It's said that ragtime composer Scott Joplin was born on today's date in 1868 in Texarkana, Texas.* His family played the banjo, violin, and guitar, but little Scott was fascinated by the piano in a neighbor's house.

Joplin's father bought an upright for his son, and some German musicians in Texas taught him the European classics. By age 17, Joplin was proficient enough to play piano on the road and ended up performing in the honky-tonks of St. Louis. In 1894, Joplin moved to Sedalia, Missouri, where he began to write original music while performing at a place called the Maple Leaf Club, which was to lend its name to his most famous piece, the "Maple Leaf Rag."

Scott Kirby, a contemporary composer of ragtime music, shares Joplin's first name. Born in Urbana, Ohio, Scott Kirby lived and worked for a time in New Orleans. In addition to performing the classic rags of Joplin and the New Orleans romantic composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Scott Kirby composes brand-new rags in a style he calls "Terra Verde."

"Terre Verde," says Kirby, "is a contemporary cousin of New Ragtime with roots in a wide variety of American ethnic music, as well as strong ties to European Romantics of the 19th century, such as Chopin and Schumann."

* Although for many years Joplin's birth date was accepted as November 24, 1868, more recent research has revealed that this is almost certainly inaccurate – the most likely approximate date being the second half of 1867. And it's also uncertain exactly where he was born!