The Emergence of Black Music Chapter 3 Kristy Gualdoni and Elizabeth Beauchamp
Dec 28, 2015
The Emergence of Black Music
Chapter 3Kristy Gualdoni and Elizabeth Beauchamp
Styles Discussed
• Ragtime
• Syncopated Dance
• Blues
• Jazz
Ragtime
• A popular style at the turn of the twentieth century that mixed European forms, harmony, and textures with African-inspired syncopation. Ragtime began as a piano music, but soon the term was applied to any music-song and dance as well as piano music-that had some syncopation.
History of Ragtime
• Ragtime emerged in the years following the Civil War, but not published until the 1890s.
• They named the syncopated style “ragtime” towards the end of the century.
• Ragtime opened the eyes of white Americans to African American music.
• White Americans were able to start playing African American music because it was finally printed in sheet form, which made it accessible to everybody.
Scott Joplin
• Had first commercially successful piano rag, “Maple Leaf Rag” in 1899.
• Spent most of his life composing music and trying to validate ragtime.
• “Maple Leaf Rag”
Ragtime Enters Popular Culture
• By the 1900s, Ragtime was spreading across the country, but was not widely accepted.
• Some serious musicians tried to degrade ragtime and the musicians who wrote it.
The Legacy of Ragtime
• Ragtime marks the first time African American music was written down instead of passed down through oral traditions.
• It changed popular music and paved the way for jazz and other African styles.
Syncopated Dance Music
• 1905-1925
• Basically ragtime music that has been changed to allow more dancing to take place.
• Milestone in popularizing black music and a step toward equality.
Ragtime Dance
• People started creating new dances to replace the cakewalk like the animal dances.
• These dances were rejected by respectable people because they were said to be trashy.
• “The Grizzly Bear”
• Some animal dances include, the grizzly bear, chicken glide, and the turkey trot.
James Reese Europe and the Foxtrot
• “Castle House Rag” • Europe organized the first rag orchestra for African American musicians and changed the concept of ragtime entirely.
• Europe’s ragtime has a faster tempo, less syncopation and less ‘ragged’ melodies, and gave the chance for improvisation.
Commercial and Classic Blues
• An umbrella term for blues styles performed by professional entertainers during the first part of the twentieth century, as opposed to folk or country blues
• The popular blues style of the 1920s, which typically featured a woman singing the blues accompanied by one or more jazz musicians.
First Professional Blues Musicians
• Blues started in the South mainly by blacks for blacks in the early 1900s.
• After moving North and to urban areas, the blues become more widespread.
• Most blues singers were women.
The First Published Blues Songs
• He is the self-proclaimed “Father of Blues.”
• W.C. Handy was one of the first to publish blues sheet music.
• “Memphis Blues” and “St. Louis Blues” were two very popular blues songs recorded in the 1910s.
• “St. Louis Blues”
Bessie Smith
• Smith changed everything about the blues with the release of “Crazy Blues” in 1920 because she sang.
• Smith was accompanied by a trombonist and pianist when she sang.
• She had black and white fans and was in a film, uncommon for the times.
• “Crazy Blues”
Classic Blues
• The Blues have three main components: form, style, and feeling.
• When the great depression hit Americans could no longer afford to keep up with commercial blues.
• “What ragtime and syncopated music did for the hips and the feet, blues did the the heart and soul.”
Jazz
• A group of popular related styles primarily for listening. Jazz is usually distinguished from the other popular music of an era by greater rhythmic freedom (more syncopation and/or less insistent beat keeping), extensive improvisation, and more-adventurous harmony. There are two families of jazz styles: those based on a four-beat rhythm and those based on a rock or 16-beat rhythm.
The Roots of Jazz
• New Orleans was the birthplace of jazz mixing with the already diverse culture.
• Most of the jazz musicians lived in Storyville, until they got in trouble and were put out of work.
• The Jim Crow laws had an impact on how jazz developed over the twentieth century.
• Before the Jim Crow laws New Orleans had its own social structure, not just simply black and white.
New Orleans Jazz and the Front Line
• Style of jazz performance based on the early bands that performed in and around New Orleans; revived in the late 1940s, it typically features collective improvisation (all the musicians together make up the music as they go) and quick tempos.
• The front-line instruments usually include cornet or trumpet, clarinet, and trombone, with a rhythm section partial or complete. Also called Dixieland Jazz.
King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band
• Oliver was among many of the jazz musicians to emigrate to Chicago from Storyville.
• One of their most famous songs “Dippermouth Blues” is an example of a song with deep roots in the blues and early jazz.
• Louis Armstrong started out playing with this band, but left to go to New York where he became one of the greatest jazz musicians of his era.
Swing and Improvisation
• Armstrong sets these as the standards of quality jazz.
• Swing is the rhythmic play over a four beat rhythm.
• Improvisation is creating music spontaneously and one of the key elements of jazz.
Louis Armstrong
• First great soloist in jazz.
• Other musicians saw him as the standard of a great jazz artist, and no one knew swing better than him.
• “If you have to ask, you’ll never know.”
• “Hotter Than That”
Jazz in America During the 1920s
• Chicago and New York were the hot spots for jazz with a variety of white and black musicians.
• At this time jazz was spontaneous, fast paced, optimistic, and exciting.
• “What blues did for the heart and soul, jazz did for the spirit.”