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Popular Music Before 1960 Notes

Essay by   •  October 24, 2016  •  Course Note  •  3,393 Words (14 Pages)  •  1,166 Views

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  • Pitch- how high/low a note is (measured by Hertz)
  • Registers- pitch ranges
  • Melody- musical tone/ tune/ voice / line
  • Harmony- simultaneous pitches/ chords
  • primary harmonies/triads- I, IV, V – most common chord progression in music
  • diatonic scale – “white note scale”
  • scales (major and minor)
  • pentatonic scale- musical scale with 5 notes per octave
  • Timbre- tone color/ quality of musical note that distinguishes different types of sound production (voice vs wind vs percussion, etc.)
  • Dynamics – how loud or quiet music is
  • Meter (Duple or triple)
  • Tempo- speed – beats per minute
  • Rhythm- where notes fall in relation/ correspond to a pulse and emphasize a pulse
  • Square/ straight- e.g. European music styles
  • Syncopated- do not correspond to the pulse- eg. African American

Form/structure:

  • Strophic- A A A A
  • every stanza gets sung to the same line of music e.g.
  • A way to tell a story simply and clearly
  • E.g. “Fatal Flower Garden” (Child Ballad #155)
  • AABA- Tin Pan Alley song form (*A= hook, hook is at the beginning) e.g. Rudolph red nose reindeer
  • Verse-chorus form (*chorus= hook, hook is at the chorus)

Popular= “of the people”

  • folk music = music for personal use among people
  • popular music= mass production, commercial purposes, music industry
  • folk music can be popular, and vice versa

European Song in the New World

  • English ballad- a song that tells a story in English
  • Function: to entertain, to tell a story, teach a moral
  • folklorists  Industrial revolution (Francis Child- one of the first and most popular)
  • Child Ballad #155- “The fatal Flower Garden”
  • broadside- printed version of a song, just the lyrics
  • Thomas Moore- “Thomas Moore’s Irish Melodies” – 1808-1834
  • Took preexisting Irish folk tune and give it new words, publish as a new song
  • Arranger- take original tune/ melody and arrange it for recording
  • Melodic leap - nostalgia, bittersweetness, strain for vocalist= reaching for something, pastoral (because of industrialization) e.g. somewhere over the rainbow
  • “Home Sweet Home” (Henry Bishop, 1823)
  • Strategic essentialism- latching onto traits of your national background
  • E.g. irish- leprechauns, 4 leaf clover, st patricks day
  • Solidify groups identity, but also stereotypes
  • Paddy Wagon- Police car, because Irish were police in America
  • St Louis World’s Fair- 1904 – Kenneth McKellar
  • John McCormack- opera singer, combat racist Irish act, combat it using music about love and nobility
  • “Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms” (Thomas Moore, 1808; sung by John McCormack)

 

  • Pentatonic scale- 5 note scale- (e.g. black keys are pentatonic)
  • Robert Burns- Scottish poet/ songwriter- changed stereotype of Scottish people
  • My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose” (Robert Burns, 1794)

Blackface Minstrelsy

  • “Woodman Spare that Tree” (Henry Russell, 1837)

  • blackface minstrelsy- white people in blackface lampooned black people as buffoonish, dumb, lazy, etc. in America
  • Thomas Dartmouth Rice- popular white American playwright/performer of blackface – “father of American minstrelsy”
  • Jim Crow- trickster blackface character
  • Inversion- black actors playing white people
  • Carnival masquerade “King for the Day”
  • George Washington Dixon- blackface performer  “Zip Coon” (George Washington
  • Dixon, c. 1830s)
  • Zip coon – black minstrel show character- arrogant, dressing sophisticated to attempt to look dignified, ridiculed
  • masking
  • Virginia Minstrels- invented first minstrel show
  • Dan Emmett
  • Old Dan Tucker” (Dan Emmett, 1843)”
  • De Boatman’s Dance” (Dan Emmett, 1843)
  • Plantation melodies- songs from slaves during work
  • “Mugging”- exaggerating racial features to be demeaning/ funny

-         Harriet Beecher Stowe – abolitionist and author

  •         Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) – novel depicting harsh life for African American’s under slavery

  • parlour songs- songs intended for the home
  • Genteel culture- idea of refinement, respectability, dignity
  • pianos= now affordable, represent middle class respectability

