Treemonisha: Encyclopedia II - Treemonisha - Inspiration

Treemonisha - Inspiration

Joplin's desire in writing Treemonisha was to make it both serious, like the European opera, as well as entertaining, drawing on the ragtime idiom only in the dance episodes of the story ^[15].

There has been speculation that the inspiration for Treemonisha may have come from Joplin's second wife, Freddie Alexander ^[16]. Like the title character, Alexander was educated, well-read and known to be a proponent of women's rights and African-American culture ^[17]. The fact that Joplin set the work in September 1884, the month and year of Alexander's birth, has added some weight to that theory.

Joplin biographer Edward A. Berlin, has stated that Treemonisha may have mirrored details from Joplin's own life. Specifically, that Joplin taught himself music fundamentals on a piano in the white home where his mother worked, just as in the opera, the title character receives her education in a white woman's home ^[18].

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Inspiration", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki