novelty of the
other (Ruotolo 264). The rich man consumes ragtime daily, as a way to satisfy his musical
appetite, his obsessive desire for black emotional authenticity and sensation (Ruotolo 264).
The ex-colored man claims his white friend is grim, mute, but relentless and possesses over
him a supernatural power which he used to drive me on mercilessly to exhaustion (Johnson
79?). Musically, the narrator is shackled to this rich, influential white man who has provided for
his every need. Rather than listen to the straight rhythms of classical music, the rich man
prefers to listen to the queer rhythms of ragtime, and he does so in private. This language of
queer and straight rhythms leads to a desire that is outside of the heteronormative and
questions the rich mans sexuality.
Eventually, the rich man makes the narrator perform for a group of his wealthy artist
friends in Berlin. At this point, the narrator comes to a turning point. After performing new
American ragtime in front of this group of European musicians, the narrator witnesses a
classically trained musician make ragtime straight; that is, the musician plays the tune without
syncopation, as if it needs to be turned around and straightened out in order for the highly-

Rose 38
trained classical musicians to break it down and comprehend it (Johnson 85). At this time, the
narrator realizes that ragtime music has the potential to be accepted into polite society, if it is first
broken down and un-ragged. 2 In order to properly interpret ragtime, the classical musicians
must first strip the music of its syncopation and incorporate it into white forms (Ruotolo 264).
He seated himself at the piano, and taking the theme of my ragtime, played it
through first in straight chords; then varied and developed it through every known
musical form this man had taken ragtime and made it a classic (85)
Implicit in this description is the idea that ragtime is inferior to other musical forms. Even the
ex-colored man, with his fascination and regard for the genre, seems to be prejudiced towards
this ragtime culture. Specifically, the use of the word developed indicates that the ex-colored
man upholds the belief that ragtime is primitive and unsophisticated in its ragged, unwritten
nature. In this case, the narrator is momentarily empowered by his ragtime performance to a
white audience of classical musicians; however, the musicians then begin to pick out the
melodies and play them straight, which gives power back to the listener because the listener is
essentially translating the foreign musical text into a more familiar musical format3.

2 The European musicians prefer the straight rhythms rather than the queer rhythms of

ragtime, and they must remove the ragged-time in an attempt to understand the ex-colored
man. An obvious desire for the heteronormative is implied with this language.
3 Judith Butlers essay Passing, Queering: Nella Larsens Psychoanalytic Challenge details the

ways in which sexual desire is racialized. The narrators desire to pass as white is linked to his
fascination with the straightening of ragtime. According to Butler, both color and desire are
eroticized (169). Thus, the rich mans preference for ragged or queer rhythms gives way to
homoeroticism. This is complicated further by the narrators eventual decision to pass, or
permanently deny his obsession with the queer rhythms of ragtime.

Rose 39
Although this compromises the authenticity of ragtime, the narrators passion for the
African American music tradition is too strong for him to be bothered by this. His passion is
fueled by the white musicians fascination with ragtime. And their eagerness to consume ragtime
is evident in their excitement (Ruotolo 265). The narrators ability to engage white listeners is
significant because, from this, the narrator realizes that ragtime can be appreciated as a legitimate
art form. He feels called to return to the United States in order to work as a composer and write
a ragtime symphony -- African American music presented in a white mans musical form, an idea
at which his millionaire friend scoffs. The narrators millionaire friend claims that American
music is permanently colored and, despite the narrators sincere efforts, he cannot undo his
white taste in musical styles.
My boy, you are by blood, by appearance, by education and by tastes, a white
man. Now why do you want to throw your life away in the hopeless struggle of
the black people of the United States? Then look at the terrible handicap you are
placing on yourself by going home and working as a Negro composer; you will
never be able to get the hearing for your work which it might deserve. I doubt
that even a white musician of recognized ability could succeed there by working
on the theory that American music should be based on Negro themes. (Johnson
86)
According to his millionaire friend, the narrator is white. His taste in music makes him white.
His education makes him white. His proficiency in many different languages makes him white.
His light skin makes him white. But his interest in African American music taints him. To study
this music would mean the narrator is throwing his life away. The rich man only wants the

Rose 40
narrator to perform ragtime if it serves the rich mans own purposes. For this selfish reason, the
rich man attempts to discourage the narrator from leaving him and returning to America to
promote ragtime.
However, this moment is a turning point for the narrator. He decides that he no longer
wants to pass as white. He makes a very conscious decision to return to the United States in
order to compose music in the African American tradition. But his millionaire friend insists that
to do so would be a waste of his whiteness. As a result, the ex-colored mans choice to pass is
constructed in musical terms.
Composing and Marketing Ragtime to White Audiences
Ultimately, the ex-colored mans dream of composing a ragtime symphony remains
unrealized. He fails to neatly join together the two vastly different traditions of which he is a
part, although he initially believes he is unique enough to bridge the gap between black musical
culture and white musical culture. Although the ex-colored man hopes to make ragtime into the
classical, several scholars have pointed to the narrators possible interest in wealth and his
desire to exploit the music of his people for a profit (Ruotolo 265). He assumes that the raw
material of black music is there for his taking, and returns to the South to discover black slave
spirituals and black church music culture, a culture and a space almost completely alien to him
(Ruotolo 265). At this point, the ex-colored mans motives are questionable. While he seems
legitimately interested in the spirituals and slave songs (the rhythms and early melodies from
which ragtime was formed), his overall purpose is to turn this rich material into profit for his
own personal gain, an idea that Ruotolo calls self-serving and piratical (265). Whether he
realizes it or not, in transcribing the unwritten slave spirituals and ragtime songs, the narrator

Rose 41
is attempting to use print - a white medium - to make black music available to anyone with
money to purchase it. In this way, the ex-colored man is participating in the commodification of
black music and, consequently, black identity: As a commodity readily available within the
sphere of consumer culture, black music could legally be claimed by anyone who had the money
to buy it (Radano 368).
In an attempt to access the richness of the black church music tradition - another oral
tradition - the ex-colored man becomes another imitator. He cannot fully participate in the black
church with its call/responses, but he can experience the emotion and sensation and revel in the
spectacle of emotional authenticity. And he does just that:
And so many of these songs contain more than mere melody; there is sounded in
them that elusive undertone, the note in music which is not heard with the ears. I
sat often with the tears rolling down my cheeks and my heart melted within me.
Any musical person who has never heard the Negro congregation under the spell
of religious fervor sing these old hymns, has missed one of the most thrilling
emotions which the human heart may experience. (Johnson 107)
In the ex-colored mans analysis of the black churchs musical tradition, he emphasizes emotion
and sensation. He makes no comment on the musicality of the black musicians; rather, he
highlights their captivating emotion and the overall spectacle of their religious passion. This
summary reflects Frederick Douglass claim that no one could hear the slave songs without
being moved by them to tears (and to opposing slavery) (quoted in Ruotolo 266). However, this
assertion suggests that racial differences could be heard in music, an idea to which most

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Americans subscribed in this time period (i.e. Only black musicians can make music with such
powerful emotion or soul) (Radano 368).
The ex-colored mans dream of publishing a classical ragtime symphony reinforces a
view of musical texts as public. Because the slave spirituals remained unwritten and thus relied
on the congregation to know the words and melodies by heart, black church music was much
more intimate and private. This private world of racialized black music contrasts sharply with
the rapidly-expanding world of music publishing in the early twentieth century (Radano 365).
White music was written down and published because it generated cultural capital and because
the white public was educated enough to read sheet music. In hoping to publish these black
church songs and ragtime songs and turn them into a classical, published text, the ex-colored
man hopes to make the private public.
The narrator chooses to wrestle with his mixed race heritage and tangentially chooses to
pursue both African American music and the European classics simultaneously. Although his
millionaire friend tells him Music is a universal art; anybodys music belongs to anybody; you
cant limit it to race or country, the narrator knows that this simply is not true (Johnson 86).
Despite his positive experiences in Europe, the narrator understands that a countrys national
identity is profoundly influenced by the music of its people. And the American people chose
ragtime. Despite its low-brow beginnings, ragtime evolved into ragtime song, which was then
essentially stolen by white composers: Several of these improvisations were taken down by
white men, the words slightly altered, and published under the names of arrangers. They sprang
into immediate popularity and earned small fortunes, of which the Negro originators got only a
few dollarsthey have a large number of white imitators and adulterators (Johnson 61). This

