Fundamentals of Music

MUSC 2133 

MUSIC HISTORY

 

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Music Dictionary  

 

 

Our popular music in America came from either Europe (mostly English pubs and Irish folksongs) or Africa (mostly West Africa as a result of the slave trade).

We specify "mostly West Africa" because to lump all of Africa together and discuss "African music" would be even tougher than trying to talk about "American music" and including all of North, Central, and South America in the discussion!!

West African drummers

 

African music has profoundly affected our popular music.

We can categorize these influences into

 

1.  Blue Notes

"flattened" tones of the scale; particularly the 3rd and 7th scale degrees

2.  Unique tone a rougher texture, both vocally and instrumentally
3.  Motor Rhythmdriving rhythms, steady beats
4.  Syncopationdisplacing the regular accents in music
5.  Swing feelingthe basic feel of long - short - long - short, instead of equal note values
6.  Improvisationmaking up the music as it is played (or sung)

 

Here is a good representation of the development of early jazz.  Feel free to explore the links.

Jazz Roots

 

 

RAGTIME

 

Scott Joplin 

Scott Joplin 1868-1917

The "King of Ragtime"

 

Scott Joplin composed music in a form similar to marches. 

Listen to John Phillip Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever

 

Notice how each section is repeated and then there is a new section? 

Now listen to Joplin's Maple Street Rag - same deal!

 

The syncopated rhythms were referred to as “ragged time,” which was eventually shortened to - you guessed it - Ragtime.

Rags (shortened again) became very popular

                                                                                                                                 

He made a modest living as a composer during his lifetime. 

The big awards came much later.

1973:  An academy award for Best Film Score (Joplin's original music)  in the movie The StingAcademy Award

1976:  A Pulitzer Prize for his opera Treemonisha (the first opera ever Pulitzer Awardcomposed by an African American)

 

 

 

 

 

THE BLUES

 

You can follow the link below to learn about "blues songs". 

 

The Blues

 

Here is a blues song that shows you the 3 chords used. (Right click the image and choose play from the dropdown menu)

Sweet Home Chicago

 

12-bar blues form is used in country and rock songs also.  It's everywhere!!

Led Zeppelin

 

Now try some interactive composition!

Interactive Desktop Blues

 

Here's an example of the blues form:

 

I'm gonna lay my head on some lonesome railroad line. (make a statement)

I'm gonna lay my head on some lonesome railroad line. (say it again)

And let that 5:15 train pacify my mind. (add a punchline and make sure the last word rhymes)

 

 

You can even compose your own blues song (no music, just words). 

 

 

Click on the example below to hear how your blues song could sound. 

Choose Kansas City Blues from the videos on the page.

 

 

 

The first recording  by  a black singer was made in 1920 by Mamie Smith singing "Crazy Blues."

 

Bessie Smith (not to be confused with Mamie Smith) became famous in the 1920's and was called

 

"The Empress of the Blues."

 

 

Here are some of the Blues Greats.

 

 

NEW ORLEANS JAZZ

 

When we think of New Orleans, we think of Dixieland Jazz.  Where did that term originate?

Here's the story:

Maryland and Pennsylvania had a border dispute, so two guys named Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon were hired to survey the land in order to establish an official border.  The survey was complete in 1767.

The line became known as Mason's and Dixon's Line.

 

It was gradually shortened to Mason-Dixon Line.

 

This line came to be considered the unofficial boundary between the "North" and the "South" and the "South" came to be known as

"Dixon-land" and then eventually "Dixieland" and then just "Dixie."

 

 

Follow the link below to learn about New Orleans Jazz. 

New Orleans Jazz

 

 

Ken Burns on New Orleans after the hurricane

Watch

 

 

CHICAGO JAZZ

 

He claimed to be the inventor of jazz.

Jelly Roll Morton (1890-1941)

From New Orleans, Jelly Roll came to Chicago in 1923.

He represents the culmination of the New Orleans jazz style and was a transitional figure into jazz piano styles.

Black Bottom Stomp  listen

 

Links to more music (optional)

http://redhotjazz.com/jellyroll.html

 

 

 

  

Louis Armstrong (1901-1971)

"Satchmo"

founder of "hot jazz"

Follow the link below to learn about Louis Armstrong.

Louis Armstrong

West End Blues   listen

 

 

Photograph:Bix Beiderbecke 

The first major influential white jazz artist.

Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931)

founder of "cool jazz"

Singin' the Blues  listen

 

 

 

 

BIG BAND JAZZ

 

1935-1945

 

Glen Miller Band

 

The only time when jazz was the most popular music in the country

and (naturally) the most commercially successful.

 $ $ $

 

They

called

it The

Swing

Era

 

 

 

 

Then:  Swing dancing  watch  watch

 

Now:  Last year's finalists watch

 

Makes me tired just to watch . . .

 

BIG

 BAND

LEADERS

 

Fletcher Henderson  Wrappin' It Up  listen

Count Basie  Doggin' Around  listen

Duke Ellington  East St. Louis Toodle-Oo  listen

Glenn Miller  In the Mood  listen

Bennie Goodman

Tommy Dorsey

Artie Shaw

Woody Herman

 

Swing music and the Big Bands were significantly affected by 3 political realities:

  1. Many band members went overseas during World War II

  2. Also because of World War II, gas rationing curtailed bands from touring

  3. Musician's union strikes crippled the recording industry for a time

Read this 1942 article from Down Beat magazine

 

 

 

Jazz moved on to Bebop, and the smaller combos plus singers, like Frank Sinatra,

 

became the most popular style in the late 40's and remained so until Rock 'n' Roll.

 

 

AFTER SWING

 

BEBOP

 

1945-1955         East Coast

 

 

"bebop" was a scat word that described a quick two-note phrase

 

Bebop (as a style of jazz) was usually very fast, technical, and complex - difficult to play . . . impossible to dance to!

 

Bebop was more for the musicians than the audience. 

Audiences wanted smooth, danceable tunes. 

The musicians loved to cut loose on improvisations without so many restrictions.

 

The best of these musicians were truly virtuosic.

 

But . . .

 

Jazz became less commercial.

 

Dizzy Gillespie

Dizzy Gillespie

(1917-1993)

Thelonious Monk

(1917-1982)

Charlie "Bird" Parker

(1920-1955)

KoKo   listen

 

 

 

 

COOL JAZZ

 

1949-1955           West Coast

 

Cool jazz was a reaction to Bebop.

 

(You remember the earlier versions of "Hot Jazz" and "Cool Jazz")

 

Dave Brubeck 

Take Five   listen

This song is unusual in that the beats are in groups of 5 instead of the most common grouping of 4

Hence the name of the song!!

Try counting to 5 over and over as you listen to get the feel of the meter.

 

This is the best-selling jazz single of all time.

Guess that makes it pretty popular!

Dave Brubeck

(1920-    )

 

 

 

 

FUNKY JAZZ

 

Your textbook calls it  "a jazz version of the prevailing rhythm and blues style in the 1950s."

 

 

 horace.jpg (17786 bytes)

Art Blakey

(1919-1990)

Goldie  Watch

 

Horace Silver

(1917-1993)

Senor Blues Watch

 

 

 

 

 

BOSSA NOVA

 

1958-1963

 

Bossa Nova was a combination of Cool Jazz and Brazilian influences like the samba.

 

 

 

Girl From Ipanema   listen

Stan Getz

(1927-1991)

 

Charlie Byrd

(1925-1999)

 

 

 

 

 

JAZZ-ROCK FUSION

 

 

 

Miles Davis Poster by Herman Leonard

 

 

Miles Davis was a very influential figure in legitimizing rock elements in the minds of the artists within the jazz genre.

 

If it was ok with Miles,

it must be ok

image id: black music / jazz / herbie hancock / herbiehancock_bm

Miles Davis

(1926-1991)

 

Herbie Hancock

(1940-    )

Watermelon Man  listen

 

 

 

 

 

FREE JAZZ

 

 

 

 

Free Jazz   listen

 

Coleman's album

Free Jazz:  A Collective Improvisation

was both innovative and controversial

 

and provided the name for this type of experimental jazz

less structured and more dissonant than any other type of jazz

 

(Be sure and look up a definition for "dissonant")

 

Ornette Coleman

(1930-   )

 

 

There's no place to go from here!!

Jazz went from enjoying the largest share of the popular audience in the

Swing Era to losing most of its audience as it became more and more experimental, culminating in Free Jazz

 

 

 

but you can still hear all of the styles of jazz played today.

Which is your favorite?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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