Ragtime

This post is from cast member and composer James Stewart. James has returned for his third year as a member of Open Dream and his fourth season as a composer for the ensemble. James Stewart and Joshua Morgan collaborated on the music for Dream Machines. Some of it is influenced by ragtime, hence the research below. Dream Machines is set in 1903 as Wilbur and Orville Wright unravel the mystery of flight.

Ragtime was developed primarily in the saloons of the southeast during the 1890's.

At the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 a ragtime fraternity was formed, bringing the music out of the bars and into the concert halls.
Scott Joplin, famous for "Maple Leaf Rag" and "The Entertainer", led a small orchestra that played during the fair. Joplin had been playing ragtime music professionally since 1882 when he was only 14 years old!

In 1897,"Mississippi Rag" by composer, Tom Turpin, marked the first rag that was published and widely available. At the time of the Wright Brother's flight experiments, ragtime was well established as an American musical art form.

Thus, this style of music is influencing the development of our music for Dream Machines.