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appropriation of African American culture for a profit is critical to understanding the evolution of
ragtime. White publishers and musicians took every available advantage of the emotionally
authentic qualities of ragtime. Even musicians like Scott Joplin, who were lucky enough to
receive royalties for their music, did not earn nearly enough profit to sustain themselves, while
their white publishers made a living appropriating their music by printing and selling sheet music
with cover images that perpetrated racist stereotypes.
The narrator is extremely aware of the racial tensions associated with ragtime, and he
acknowledges that ragtime music has been appropriated by white American musicians. His
identity is far from solidified at this point; however, his decision to go back to his homeland is a
bold and progressive step away from the safety of his rich friend, who has supported him for
months. Ultimately, the narrators decision to return to the United States and begin composing
reflects a desire to confront his complex identity and to communicate his identity through artistic
and musical expression. He desires to share African American music with the American public
in classical form.
This idea of African American classical composers was, in fact, a reality at the turn of the
century. Musicians like Harry T. Burleigh turned their attentions to classical music rather than
the popular music of the time (Ruotolo 254). Although many black musicians were earning a
living in the theaters of New York, a few educated black musicians were able to secure spots in
music conservatories. Burleigh, for example, was accepted into the National Conservatory in
1892 (Ruotolo 254). Part of Johnsons own social circle, Burleigh was trained in both African
American and European musical traditions, learning spirituals from his mother and grandmother

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and studying classical voice and piano through the encouragement of his white employers
(Ruotolo 254).
Burleighs musical background paralleled Johnsons narrators in that both had
experience with written musical texts and unwritten musical texts. And, much like the excolored man, Burleigh attempted to cross the racial boundary with his music. Some critics argue
that Johnsons ex-colored man may be based off of Burleigh. Burleigh was extremely talented,
and earned respect from his mastery of European musical conventions (Ruotolo 255). Again,
it was only through proficiency in the white classical tradition that Burleigh earned respect as a
black musician. He even managed to gain some level of acceptance/prominence in the white
musical community (Ruotolo 255). However, Burleigh wrote and published popular songs for
Negro theater under a different name, in order to separate himself from the black community,
which was deemed illegitimate and low-brow (Ruotolo 255). In a sort of reverse passing,
Burleigh used his talents in black musical theater and vaudeville to general extra income, while
simultaneously disassociating himself from his race because he composed under a pseudonym.
He did this to protect his white reputation from being tainted. Indeed, Burleighs emerging
reputation as a serious musician would have been irreplaceably damaged if he had published
black theater music and performed the classics at the same time, under the same name (Ruotolo
255).
Much like the ex-colored man, Burleigh ultimately chose to combine white and black
forms of music in a sort of hybrid musical genre. He arranged instrumental pieces of slave
spirituals and set African American texts such as Paul Laurence Dunbars An Antebellum
Sermon to music (Ruotolo 255). Furthermore, Czech composer Antonn Dvok used

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Burleighs slave songs as themes in his Symphony of the New World, a significant musical
achievement in 1893 (Ruotolo 255). Johnsons ex-colored man ultimately chooses to pass as
white and gives up ragtime altogether in favor of the white European music that won his wife
over. By contrast, Burleigh seems to have achieved that which the ex-colored man could not: the
fusion of two very different musical traditions. But Burleigh had to demonstrate proficiency in
both traditions in order to be recognized.
Several black musicians attempted to legitimize ragtime in other ways. Scott Joplin, for
example, did not possess as much formal training in piano as the fictional ex-colored man.
However, in an effort to be taken seriously by his publishers and his predominantly white
audience, Joplin composed classic rags and named them accordingly: A Concert Rag (1904), A
Concert Waltz (1905), and James Scotts Grace and Beauty: A Classy Rag (1909).

Rose 46

Ragtime cover art changed considerably after the 1900s to reflect deracialization. Pictured above are James
Scotts Grace and Beauty (1909) and Joseph Lambs American Beauty Rag (1913).