  • Stephen Foster- “The father of American music” – songwriter
  • Turned blackface minstrel songs into parlor songs
  • "Old Uncle Ned" (Stephen Foster, 1848)
  • “Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair” (Stephen Foster, 1854)
  • James Bland- first successful black songwriter in the United States
  • “Carry me back to old Virginny” 1878
  • Jim Crow Laws- laws enforcing racial segregation
  • Hutchinson Family- advocates of slavery abolition, abstinence, women's/worker rights
  • "Get Off the Track" (Hutchinson Family, 1844)
  • Bert Williams - Father of black professional comedy
  • Tomming- blacks behave in an excessively obedient way- black people playing into stereotypes onstage by performing blackface
  • “Dixie”- Dan Emmett (1860)
  • Carol Mosely Braun- 1st and only African American woman in US Senate
  • Jesse Helms- racist senator
  • 1859- John Brown- abolitionist- use violence to fight against slavery- blow up ammunitions depot in Harper’s Ferry to protest in Virginia
  • “John Brown’s Body” (Anonymous, c. 1860)
  • lynching- 1850-1950s – public murders of people suspected of crimes- racial prejudice against blacks
  • American Civil War- 1861-1865
  • Julia Ward Howe- “Battle Hymn of the Republic” (1861)- religious battle song against slavery
  • Negro Spiritual- Christian songs created by slaves
  • Israeli captivity in Egypt- old testament, Moses delivers them to Canaan
  • Paul Robeson- Black activist- singer and actor about civil rights movements- spoke against racism, supported communism- blacklisted
  •  “Go Down Moses” 1860s- against slavery/ racism, dignified and skilled musical performance
  • Biddleville Quintette
  • Rythym, percussion, drumming- spiritual African American traditions- taken away from them – turned to body percussion – clapping, stamping, etc.
  • Fisk University- African American university
  • Fisk Jubilee Quartet- sang Negro Spirituals
  • Wallace Willis –wrote negro spiritual “Swing Low, sweet chariot”, 1862 - example of call and response song
  • Underground Railroad- Harriet Tubman- escaped slavery to the North- used songs to free slaves

Mid- 19th Century Popular Song

  • Industrialization- Labour separated among genders
  • Public sphere vs. domestic sphere
  • “Housewife” introduced -  women responsible for men being fed, sober, raising children, moral beacon of household, domestic purity, virtue
  • double standard- women are blamed for immoral behavior of men 
  • Ovarian determinism- women are genetically not capable of holding professional responsibilities outside the house and can only do domestic work
  • Square Dances- man leads woman, predetermined orderly pattern, group dance
  • Waltz- controversial 19th century dance, round dance, couple dance involving embrace, sensual, appealed to women, female empowerment through dance
  • ¾ time
  • Louis Jullien- “Prima Donna Waltz”-  1853
  • ornamentation- eg. Gracenotes- teasing, playful, disobedient quality
  • chromaticism- break the rules of the key
  • “New Woman”- feminist, educated, independent career woman  

The Waltz and the Rise of Tin Pan Alley

  • the waltz ruining women so they can’t be acceptable housewives
  • hybrid form- chorus form and AABA form
  • Tin Pan Alley- street where sheet music publishers were located, where they tried to publish the next hits- giving the name, because of all the noise
  • Charles K Harris- songwriter of American Popular music, advanced the new genre- first songwriter to create multimillion seller
  • “king of tearjerkers” and “master of sentimental ballad”
  • “After the Ball” (Charles K. Harris, 1892)

  • Monroe Rosenfeld- music publisher- made the phrase “tin pan alley”
  • “Those Wedding Bells Shall Not Ring Out” (Monroe Rosenfeld, 1896)

Ragtime

  • Frontier towns- transition from slave to free economy, African American populated towns
  • Ragtime- ragged/ syncopated rhythm of the right hand
  • Ragged time-improvise score of tunes and syncopate the performance
  • Syncopation
  • Cakewalk- dance accompanying rag time, originated by African American slave culture- forced to dance by white masters, mock pretentious elite slave owners, silly exaggerated gestures that suggest refinement/ dignity
  • Eventually used in minstrel shows to demean blacks
  •  1893, Chicago World’s Fair- black performers performed outside
  • Scott Joplin- African American pianist/composer – “King of Ragtime” writers
  • Introduced ragtime to the fair
  • Maple Leaf Rag” (Scott Joplin, 1899)
  • John Stark- promoted Scott Joplin’s music
  • Strains (section)- march
  • Classic rag- AABBACCD
  • Irving Berlin- songwriter
  • “Alexander's Ragtime Band” (Irving Berlin, 1911)
  • Irene and Vernon Castle- ballroom teachers – popularized african American music, loose corsets, shorter full skirts, hair bob
  • James Reese Europe

