arranger
A person who adapts (or arranges) the melody and chords to songs to
exploit the capabilities and instrumental resources of a particular musical ensemble.
ballad
A type of song in which a series of verses telling a story, often about a
historical event or personal tragedy, are sung to a repeating melody (this sort of musical form is called strophic).
beat
The underlying pulse of a song or piece of music; a unit of rhythmic
measure in music.
blue
A genre of music originating principally from the field hollers and
work songs of rural blacks in the southern United States during the latter half of the nineteenth century.
broadside
A large sheet of paper on which ballads were published; the
predecessor of sheet music.
call and response
A musical statement by a singer or response: instrumentalist that is answered by
other singers or instrumentalists.
chorus
A repeating section within a song consisting of a fixed melody and
lyric that is repeated exactly each time that it occurs, typically
form
The musical structure of a piece of music; its basic building blocks and
the ways they are combined.
groove
A term that evokes the channeled flow of "swinging" or "funky" or
"phat" rhythms.
habanera
An African-influenced variant of the European country-dance tradition
that swept the United States and Europe in the 1880s. The characteristic habanera rhythm�an eight-beat pattern divided 3-3-2� influenced late nineteenth-century ragtime music.
hook
A memorable musical phrase or riff
lyricist
A person who supplies the poetic text (lyrics) to a piece of vocal
music; not necessarily the compose
lyrics
The words of a song
pleasure garden
A forerunner of today's theme garden: parks; one of the main venues for
the dissemination of printed songs by professional composers in England between 1650 and 1850.
riff
riff: A simple, repeating melodic idea or pattern that generates rhythmic
momentum.
strophic
A song form that employs the same music for each poetic unit in the
lyrics.
tempo
Time" in Italian; the rate at which a musical composition proceeds,
timbre
The quality of a sound, sometimes called "tone color.
verse
A group of lines of poetic text, often rhyming, that usually exhibit
regularly recurring metric patterns
Every aspect of popular music that is today regarded as American in character has sprung from three broad "streams." What are the three streams?
1. European American Music
2. African American Music
3. Latin American Music
What are some musical elements of African music that have influenced American popular music?
-Syncretism, the selective blending of traditions derived from Africa and Europe
-The creation of institutions that became important centers of black musical life (e.g. families, churches, voluntary associations, schools)
Certain features of African music
What is a ballad?
-Series of verses telling a story, sung to a repeating melody
-Often about a historical event or personal tragedy
-Strophic musical form
Ex- Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys "John Henry
What are some examples of the relationship between music and identity in American popular music?
-We use popular music to find and express our identity
-Popular music is closely tied to stereotypes
-To understand the cultural significance of popular music we must examine
the music- it's tones and textures, rhythms and forms- and the broader patterns
ow has American popular music reinforced certain stereotypes?
...
The earliest forms of a unique American music emerged in minstrel shows and other African-derived music, including ragtime.
...
The pattern that began with minstrelsy was reinforced:
The adoption of African American music by whites�often in the watered-down form of mildly syncopated dance music� was coupled with the vigorous rejection of blacks as people.
...
By the 1910s, many basic elements of the modern music business were firmly in place:
A pattern of fierce competition among publishing companies Mass promotion of songs, spread across media
The dominance of a limited set of musical forms and lyrical
themes
...
George Washington Dixon
The first white performer to establish a wide reputation as a "blackface" entertainer.
Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice (1808-60)
White actor born into a poor family in New York's Seventh Ward. As a blackface performer, he introduced the "Jim Crow" character.
Virginia Minstrels
A minstrel troupe led by the white banjo virtuoso Dan Emmett; their show introduced more lengthy performances featuring a standardized group of performers. They first appeared in 1843
Stephen Collins Foster
Composed around two hundred songs during the 1840s, 1850s, and early 1860s; regarded as the first important composer of American popular song. He was probably the first person in the United States to make his living as a full-time professional songwriter;
Scott Joplin (1867-1917)
African American composer and pianist; the best-known composer of ragtime music. Between 1895 and 1915, Joplin composed many of the classics of the ragtime repertoire and helped popularize the style through his piano arrangements, published as sheet music
banjo
Four- or five-stringed instrument with a membrane stretched over a
wooden or metal hoop that is strummed or plucked. It was developed by slave musicians from African prototypes during the early colonial period. The banjo was used in the music of the minst
blackface
Bones:
cakewalk:
chorus:
contradance (or country dance):
Interlocutor:
minstrel show:
A style of stage makeup in which performers would apply burnt cork to darken their face. It is associated with the practice of minstrelsy
Bones
Nickname for the character in a minstrel show who performed the bones and was positioned at the end of a line of performers (as was Tambo).
cakewalk
Africanized version of the European quadrille (a kind of square dance). The cakewalk was developed by slaves as a parody of the "refined" dance movements of the white slave owners.
chorus
Africanized version of the European quadrille (a kind of square dance). The cakewalk was developed by slaves as a parody of the "refined" dance movements of the white slave owners.
contradance (country dance)
Dance tradition in which teams of dancers form geometric figures such as lines, circles, or squares.
Interlocuter
One of the standard performers in the minstrel show; the lead performer who sang and provided patter between acts.
minstrel show
The first form of musical and theatrical entertainment to be regarded by European audiences as distinctively American in character. Featured mainly white performers who artificially blackened their skin and carried out parodies of African American music,
phonograph (gramophone)
Early device for playing recorded sounds etched on a disc.
ragtime
The word derives from the African American term "to rag," meaning to enliven a piece of music by shifting melodic accents onto the offbeats (a technique known as syncopation). Ragtime music emerged in the 1880s, its popularity peaking in the decade after
refrain
In the verse-refrain song, the refrain is the "main part" of the song, usually constructed in AABA or ABAC form.
sheet music
The principal medium for disseminating popular sings until the advent of recording in the 1890s.
song plugger
Employee of Tin Pan Alley music publishing firms who promoted their popular songs.
syncopation
Rhythmic patterns in which the stresses occur on what are ordinarily weak beats, thus displacing or suspending the sense of metric regularity.
Tambo
Character in a minstrel show who performed the tambourine and was positioned at the end of a line of performers (as was Bones)
Tin Pan Alley
Nickname for a stretch of 28th Street in New York City where music publishers had their offices�a dense hive of small rooms with pianos where composers and "song pluggers" produced and promoted popular songs. The term, which evoked the clanging sound of m
vaudeville
Style of show that included a variety of acts; it became the dominant
form of popular entertainment in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America.
waltz
Type of dance with a triple-meter accompaniment, circular
movements, and smooth, graceful lines.
Describe minstrelsy
-From the 1840's through the 1880's the predominant genre in the United States
-An important influence on the mainstream of American popular song
-Minstrel troupes toured the United States constantly, helping create an embryonic national popular culture
-
What makes Stephen Foster an important figure in American popular song?
His earliest musical experiences were dominated by the sentimental song tradition
Foster knew and incorporated into his work the various song styles popular in mid-century America
Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair
A A B A Form
A A B A Form
A- 8 bars
A: 8 Bars essentially identical to the first A musically, might vary lyrically
B: known as the bridge 8 bars (musically different than the A sections)
A: 8 bars, essentially identical to the first A musically, might vary lyrically
E
Verse/Chorus form
-A musical form common in popular music and predominant in rock since the 1960's. The A or verse is contrasted by the B chorus
-Sometimes an interlude, perhaps a guitar solo or contrasting section is used �
-The structure varies from tune to tune
A A B A
multi-sectional/march form
...
What is the history and meaning of the term "Jim Crow"?
Jim Crow by Thomas Darmouth Rice, first international American song hit
How did a parlor song differ from a plantation song?
Slaves on the plantations of the Southern US sang songs and hymns that were frequently known as "Plantation Songs." "Parlor Songs" were heard regularly in the homes of principal statesmen, authors, intellectuals, professionals, and businessmen.
How did Charles K. Harris promote his song "After the Ball"?
Harris paid a well known singer in a traveling theater production to incorporation "After the Ball "into his performance
-It soon became the most popular part of the play and audiences requested that it be repeated several times during each performance
-H
What are the musical elements found in ragtime piano music?
-The term "ragtime" was used to describe any music that contained syncopation
-From the African American term to rag, using syncopation, "ragging" the rhythm
-Ragtime energized popular music in America by adding rhythmic vitality (syncopation) to the musi
What city became the center of the music industry at the end of
the nineteenth century?
New York
Vernon and Irene Castle
Husband-and-wife dance team who popularized the tango and the foxtrot. The Castles attracted millions of middle-class Americans into ballroom classes, expanded the stylistic range of popular dance, and established an image of mastery, charisma, and romanc
Original Dixieland Jazz Band:
White group from New Orleans led by the cornetist Nick LaRocca. Their recording of "Livery Stable Blues" and "Dixieland Jass Band One-Step" was released in March 1917, and within a few weeks, it had sparked a national fad for jazz music.
James Reese Europe (1880- 1919):
Talented African American pianist and conductor. Played ragtime piano in cabarets and acted as a musical director for several all-black vaudeville revues. In 1913, Vernon and Irene Castle hired him to be their musical director. From 1913 until 1918, Europ
Noble Sissle (1899-1975) and Eubie Blake (1883-1983)
African American musicians who began their career with James Reese Europe's orchestra in 1916. In 1921, Sissle and Blake launched the first successful all-black Broadway musical, Shuffle Along
Don Azpiaz�:
Latin American bandleader during the swing era; his band played music to accompany ballroom adaptations of South American and Caribbean dances.
Paul Whiteman (1890-1967
Bandleader for the most successful dance orchestra of the 1920s. Hebilled himself as the "King of Jazz," widened the market for jazz-based dance music, and paved the way for the Swing Era.
cakewalk:
Africanized version of the European quadrille (a kind of square dance). Ironically, the cakewalk was first developed by slaves as a parody of the "refined" dance movements of the white slave owners.
collective improvisation
A musical element found in New Orleans jazz in which the players of the ensemble improvise and embellish melodies simultaneously.
sound film
Introduced in 1927. Became an important means for the dissemination of popular music.
tango:
Style of dance that developed during the late nineteenth century in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The tango blended European ballroom dance music, the Cuban habanera, Italian light opera, and the ballads of the Argentine gauchos (cowboys).
turkey trot:
A popular dance of the early twentieth century. Considered scandalous because of the close contact between the dancers
Irving Berlin (1888-1989)
Generally recognized as the most productive, varied, and creative of the Tin Pan Alley songwriters. His professional songwriting career started before World War I and continued into the 1960s. His mostfamous songs include "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "Blue
Richard Rodgers (1902-79)
Produced many of the finest songs of the twentieth century, in collaboration with lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II. Wrote the ground-breaking musical Oklahoma! in partnership with Oscar Hammerstein II in 1943.
Cole Porter (1891-1964):
Born into a wealthy family in Indiana; studied classical music at Yale, Harvard, and the Schola Cantorum in Paris.
George Gershwin (1898-1937)
The son of an immigrant leatherworker, did much to bridge the gulf between art music and popular music. Studied European classical music but also spent a great deal of time listening to jazz musicians in New York City. Wrote Porgy and Bess (1935), which h
Bing Crosby (1904-77)
A crooner, by far the most popular representative of the style. Sales of his records have been estimated at more than 300 million.
Al Jolson (1886-1950):
Billed himself as "The World's Greatest Entertainer." The most popular performer of his generation; his career overlapped the era of vaudeville stage performance and the rise of new media in the 1920s.
AABA form
One of the most common structures that Tin Pan Alley composers used
to organize their melodic and harmonic material. This structure would be found in the refrain of a verse-refrain song.
bridge:
The B section of AABA song form found in the refrain of a Tin Pan
Alley song. The bridge presents new material: a new melody, chord changes, and lyrics.
crooning:
A style of singing made possible by the invention of the microphone. It
involves an intimate approach to vocal timbre.
refrain
In a verse-refrain song, the refrain is the "main part" of the song,
usually constructed in AABA or ABAC form.
riff:
In much African American music, a melody or rhythmic pattern that is
repeated to create momentum.
standards:
American popular songs from the Tin Pan Alley style of songwriting
that remain an essential part of the repertoire of today's jazz musicians and pop singers.
verse-refrain form:
A two-part musical structure used form: by Tin Pan Alley composers in which
the verses usually assumed an introductory character and were followed by the refrain.
verse:
Usually sets up a dramatic context or emotional tone. Although verses
were the most important part of nineteenth-century popular songs, they were regarded as mere introductions by the 1920s, and today the verses of Tin Pan Alley
songs are infrequently per
What is the form of most Tin Pan Alley songs?
-Song forms inherited from the nineteenth century the AABA structure of "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair"
-Verse and chorus form of "After the Ball"
Verse refrain form, with am AABA refrain
-Tin Pan Alley song form had two major sections: the verse and t
What was the significance of the musical Show Boat written in
1927, with a score by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar
Hammerstein II?
First musical, dominated Broadway
How is the ideal of romantic love reflected in the lyrical content and performance style of Tin Pan Alley songs?
...
Mamie Smith (1883-1946):
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio; known as the "Queen of the Blues." She was a pioneer blues singer, pianist, and black vaudeville performer. In 1920, she recorded the bestsellers "Crazy Blues" and "It's Right Here For You, If You Don't Get It, 'Tain't No Fault o
Sophie Tucker (1884-1966):
A popular Jewish American vaudeville star who specialized in "Negro songs." She was known as "The Last of the Red Hot Mamas.
Ralph Peer (1892-1960):
A Missouri-born talent scout for Okeh Records; he worked as an assistant on Mamie Smith's first recording sessions and was the first to use the catchphrase "race music." He discovered the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers at a recording session in Bristol,
William Christopher "W. C." Handy (1873-1958):
The "Father of the Blues," born in Alabama in 1873. Cornet player andcomposer, he went on to receive a college degree and became a schoolteacher. In 1908, cofounded the first African American?owned music publishing house. His first sheet music hit was "Me
Ethel Waters (1896-1977):
Entertained the growing African American middle class in New York, Chicago, and other northern cities. She recorded with bandleaders Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, and Benny Goodman, and appeared in several films.