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These rags were composed in a much grander style than the coon songs and early rags of the late
nineteenth century (Berlin 183). Scholars currently define classic ragtime as ragtime in which
artistic quality took precedence over the demands of the marketplace; a music that was composed
with integrity, seriousness, and skill that benefits a classical art (Berlin 183). Implicit in this
modern definition of classic ragtime is the notion that one type of ragtime is higher or
culturally worth more than another kind of ragtime because of the audience for which it was
intended. While composers like Scott Joplin started out as itinerant pianists, they eventually
became a major source of music for publishing companies to print and market to an educated,
largely white audience. To classify classic ragtime as essentially white ragtime that was
written to engage white audiences - which was apparently more serious than other, more
authentic forms of ragtime - is extremely problematic because it privileges the white audience
and devalues black culture.
In an attempt to address this obvious racism, the millionaire counsels the ex-colored man:
Perhaps some day, through study and observation, you will come to see that evil [racism] is a
force and we cannot annihilate it (Johnson 87). The millionaire friend suggests that the
narrator continue his education and observe the racial tensions rather than attempt to remedy
them. Yet, as with his music, the narrator cannot remain passive. Although he welcomes
education and cultural literacy, he wants to be an active participant in the solution to what he
terms the race issue (Johnson 86). And he argues that he can accomplish good for his race
through participating in the rich African American musical tradition.
Eventually, the narrator narrows the scope of his project to focus specifically on the
American Negro, in classical music form (Johnson 88). Although he claims that this quest is

Rose 48
born out of a sincere desire to voice all the joys and sorrows, the hopes and ambitions of the
American Negro, the narrators decision raises a question of cultural authenticity (Johnson 88).
The narrator makes a curious transition after his time abroad. Initially, he wants African
Americans to take pride in their musical traditions. Interestingly, it is only after his time abroad
where ragtime is somewhat less-racialized that the narrator concludes that the only way for
African American music to be preserved is to transform it into classical music. This appears to
compromise his aforementioned beliefs in cultural authenticity. The classicalization of ragtime
would certainly diminish its distinguishing characteristics namely syncopation, which wholly
captivates the narrator when he first hears it.
After the narrator chooses to pass as white, he also feels compelled to choose between
ragtime music and classical music, between the African American vernacular tradition and the
literary tradition of Europe in which he has been educated, between high-brow art and lowbrow art. The ex-colored man continues to occupy an in-between space, and he does not
come to any clear conclusion regarding his race, his identity, or his musical pursuits. After he
gives up on ragtime, he remains conflicted for the entirety of his life, unable to reconcile his
decision to deny his blackness. In this denial and his choice to pass, the ex-colored man
completely embodies white Americas theft of black music. Once he becomes white, the excolored man cannot compose or perform the ragtime symphony of his dreams because to do so
would compromise the integrity of the music. His struggle to discover his racial identity and to
establish his voice exhibits ragtimes incredibly complex history.
The ex-colored mans decision to pass must include a denial of ragtime, a key part of
his identity as a black musician. He resolves to play Chopin and Bach, the music that won him

Rose 49
the affections and respect of his white wife. But this choice is one that haunts the ex-colored
man later in life, especially after his wife dies in childbirth. He ends his narrative by voicing
these lingering doubts: Sometimes it seems to me that I have never really been a Negro at
other times I feel that I have been a coward, a deserter I cannot repress the thought, that, after
all, I have chosen the lesser part (Johnson 125).

Coda

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I first encountered ragtime music as a young child. In the evenings, my mother would
pick out Scott Joplin tunes by ear on the old upright piano in our cramped living room. My little
brothers and I crowded around the piano to listen. Sometimes we danced.
Another memory: We were on a family road trip to the Grand Canyon. We listened to
one of my moms cassette tapes of ragtime from the 1980s. The boring drive through Nebraska
was significantly more enjoyable because of the lively music that kept us awake.
As a musician, I was fascinated with ragtime piano in high school. While other piano
students studied Bach and Chopin and Mozart, I studied Scott Joplin and James Scott and Zez
Confrey. I approached ragtime piano and classical piano in the same manner that is, I sat down
at the piano with the sheet music and learned each strain(section) with great care, note by
note, measure by measure. Each syncopated melody was a puzzle, and I loved the challenge of
hitting the stride bass notes in perfect time.
As an educated, white female college student, I recognize that my approach to ragtime
piano is much different than the way ragtime was typically performed. Ragtime, as it was
originally performed, was highly improvisational. In fact, it is now considered a subgenre of
jazz rather than part of the classical tradition.
I was never allowed to perform ragtime for important performances because it simply
wasnt appropriate. Just as a vocalist wouldnt perform a top forty pop hit for a college
audition, a pianist wouldnt perform ragtime piano for a recital or audition. Ragtime just isnt
respectable enough, even after all of these years. Ive always thought it extremely unfair that

