The other facts about Scott Joplin will be explained below. Facts about Scott Joplin 1: Early age Scott Joplin learned music at the early age because his parents were musicians. By 1907, Joplin had settled in New York to work on securing funding for another opera he had created, Treemonisha, a multi-genre theatrical project which told the story of a rural African-American community near Texarkana. His best-known works include Maple Leaf Rag and The Entertainer, the latter of which was very much Joplins theme tune. To make sure he got the most out of future works, he would go on to form his own publishing company in 1913 with his third wife. By 1916, Joplin had a serious illness. Scotts childhood was not an easy one as he was a child of a broken home. The opera, a celebration of African American culture, combines the Romanticism of the early 20th century with Black folk song tradition. Treemonisha, sometimes erroneously referred to as a ragtime opera, was never staged during Joplins lifetime only being confirmed in its entirety in 1972, by the Houston Grand Opera. In 1976, Joplin was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize. Scott stayed in Missouri for some time and then later he decided to settle down there permanently in 1904. He went to Chicago to perform at the World's Fair of 1893, which played a major part in making ragtime a national craze by 1897. The piece was copyrighted December 29, 1902; copies were received by the Copyright Office, January 8, 1903. Take a minute to check out all the enhancements! At first, sales were disappointing. Piano Concerto No.1 in Bb minor Opus 23 (1), Download 'Piano Concerto No.1 in Bb minor Opus 23 (1)' on iTunes. This was the beginning of a successful run of top charting ragtime publications, starting off with the first two of Joplins songs called Please Say You Will, andA Picture of her Face. From the mid-1880s, he traveled through the Midwest, performing at the Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Email ID. The bundle of joy in the form of a boy Scott Joplin was born to a Texan family on the 24th of November 1868. While a few local teachers aided him, he received most of his musical education from Julius Weiss, a German-born American Jewish music professor who had immigrated to Texas in the late 1860s and was employed as music tutor by a prominent local business family.