Gertrude "Ma" Rainey (1886- 1939):
Popularly known as the "Mother of the Blues," was the first of the great women blues singers and had a direct influence on Bessie Smith.
Bessie Smith (1894-1937)
Called the "Empress of the Blues," she was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and performed in traveling shows and vaudeville before embarking on a recording career with Columbia Records. Her recordings include W. C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues" and Irving Berl
Louis Armstrong, aka "Satchmo," "Satchelmouth " (1901-71):
Born in New Orleans; a cornetist and singer, he established certain core features of jazz, particularly its rhythmic drive and its emphasis on solo instrumental virtuosity. Armstrong also profoundly influenced the development of mainstream popular singing
Charley Patton (ca. 1881- 1934):
One of the earliest known pioneers of the Mississippi Delta blues style. The son of sharecroppers; a charismatic figure whose performance techniques included rapping on the body of his guitar and throwing it into the air. His powerful rasping voice, stron
Blind Lemon Jefferson (1897-1929):
The first recording star of the country blues. Born blind, Jefferson was living the typical life of a traveling street musician by the age of fourteen. His first records were released in 1926. Jefferson?s East Texas style features a nasal vocal timbre and
Robert Johnson (1911-38):
Little is known of his early years. His guitar playing was so remarkable and idiosyncratic that stories circulated claiming he had sold his soul to the devil to play that way. Johnson died apparently as a victim of poisoning by a jealous husband. His work
Fiddlin' John Carson (1868- 1949):
KDKA in Pittsburgh
Musician from Georgia who made the first commercially successful hillbilly record in 1923.
In 1920, became the first commercial radio station in the United States.
Vernon Dalhart
(1883-1948):
A Texas-born former light-operasinger who recorded the first big country music hit. In 1924, Dalhart recorded two songs: "Wreck of the Old 97" and "The Prisoner's Song," a million-seller that contributed to the success of the fledgling country music indus
The Carter Family:
Born in the isolated foothills of the Clinch Mountains of Virginia, regarded as one of the most important groups in the history of country music.
Jimmie Rodgers (1897-1933):
Called the "Singing Brakeman," he was the most versatile, progressive, and widely influential of all the early country recording artists and was early country music's biggest recording star. His influence can be seen in the public images of Hank Williams,
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (1912- 67):
One of the musicians most closely associated with the plight of American workers during the Great Depression. He was born in Oklahoma and began his career as a hillbilly singer. He composed songs that were overtly political in nature, including "This Land
blue notes:
Bent" or "flattened" tones lying outside traditional European-based scale structures; tones that reflect particular African American melodic characteristics
blues:
A musical genre that emerged in black communities of the Deep South-especially the region from the Mississippi Delta to East Texas- sometime around the end of the nineteenth century.
classic blues:
Blues written by professional songwriters and performed by professional female blues singers such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey.
country blues (also referred to as "rural," "down-home," or "folk" blues):
Performed by sharecroppers and laborers in the Mississippi Delta and East Texas; developed from an oral tradition, in which versions of a song were passed down from generation to generation, learned by ear and carried in memory. Country blues performers w
hillbilly" or "old-time" music:
Music that was performed by and mainly intended for sale to southern whites. It developed mainly out of the folk songs, ballads, and dance music of immigrants from the British Isles. It was later rechristened "country and western music? or simply "country
Mississippi Delta:
A region of fertile land that stretches some two hundred miles along the river, from Memphis, Tennessee, in the North to Vicksburg, Mississippi, in the South. In the nineteenth century, the Delta had been the site of some of the most intensive cotton farm
race records:
Recordings of performances by African American musicians produced mainly for sale to African American listeners.
twelve-bar blues:
The standard form of a blues song: a twelve-bar structure made up of three phrases of four bars each; a basic three-chord pattern; and a three-line AAB text.
Describe the terms "race music" and "hillbilly music." When were they used?
-Race recordings
Recordings of performances by African American musicians produced mainly for sale to African American listeners
-Hillbilly or Old Time
Music performed by and intended for sale to southern whites
What are some important common features between race music and hillbilly music?
-Peripheries (margins)
-audiences urban and rural black
-poorer working classes
-lyrics unpretentious down home
-subject matter: unromantic love
-simpler songs forms
-vocals: regional dialects
-produced by multitasking individuals
How did classic blues differ from country blues?
The Country Blues
-Also referred to as "rural" "down-home" or "folk" blues
Itinerant male folksingers traveled the rural South/Delta region
The blues was the music of this impoverished black work force
The rural musicians who played this style of music we
Who called himself the "Father of the Blues"?
W.C Handy (1973-1958)
-The Father of Blues
The most influential of the classic blues composers
Song of a conservative pastor who forbade him from playing the guitar
-Learned to play the cornet instead
Went to college received a degree and became a schoolt