History of Jazz Study Guide 1 PDF

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Summary

This is a review of all the material critical for quiz one in History of Jazz. It is a review and study guide centered around the first few weeks of material including the origin and roots of jazz...

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History of Jazz Quiz 1 Study Guide! African Music • • • • • • • • • • • • •

It wasn’t considered art but rather a part of integral daily life! Used in a variety of ways (political social economical religious historical communication) ! Jim Koetting and america musicologist recorded postal workers sorting mail and singing! Idiophones: the sound is produced by being shaken or beat! Membranophones: stretched skin! Chordophones: vibrating string or ligament ! Aerophones: vibrating column of air (Flute)! Instruments used in a percussive manner both vocally and instrumentally ! Most common form is antiphonal or call and response ! Rhythm most important musical element! Deemed primitive because melody and harmony was less important. ! The music is diatonic (white notes) with blue notes (3rd and 7th flatted) ! Heterophony: different sounding, ind voice important. Improv is important!

African American Music • • • • • • • • •

Similar to African Music ! Ad hoc instrumentation (washboard and tub etc) or homemade instruments! A lack of drumming because of slaveholders ! Form: Antiphonal song form ! Song types: spiritual, work song, field holler, street cry, ring shout ! Scale: use of blues notes and flexibility of pitch while using both diatonic and pentatonic scales! Used much heterophony too! Rhythm is still most important ! Use of syncopation is resulted from attempts by musicians to reconcile rhythms of western music vs the African rhythms !

Blues •

Two types: Rural (country) or City (urban) blues with Classical blues as a subset of city blues! Rural

City

Black folk society!

City society

South

North!

Three contexts 1. Singing for themselves or friends 2. Blind and otherwise disabled blues singers 3. Slightly commercial performers working picnics etc

Professional blues singers found in night clubs bars and social affairs.

Usually men

Originally were women but later men and women

In group directed

Audience directed

• • •

Rural

City

Broader variety of subjects

Often sex oriented

Songs about boll weevils, drought crops etc

Going about bed bugs, roaches rats the block etc

Bad diction

Sophisticated speech

Bleek austere but threaded with hope

Hard cruel hopeless

Stringing together of stock phrases often unrelated

Emphasis that lyrics tell the story

Rough style

Smooth and theatrical

Harsh and raw

Diverse and conflicting elements of black music but with smooth performance

Improvised

Standardized and formalized

Free form

Classic 6,8 or 12 measure form

Use of pedal form and indefinite rate of change

Standard blue changes I IV I V IV I

Unaccompanied voice or solo with guitar and ad hoc instruments

Instrumentation with conventional instruments

Spontaneous expression of thought and mood

Written material formal orchestration

Structural elaboration is usually accidental

More elaborate structures like tags modulations etc

Melody straight

Melody varies

Crude rhythms

sophisticated rhythms

Scale choices relatively limited (blues pentatonic major)

Greater scale choices blues, pentatonic, diminished etc

Greater use of vocal ornamentation for personalizations (growls and slides)

Stricter vocal tequnique

Solo or ad hoc instruments

Groups were organized

Usually in group black

More readily acceptable and adapted by white world

“Memphis Blues” first published word in title with blue in it in 1912 but it wasn’t actually a blues song! The first actual blues song with blues in the title was “Dallas blues” by Hart in that same year of 1912! Form length: 12 bar blues !

Syncopation and Ragtime • • • • • • • • • • •

Very first rag published was “The Mississippi Rag” in 1897 by white man William H Krell! Multi theme music very repeated ! Emphasis on the off beats ! Left hand was supported but never syncopated! Meant to be played the same way each time ! It was very hip! First African American Music to achieve widespread popularity and commercial distribution ! Piano music! Key players: Scott Joplin/James Reese Europe! Centered around city life/ Hight of popularity was 1900-1920!

Stride and BoogieWoogie • • • • • • • •

Main characters in stride: James P Johnson/Willie the Lion Smith/Fats Weller! Stride plays a bass note then an accompanying cord with a boom chick style ! Commonalities between both of them: Very active left hand, solo piano playing, willing to play both styles ! BoogieWoogie Main Characters: Pinetop Smith/Jimmy Yancey/Meade Lux Lewis/Albert Ammons! Albert and Meade performed at carnage hall and started the boogie-woogie craze in America ! Based off the house rent party ! Pinetop recorded the first piece with boogie-woogie in the title called “Pinetops boogiewoogie” in 1928 ! Characteristics of boogie-woogie: born in gin mills, house rent parties etc/not much music subtly/emphasis on rhythm/left hand still never varied/rhythm and color really important !

Big Firsts to remember: • • • • • •

First African American Band to make recordings: James Reese Europe in 1913! First African American singer to make a record: Mamie Smith ! First person to record a blues: Mamie Smith! First published rag: William H Krell “The Mississippi rag” 1897! First published blues: Memphis blues which isn’t actually a blues but Dallas Blues is ! First recorded boogie-woogie: Pinetop Smith !...