Sedalia Sacred Heart students learn about city’s ragtime legacy
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Several young students of Sacred Heart School in Sedalia bobbed back and forth to the bouncy beat of Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag.”
They couldn’t help it. The music and hypnotic rhythm were having the same effect they’d had when Mr. Joplin first performed the piece in 1899.
He did so in Sedalia’s Maple Leaf Club, forever cementing his legacy as the King of Ragtime and the city’s as the Cradle of Ragtime.
“How many of you have heard the word Ragtime?” internationally renowned ragtime pianist Adam Swanson asked the rows of children seated on the floor of the school’s Fr. Hoying Gymnasium.
Most hands shot up.
“Nearly all of you!” said Mr. Swanson. “I’m not surprised, because you live in Sedalia, Missouri.”
He told them that their hometown was very instrumental in the history of American music.
“What most people don’t know is that ragtime is the first truly original American music,” Mr. Swanson stated. “And all other types of music came from ragtime in one way or another.”
Blues, jazz, rock ’n roll, virtually every American musical genre can be traced back to ragtime.
“And the greatest ragtime composer, Scott Joplin, lived here in Sedalia, and he made that piece, the ‘Maple Leaf Rag’ at the Maple Leaf Club,” the performer stated.
Mr. Swanson was the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Foundation’s 2025 artist in residence.
He spent a week in town, visiting and performing at numerous schools and several homes for older adults.
“Let’s get the music going!” he said as he launched into virtuosic renderings of piano pieces by Joplin and his contemporaries.
Joplin, who was African American, was trained in classical European musical theory and composition, allowing him to meld provocative melodies and beautiful chords with African-style syncopated rhythms that give ragtime its signature “bounce.”
“You’re all a great audience!” Mr. Swanson told the children at Sacred Heart, reminding them that “it’s equally important to listen to music as it is to play it.”
The kids delighted in belting out the phrase “Hold that tiger!” with admirable pitch and volume as Mr. Swanson played “The Tiger Rag.”
That piece gets frequent play by the University of Missouri marching band during Mizzou Tiger athletic events.
“I’ve done that song many times this week,” said Mr. Swanson. “The kids all love it.”
Having performed at his first Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival in Sedalia 20 years ago at age 12, Mr. Swanson told the children that he’d been playing piano longer than they’d been alive.
He told them how he heard the “Maple Leaf Rag” when he was 11, making him an instant fan of the upbeat music with its sophisticated rhythm.
With syncopation, the rhythm systematically overlaps the melody the way bricks overlap each other on a wall.
“And then I got to meet all these famous piano players who helped teach me how to do it,” he said.
There are many things he loves about playing ragtime piano, “but one of my favorite things about it is that I get to go all over the world, and I have traveled all over the country,” he said.
He’s performed in all 48 states in the continental United States, done four tours of Europe and given concerts in Australia.
“And so, by playing the piano, I get to meet amazing people and go all over the world,” he said.
Another thing he loves about the music is that “it’s very happy and joyful and it makes you feel good,” he said.
It would be too hard for him to identify one favorite piece of music, because he can play between 850 and 900 pieces flawlessly from memory.
“I have a good memory for some things but not for other things!” he acknowledged.
He didn’t learn to play by ear like some keyboard wizards.
“I took piano lessons from very good teachers for many years,” he said.
He performed for the children a rollicking version of W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues,” after which that city’s NHL hockey team is named.
Sacred Heart was one of the last schools in Sedalia Mr. Swanson got to visit as an artist in residence.
“It’s been a very interesting experience for me to try to figure out how to explain this music to young children — basically getting back to the basics.”
He noticed how well behaved and attentive his audience of young Gremlins were.
“I’m very impressed, and they seemed to love it,” he said.
For those who get bitten by the ragtime bug, he suggested attending concerts and listening to recordings of the music.
Some might want to take up piano themselves.
“And I had to take classical piano lessons, which maybe isn’t as much fun,” he said. “But if you find a good teacher with an open mind, they might let you do some ragtime, too!”