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ragtime didnt count as official repertoire simply because it wasnt composed on paper in a fancy
music conservatory by white, European male composers.
In my research for this project, Ive discovered the rich history of ragtimes roots, and the
fascinating stories of its composers, who were sons and daughters of ex-slaves. Ive traced
ragtimes musical heritage to the slave spirituals of the early nineteenth century and discovered
its soulful origins -- what W.E.B. Du Bois called the only American music which welled up
from black souls in the dark past (The Souls of Black Folk, 1903).
Ragtime embodies the racial tensions of early twentieth century America and involves
issues of physicality, emotional and cultural authenticity, and literacy. Through the study of
ragtime, we can learn about these important issues that, unfortunately, persist in modern day
America. Rap music, for example, is one area of modern American culture which continues to
experience appropriation. Rap is consumed by white America, while it continues to be an object
of commodification, a topic Greg Tate covers extensively in his fascinating collection of essays
Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture. Tate points out
that America is simultaneously captivated and repulsed by blackness. This resonates deeply
with the paradoxical popularity and criticism of ragtime that existed in the early twentieth
century.
As a white, female pianist, I will continue to wrestle with my own personal attraction to
ragtime. This project has certainly allowed me to examine the racial tensions involved with
performing ragtime music, yet I cannot hope to fully understand what it would mean to play
ragtime as it was meant to be played, without sheet music and a metronome. As part of this

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project, I performed two of my favorite Joplin rags at my senior recital on May 9th, 2015. The
entire recital program consisted of Bach, Mendelssohn, and Chopin, with the exception of the
two Joplin pieces. After my performance, I was convinced (as I had been previously) that
ragtime is almost always met with enthusiasm from the audience.
Although the rags require a greater level of energy for the performer, I have discovered
that the upbeat, syncopated melodies of ragtime always charm an audience. It truly is a music
which demands physical response. For this reason, ragtime will live on. I hope this essay will
make its readers more aware of ragtimes complex racial history and, in doing, help readers
become more aware of the many ways Americans hold on to problematic, racist attitudes towards
black music and black culture.

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Works Cited
Barnhart, Bruce. "Chronopolotics and Race, Rag-time and Symphonic Time in The
Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man" African American Review 40.3 (2006): 551-68.
Web. 1 Sept. 2014.
Berlin, Edward A. Ragtime: A Musical and Cultural History. Berkeley: U of California, 1980.
Print.
Berlin, Edward A. King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era. New York: Oxford UP, 1994.
Print.
Butler, Judith. "Passing, Queering: Nella Larsen's Psychoanalytic Challenge."Bodies That
Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "sex" New York: Routledge, 1993. 160-70. Print.
Charters, A.R. Danberg. "Negro Folk Elements in Classic Ragtime." Society for
Ethnomusicology 5.3 (1961): 174-83. Web. 2 Nov. 2014.
Du Bois, W.E. B. The Souls of Black Folk. Mineola: Dover Thrift Publications, 1994. Print.
Jasen, David A., and Trebor Jay Tichenor. Rags and Ragtime: A Musical History. Mineola:
Dover Publications, 1978. Print.
Johnson, James W. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. New York: Barnes and Noble,
2007. Print.
Kenney, William H. "James Scott and the Culture of Classic Ragtime." American Music 9.2
(1991): 149-82. Web. 21 Jan. 2014.
Owens, Imani. "Eric Walrond and the Varying Dynamics of White Patronage During the Harlem
Renaissance." The Langston Hughes Review 24 (2011): 103-09. Web. 29 Apr. 2015.
"Press Notices." The Black Perspective in Music 4.2 (1976): 264-65. Web. 21 Jan. 2014.

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Radano, Ronald. "On Ownership and Value." Black Music Research Journal - Columbia College
Chicago 30.2 (2010): 363-70. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.
Robinson, Danielle. "Performing American: Ragtime Dancing as Participatory Minstrelsy."
Dance Chronicle 32.1 (2009): 89-126. Web. 1 May 2014.
Ruotolo, Cristina L. "James Weldon Johnson and the Autobiography of an Ex-Colored
Musician." American Literature 72.2 (2000): 249-74. Web.
Tate, Greg. Everything but the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture. New
York: Broadway, 2003. Print.
Washington, Salim. "Of Black Bards, Known and Unknown: Music as Racial Metaphor in James
Weldon Johnson's "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man"" Callaloo 25.1 (2002):
233-56. Web. 1 May 2015.