Vaudeville, Music Hall, and Broadway

  • Wild west shows
  • Circuses
  • Burlesque shows
  • Parody
  • Female performers
  • Vaudeville- “voice of the city”- variety show included diverse acts
  • publisher, songwriter, lyricist, song plugger (sit in music stores and play new music), performer, arranger
  • theatre owners, booking managers/agents performers, tour managers, barker
  • rube character- redneck stereotype, dim witted, low class, rural whites
  • May Irwin- vaudeville star, coon shouter
  • Ziegfield Follies- high class vaudeville variety show, beautiful chorus showgirls
  • Sophie Tucker- coon shouting- coon song- African American influenced songs- “the Last of the Red Hot Mamas”- used sexuality in shows- “There'll Be Some Changes Made” (Sophie Tucker, 1927)
  • Fanny Brice- “My Man” (Fanny Brice, 1921)

  • Under the Bamboo Tree” (James Weldon Johnson and Bob Cole, 1902)
  • women are being more empowered by Vaudeville- female independence and strength
  • B.F. Keith- making vaudeville family entertainment instead of just men- refined and clean atmosphere
  • imposed patriarchy in Vaudeville

The Jazz Age

  • 1918-1929
  • the “roaring 20s”
  • prosperity after WW1 in America
  • coincides with prohibition- 1919-1933
  • rise of the speakeasy underground illegal bar
  • dancing “the Charleston
  • New Orleans – the most diverse American city- also known as “The Big Easy”
  • Storyville- district that was free from police
  • Congo Square- parade bands
  • Jelly Roll Morton, aka Ferdinand Lamothe- “inventor of Jazz”
  • Jazzman
  • Invented riffs
  • Improvisation
  • swing/ shuffle rhythms-  added bounce and swing to music
  • “Maple Leaf Rag” (composer, Scott Joplin; perf. by Jelly Roll Morton, 1938)

  • Irvin Berlin – “King of Ragtime”
  • Frontline – musicians playing the lead parts stand in front, bass/drums, accompany in the back (rhythm section)
  • Dixieland (new Orleans) Jazz- “hot Jazz” – original jazz
  • Original Dixieland Jazz Band- “Livery Stable Blues” (Original Dixieland Jazz Band, 1917)
  • 1917, recorded 1st Jazz Record by blacks
  • 12 bar blues- chord progressions / musical formula for “boogie woogie” songs
  • Frontline- cornet/trumpet (melody), clarinet (countermelody), Trombone (bass),
  • Rhythm- drums, banjo or piano (chords)
  • blue scale- use flatted 3rds and 7ths (minor scale)
  • enhance blues sound by pitch bending – sliding between spaces of notes- detuned and retune to create novelty and silliness
  • joe “King” Oliver
  • King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band- racial mix of black and white
  • “Dippermouth Blues” (King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, 1923)
  • Trumpet mute makes the- “wah- wah” sound
  • The Great Migration- mass movement of blacks from the South to the North
  • Louis Armstrong- most important/ influential Jazz artist
  • Grew up in “the battlefield”, in an orphanage
  • Louis Armstrong’s Hot 5 (Hot 7)
  • Improvisation
  • Records “west End Blues” written by King oliver
  •  “West End Blues” (Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five, 1928)

