Early American Song Styles and Popular Music - Rock Music History | MUS 15, Study notes of Music

Download Early American Song Styles and Popular Music - Rock Music History | MUS 15 and more Study notes Music in PDF only on Docsity! Early American Song Styles and Popular Music Calle Early America  Most early American music was performed by amateurs  Instruments were available and affordable to a large portion of the population  People would sing ballad operas (roots of our musical theater) and hymns in the home  When Jesus Wept-William Billings African American “Field Hollers” Musical roots of Gospel & Blues  Slavery in the American South  Venting emotions; day-to-day realities  Musical characteristics Calculated repetitions Emphasized rhythm over harmony Pentatonic (5 note) scale (blues notes) Unlike work songs, hollers were sung solo http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afcss39/260/2603b2.mp3 Minstrel Shows  Racist program that started while slavery was in effect  Whites would put burnt cork on face to look black After Civil War, black performers also did so  Poor portrayal of slaves and stereotypes:  Dandy-poor dress and language; Sambo-lazy worker  De Boatman’s Dance Copyright Act 1790  Important in the early development of music and literature  Allowed for ownership and royalties Initially copyright lasted just 14 years Copyright in the US for a music recordings is 95 years (50 years in Europe) Composers of the music, like authors of books, have copyright for their lifetime plus another 70 years Birth of the Blues (late 1800s) Songs of African American Slaves  American Civil War (1861-1865) Emancipation Proclamation provided freedom for slaves in the South 13th Amendment ends slavery in 1865  African American music moves towards blues Songs relate to new experiences of freedom  Musical characteristics Singer accompanied by solo guitar String bending to raise and lower pitch Bottleneck to raise and lower pitch; “slide” Shuffle rhythm; “long-short-long-short” All improvised, not a notated music Contrast Birth of Boogie Woogie (late 1800s) Spirited Blues-based Piano Style  Evolved in the American Midwest alongside ragtime, a closely related style  Blues-based piano style with triplet feel  Popularized by Afr. Americans during the ‘20s  Boogie Woogie written by Clarence ‘Pine Top’ Smith (1904-1929) Ragtime (Early 1900s)  A syncopated or ‘ragged’ song played primarily on the piano  Dance style expanded through of sheet music  Ragtime is not jazz because of the lack of improvisation Even beat division, not the shuffle beat  Peaked from 1899-1918  Scott Joplin “King of Ragtime” ‘Maple Leaf Rag’-over 1 million copies sold (sheet music), 1899