What is "ragtime"

Ragtime \Rag"time`\, n. (Mus.) a rhythm with a regular accompaniment in two-four time and a melody characterized by syncopation, first recognized in many negro melodies; also a style of American music in this rhythm.

also rag-time, "syncopated, jazzy piano music," 1897, perhaps from rag "dance ball" (1895, American English dialect), or a shortening of ragged, in reference to the syncopated melody. Rag (n.) "ragtime dance tune" is from 1899.\n\nIf rag-time was called tempo di raga or rague-temps it might win honor more speedily. ... What the derivation of the word is[,] I have not the faintest idea. The negroes call their clog-dancing "ragging" and the dance a "rag." [Rupert Hughes, Boston "Musical Record," April 1900]\n

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\nConceive the futility of trying to reduce the intangible ragness to a strict system of misbegotten grace notes and untimely rests! In attempting to perfect, and simplify, art is destroying the unhampered spirit in which consists the whole beauty of rag-time music. The very essence of rag-time is that it shall lack all art, depending for the spirit to be infused more upon the performer than upon the composer himself. ["Yale Literary Magazine," June, 1899]\n

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\nHer first "rag-time" was "The Bully," in which she made great sport by bringing a little coloured boy on the stage with her. Miss [May] Irwin says the way to learn to sing "rag-time" is to catch a negro and study him.

[Lewis C. Strang, "Famous Actresses of the Day in America," Boston, 1899]

n. 1 (context music uncountable English) A musical form having a rhythm characterized by strong syncopation in the melody with a regularly accented accompaniment. 2 (context music countable English) A piece of music in this style.

n. music with a syncopated melody (usually for the piano) [syn: rag]

Ragtime is a style of music.

Other uses of the word ragtime include:

• Ragtime (novel) (1975), by E. L. Doctorow
• Ragtime (film) (1981), based on the novel
• Ragtime (musical) (1998), based on the novel
• Ragtime (TV series) (1973–1975), a BBC television series for children
• "Ragtime", a song by Brand Nubian from their 1990 album One for All
• Ragtime (I), first ballet by George Balanchine of the same title to Stravinsky's eponymous music
• Ragtime (II), second ballet by George Balanchine of the same title to Stravinsky's music
• Ragtime (code name), four secret surveillance programs of the NSA

Ragtime is a 1981 American drama film, directed by Miloš Forman, based on 1975 historical novel Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow. The action takes place in and around New York City, New Rochelle, and Atlantic City early in the 1900s, including fictionalized references to actual people and events of the time. The film features the final film appearances of James Cagney and Pat O'Brien; early appearances, in small parts, by Samuel L. Jackson, Jeff Daniels, Fran Drescher, Ethan Phillips and John Ratzenberger; and an uncredited appearance from Jack Nicholson. The music score was composed by Randy Newman. The film was nominated for eight Oscars.

Ragtime (II) is the third ballet made by New York City Ballet's co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine to Igor Stravinsky's Ragtime for Eleven Instruments (1918). The premiere took place on July 15, 1966, at Philharmonic Hall, New York. The first City Ballet performance was on January 17, 1967, at New York State Theater, Lincoln Center. The previous ballets made to Stravinsky's Ragtime were Ragtime (I) for City Ballet in 1960 and one of a number of "informal little things" made in St. Petersburg in 1922.

Ragtime – also spelled rag-time or rag time – is a musical genre that enjoyed its peak popularity between 1895 and 1918. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated, or "ragged", rhythm. The genre has its origins in African-American communities like St. Louis years before being published as popular sheet music for piano. Ernest Hogan (1865–1909) was a pioneer of ragtime music and was the first to compose ragtime into sheet music. The composition was called "LA Pas Ma LA" and it was released in 1895. Hogan has also been credited for coining the term ragtime. The term is actually derived from his hometown "Shake Rag " in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Ben Harney, who is also a Kentucky native has often been credited for introducing the music to the mainstream public. His first ragtime composition "You've been a good old wagon but you done broke" helped popularize the musical genre. The composition was published in 1895 but released in 1896. Ragtime was also a modification of the march made popular by John Philip Sousa, with additional polyrhythms coming from African music. The ragtime composer Scott Joplin (ca. 1868–1917) became famous through the publication of the " Maple Leaf Rag" (1899) and a string of ragtime hits such as " The Entertainer" (1902), although he was later forgotten by all but a small, dedicated community of ragtime aficionados until the major ragtime revival in the early 1970s. For at least 12 years after its publication, "Maple Leaf Rag" heavily influenced subsequent ragtime composers with its melody lines, harmonic progressions or metric patterns.

Ragtime fell out of favor as jazz claimed the public's imagination after 1917, but there have been numerous revivals since the music has been re-discovered. First in the early 1940s, many jazz bands began to include ragtime in their repertoire and put out ragtime recordings on 78 rpm records. A more significant revival occurred in the 1950s as a wider variety of ragtime styles of the past were made available on records, and new rags were composed, published, and recorded. In 1971 Joshua Rifkin brought out a compilation of Joplin's work which was nominated for a Grammy Award. In 1973 The New England Ragtime Ensemble (then a student group called The New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble) recorded The Red Back Book, a compilation of some of Joplin's rags in period orchestrations edited by conservatory president Gunther Schuller. This also won a Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance of the year and was named Billboard's Top Classical Album of 1974. Subsequently, the motion picture The Sting (1973) brought ragtime to a wide audience with its soundtrack of Joplin tunes. The film's rendering of "The Entertainer", adapted and orchestrated by Marvin Hamlisch, was a Top 5 hit in 1974.

