Introduction
After the Titanic hit the iceberg, Wallace Hartley and his band got together in the first-class lounge on 'A' deck. They played ragtime music to keep passengers calm as they boarded the lifeboats. Some people remember them playing the popular tune Alexander's Ragtime Band, and Scott Joplin's Elite Syncopations. Finally, the musicians played on the boat deck as the lifeboats were lowered.

The repertoire of the Titanic's band included Ragtime and Cakewalks, extremely popular both in Europe and the United States.

The Cakewalk was a funny and very popular Edwardian Ballroom dance, originally invented by African Americans. The French composer Debussy included a cakewalk in his piano music , and music played by the Titanic band included a 'Comic Cakewalk' by Volstred.

During the American Civil War, marching music by composers like Sousa became very popular, as it helped soldiers to keep in step. However, African pianists played popular march tunes with a looser, jazzier (syncopated) feel. People began to grumble that it was impossible to march to this ragged-sounding music, and the name 'ragtime' stuck.

Soon, this lively music became so popular that everyone wanted to dance to it. Dances with strange names, like 'Turkey trot' and 'Grizzly Bear' were performed to Ragtime tunes all across the USA

The White Star Song Book included several arrangements of ragtime pieces by Scott Joplin and others

Listen to some of his best-known piano rags at Warren Trachtman's ragtime site.

Activity 1

• Open the Wreck of the Titanic CD Rom
• Visit Dinner and Dance -The Iceberg> Ragtime
• Follow the hyperlink to open Compose World Junior. The following screen should appear:

• The pictures represent the titles of Scott Joplin piano rags (left to right: reflection rag, palm leaf rag, leaping rag, maple leaf rag, sugar cane rag, pineapple rag, magnetic rag, gladiolus rag, heliotrope rag). Children could listen to most of these at Warren Trachtman's Ragtime site (see above)
• Each picture links with musical phrase in ragtime style. Click on each picture to listen
• Drag and drop pictures onto squares in the grid to create melodies. Consider which phrases suggest beginnings/endings etc
• To increase/decrease the number of squares in the grid, go to: view>sequence/options
• Children might create their own ragtime compositions, exploring simple musical forms
• Encourage children to think of a name for their ragtime compositions. Can they design a cover for their music (see cover to Maple Leaf rag)
• Compose your own selection of ragtime tunes to be performed during dinner.

Bathtime Rag

Although many of the first class suites had their own baths, there were only two baths for all the third class passengers!

• Compose a 'bathtime' rag using another Compose World Junior ragtime file.


• Open Compose World Junior>File>Open>Melody>Bathtime


• Using the 'bathtime' file, compose a' Bathtime Rag' in Sonata form. You need to put together two sections of music.


• The first section (A) is repeated.


• This is followed by a different musical idea (B).


• Finally the piece finishes with the A music again. Here is an example based on the bathtime file

Children could go on to create their own dances influenced by ragtime and cakewalk.

Teachers can view dance styles of the Ragtime era