  • Lil Hardin
  • Paul Whiteman
  • Charles Black –white supremacy, racist
  • Became civil rights lawyer from watching Louis Armstrong play
  • Assimilation turned into Black Nationalism—“New Negro” –assertive black person not willing to compromise and fights for their rights
  • Started to build their own institutions
  • Harlem Renaissance- cultural rebirth- African American artists are celebrated, true to their own heritage
  • WEB DuBois
  • Langston Hughes
  • Zora Beale Hurston
  • Marcus Garvey (NAACP)
  • Stride piano- extension of ragtime – wide leaping in left hand, larger range
  • Rent parties- hire pianist and charge cover at the door
  • Cutting contests- musical street battles
  • James P. Johnson- composed “the Charleston” – theme of the Jazz age
  •  “Charleston” (James P. Johnson, 1923; perf. by Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra)
  • Paul Whiteman – the King of Jazz
  • Sweet jazz vs hot jazz
  • Cotton Club- most prestigious club in Harlem –Duke Ellington
  • Called his music - Jungle Music
  • “slumming”
  • “East St. Louis Toodle-Oo” (Duke Ellington, 1926)
  • Bubber Miley and Duke Ellington - A A B A form

The Golden Age of Tin Pan Alley

  • WW1 (1914) WW2 (1945)
  • 1877- Thomas Edison invents phonograph
  • “Hello, Ma Baby” (Joseph Howard and Ida Emerson, 1899)-first song to reference telephone- tin pan alley song
  • Victor Talking Machine Company
  • 1901, Victrola – records are becoming available to middle class households
  • Copyright Act of 1909- sheet music publishers get a share of their music that get recorded – royalties
  • ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Arrangers, and Publishers)
  • The Great Depression 1929-1939
  • Theodor Adorno – criticized Tin Pan Alley- passive consumers who mindlessly consume happy music to distract/blind themselves from more important issues, like social inequality- called “False Conciousness”
  • Rudy Vallee – first radio star, enabled mass culture to hear
  • performs “Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries”- 1931
  • crooner- mellow, soft voice made possible by invention of microphone
  • Bing Crosby- ”Brother can you spare a Dime?”- 1932

Race Records; The Blues

blues- 

  1. feeling of sadness
  2. a musical form
  • 12 bar blues
  • “blue notes” – flatted 3rds and 7ths
  • pitch bending
  1. marketing category
  • authenticity- male southern poor rural black musicians, emphasize “folk” quality instead of “popular music or professional entertainment”
  • the Bluesman- southern oppressed impoverished black male w personal suffering/misery, untrained musician with a guitar
  • Classic blues vs Delta blues
  • Classic blues- first style of blues that become popular- female flamboyant, elegant performers w jewelry & boas elegant in Northern cities
  • Blues queens
  • Field holler- working in hot oppressive fields, to help work, raw vocals, suffering & moaning
  • Church Hymn- I, IV, V format, lyrics are A A B format
  • A (I/ I/ I/ I) A (IV/ IV/ I/ I) B (V/ IV/I/ turnaround)

  • W.C Handy – middle class African American songwriter & performer- “Father of the blues”
  • Used 12 Bar blues – AAB structure
  • Wrote “Memphis blues”, “St Louis blues”

  • Okeh Records- started by Otto KH Heinemann- started ethnic lines of music for expanding market
  • 1920s, African American performers started being recorded
  • Ralph Peer - took old folk songs and copyrighted them
  •  Made the term“race records” – music by African Americans for African Americans
  • Mamie Smith- first hit blues record by a black woman - vaudeville performer
  • “Crazy Blues” (1920)- composer Perry Bradford
  • Not AABA form- closer to “jazz” style, but proved there was a market for African Americans to produce records
  • Also made the term “Hillbilly” music
  • artificial boundaries between these 2 styles and audiences
  • Blues queens- female performers w flashy expensive gowns and jewelry
  • strong women, defying conventional roles & not taking abuse from men
  • Started in TOBA- theater Owner’s booking Association - Toured in Chitlin’ circuit- southern cities, faced violence from these towns
  • Bessie smith- performed “St. Louis Blues”- WC handy
  • used AABA form- professionalized/ commercial tin pan alley format
  • Gertrude “Ma” Rainey”- mother of the blues”
  • “Prove It On Me Blues”- (1928)- challenge view against lesbians, proclaiming her female relationship
  • Delta Blues/ country blues – music about desperation and hope that they can endure

-        Blind Willie Johnson- street preacher in small town for donations- accompanied with music

  • It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine” (1927)- anguish, pain through vocal timbre/style, distorted guitar – used swiss army knife to play guitar- AAB format

-        Robert Johnson- most mythologized blues man – represented suffering artist & authentic expression, oppressed black man – British youth resonated with him

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