Ragtime – with Joplin's work at the forefront – has been cited as an American equivalent of the minuets of Mozart, the mazurkas of Chopin, or the waltzes of Brahms. Ragtime also influenced classical composers including Erik Satie, Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky.

Ragtime is a novel by E. L. Doctorow, published in 1975. This work of historical fiction is mainly set in the New York City area from 1902 until 1912, with brief scenes towards the end describing the United States entry into World War I in 1917. A unique adaptation of the historical narrative genre with a subversive 1970's slant, the novel blends fictional and historical figures into a framework that revolves around events, characters and ideas important in American history.

In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Ragtime number 86 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005.

Ragtime was a children's television series created by Michael Cole and presented by Maggie Henderson and Fred Harris. The programmes featured play with words, songs, stories and puppets. Puppets made by Joanne Cole emerged from the green Ragtime Bag, including wooden spoons with faces drawn on them. These were named Mr Porridge, Mr Curry, Mr Jelly, Miss Sponge, Mrs Custard, Uncle Casserole and Mrs Ragamuffin. Other puppet regulars included Dax and Sniff (both dogs), Humbug the tiger and Bubble, a cushion-shaped toy.

The music was provided by Peter Gosling and Dave Moses.

In 1973 the series won a Society of Film and Television Award (later known as a BAFTA) for Best Children's Programme.

Although a book and record were produced at the time, no episodes are currently available on DVD. Only eight of the twenty six episodes remain in the BBC's archive, due to a decision in the early 1990s to wipe the master tapes of many 1970s children's programmes 1.

Ragtime (I) is the second of three ballets made by New York City Ballet's co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine to Igor Stravinsky's 1918 Ragtime for Eleven Instruments; with scenery by Robert Drew previously used for Lew Christensen's 1947 work for Ballet Society, Blackface; costumes by Karinska and lighting by David Hays. The premiere took place on December 7, 1960, at City Center of Music and Drama, conducted by Robert Irving, as part of a quartet of works titled Jazz Concert, together with dances by Todd Bolender's Creation of the World, Francisco Moncion's Les Biches and John Taras' Ebony Concerto. Balanchine's 1966 Ragtime (II) was also made for City Ballet; his previous ballet to Stravinsky's Ragtime was one of a number of "informal little things" made in St. Petersburg in 1922.

Ragtime is a musical with a book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and music by Stephen Flaherty. The music includes marches, cakewalks, gospel and ragtime.

Based on the 1975 novel by E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime tells the story of three groups in the United States in the early 20th century: African Americans, represented by Coalhouse Walker Jr., a Harlem musician; upper-class suburbanites, represented by Mother, the matriarch of a white upper-class family in New Rochelle, New York; and Eastern European immigrants, represented by Tateh, a Jewish immigrant from Latvia.

Historical figures including Harry Houdini, Evelyn Nesbit, Booker T. Washington, J. P. Morgan, Henry Ford, Stanford White, Harry Kendall Thaw, Admiral Peary, Matthew Henson, and Emma Goldman are represented in the stories.

Ragtime or RAGTIME is the code name of four secret surveillance programs conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States. These programs date back to at least 2002 and were revealed in March 2013 in the book "Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry", by Marc Ambinder and D.B. Grady.

These special programs are conducted under the code name RAGTIME (also abbreviated as RT), and are divided into several subcomponents. It's said that about 50 companies have provided data to this domestic collection program.

RAGTIME consists of four parts: RAGTIME-A, RAGTIME-B, RAGTIME-C, and RAGTIME-P.

According to the book Deep State, only about three dozen NSA officials have access to RAGTIME's intercept data on domestic counter-terrorism collection, though outside the agency some 1000 people have knowledge of the program's details. Internally, the NSA has a compliance staff of about four or five people to ensure the program stays within laws and regulations.

Under the RAGTIME-P program, the FISA court and the US Attorney General both certify a slate of approved targets, which include bulk data, like phone call logs and records that can be collected around those targets. Apparently, RAGTIME-P can process as many as 50 different data sets at one time.

All intercepted data go to the NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, where a program called XKeyscore processes them and sending them to different so-called "production lines" that deal with targets, like counterterrorism or specific countries. These processed data are stored in different NSA databases like PINWALE for internet content and MARINA for internet metadata, which is generally stored for five years.

Originally, RAGTIME only applied to NSA Establishment FISA data, but in 2002 this was changed and since then the program encompasses both NSA Establishment FISA and FBI FISA data. According to Marc Ambinder, RAGTIME refers to phonecall and e-mail content intercepted under FISA authority.

RagTime is a frame-oriented business publishing software which combines word processing, spreadsheets, simple drawings, image processing, and charts, in a single document/program. It is often used to create forms, reports, documentation, desktop publishing, and in office environments. Typical users are business clients, educational institutions, administrations, architects, and also private users.

In the current version the software includes the following modules:

• Page layout (forms, templates etc.)
• Word processing
• Image processing
• Spreadsheets, similar to Microsoft Excel
• Formulas and functions which can be used throughout, in text, graphics, and spreadsheets
• Charts in different types of diagrams
• Drawings in vector graphics including lines, polygons, Bézier curves and more
• Slide show (presentation of RagTime documents)
• Audio/Video
• Buttons (pop-up menus, switches, and more) that can be used within RagTime documents