muh1350 exam 1

A traditional strophic song form with lyrics that tell a story, verse by verse.

ballad

an anglo-american folk song example from quiz

barbara allen - This is a good example of Anglo-American folk source influential in American popular music. - it is in strophic form, that is the music is the same for every stanza (verse, strophe) of text. - The lyrics tell a story, simply and directly. - Singer is untrained, but expressive - passed on from generation to generation - ballad

A dance or outdoor type of music with two beats per measure.

march

Several notes sung to a single syllable.

melisma

blue notes

occur when the European scale combines with the African-American pentatonic scale.

​Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed is credited with coining the phrase "rock and roll" as a code for Rhythm and Blues.

true

​In an electric blues band, the background instruments (piano, second guitar, bass, and drums) that support the vocal and harmonica are called the rhythm section.

true

​In harmony, when chords appear in a consistently used sequence, it's known as a chord progression.

true

​Tempo refers to the speed of a musical piece.

true

​The prevailing popular music style (or styles) of a certain era can be described as the "mainstream."

true

highbrow

urban culture parlor songs

What form is most widely used for a blues song?

12 bar form

The essence of jazz:

Swing: 1) Rhythmic play over a 4-beat rhythm; 2) Swing represents a mixture of European and African rhythmic ideals. Swing keeps the time structure of European music but interpreted through African sensibility; 3) So, instead of accenting only the first beat of each bar, swing accents every beat. But there are also syncopated accents that conflict with the steady beat of the rhythm section. Improvisation: 1) Creating music spontaneously, yet within a structure; 2) In New Orleans jazz the players participate in collective improvisation; 3) In later jazz styles, individual players would emerge from the group to play solos.

A section in a minstrel show that featured a wide range of acts.

olio

In the 1890s and 1900s, the most popular rhythm for dances enjoying widespread use was:

the waltz

Sound quality that helps you hear the difference between, say, a flute and a trumpet, when they play the same thing.

timbre

Our text delineates three types of "beat." They are:

timekeeping, style, and good

Part of an instrumental piece that offers a contrasting mood, a new melody, and usually changes key.

trio

George M. Cohan was known for being a one-man entertainment industry, writing songs, lyrics, directing, performing, and producing.

true

The musical form of the chorus of Chuck Berry's song "Maybellene" is the 12-bar blues.

true

The parlor song is a song written with the intention of being sold as sheet music and performed in one's home.

true

The text states that American popular music acquired a distinct identity only when it began to synthesize European and African musical traditions.

true

In Chuck Berry's "Maybellene" the rhythm shifts between:

two-beat and four-beat

An 1800s variety show consisting of thematically unrelated musical acts and skits.

vaudeville

this examples shows Anglo-American folk roots because it is lively and rhythmic, performed on more rustic instruments, is in ___ form, and has lyrics sung by a __ singer

verse/chorus untrained

a popular song form in which one section tells a story while another section repeats both melody and lyrics

verse/chorus form

A piece of popular music with three beats in a measure.

waltz

King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band (1885-1938)

"Dippermouth Blues" (1923) 1) Frontline: 2 cornets, clarinet, trombone 2) Rhythm section: piano (barely heard), banjo, drums, percussion 3) Blues song in style and feeling; instruments imitate the way blues singers bend pitches and slide into notes 4) Uses collective improvisation, while the rhythm section keeps time 5) Although there are a trumpet solo (Oliver) and a clarinet solo, no instrument really dominates.

old man tucker: parlor song

- Amateurs could perform it so it is a parlor song. - It is accompanied by fiddle, banjo, bones, and tambourine. - There is no repeating chorus to get in the way of the storytelling.

Scott Joplin (1868-1917)

- Born in Arkansas, settled in Missouri, and eventually went to New York City. - Trained as a classical pianist and composer, but also played cornet and led a band. - Published his first piano "rag" in 1899, followed by many others (see "Wall Street Rag" at right). - Also wrote a ballet and two operas (one is lost).

James Reese Europe (1881-1919)

- Europe was an orchestral conductor and entrepreneur - Notice Europe's use of the word "orchestra," rather than band. His group included strings (mostly violins), so the designation is warranted. Generally, a band does not have strings, whereas an orchestra does. - Vernon and Irene Castle, a popular dance couple - Faster tempo; - Less syncopation (less rhythmic conflict between parts); - Chances for instrumentalists to improvise, as the drummer does near the end of "Castle House Rag.

parlor song

- For voice and modest piano accompaniment - Simplified in melody and harmony from the European models; - Lyrics are sentimental; - Performed in homes (in the parlor) for entertainment.

african influence: Song for Odudua

- Is in an African dialect, but is actually a song of the African diaspora in Cuba. - Voices and instruments enter gradually, layering rhythms as they do. - Plays a part in Santeria practice. - Involves call and response. - Melodies are often based on the pentatonic scale

A pentatonic scale

- Occurs in the folk music of many cultures. - is made up of five notes. - Becomes a surprising common musical language for audience participation--at least Bobby McFerrin thinks so! - Is sometimes thought of as a "natural" musical language.

ragtime dance

- Ragtime soon became music for social dancing. Other dances followed, some named for animals, such as the grizzly bear and the turkey trot (see the dancers in the photo at right). - Some dances were outlawed in various places because of the loose clothing worn by women and the body contact between dancers. - Eventually the foxtrot would emerge as a more refined "animal dance.

"Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair" (1854)

- Rhythm is a driving presence in this piece. - Its lyrics are verse-chorus, with the chorus repeated regularly and often. - This song began life on the minstrel stage. - Voice and simple piano accompaniment; - Simplified in melody and harmony from the European models; - Lyrics are sentimental; - Performed in homes (in the parlor) for entertainment.

The sound of the piano rag

- Syncopated melody in the right hand, against a steady march-like beat in the left hand. - Moderate tempo--Joplin warned against playing his rags too fast. - The form is close to that of the march with repeated sections. Compare the Listening Cue in your text for Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" to that for Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever." - Ragtime represents an intersection between European (harmonies, march form, use of piano) and African (complicated, syncopated rhythm) styles

John Philip Sousa (1854-1932

- The March King - Stars and Stripes Forever 1897 - the concert bands composer

Jazz was a mixture of

- The feeling of blues and the spontaneous, improvisational spirit of the street musicians; - The virtuosity, harmonies, and discipline of classically-trained Creoles.

The Virginia Minstrels were a group of four white entertainers, singing and playing the instruments associated with minstrel shows. Which of the following statements are true about them?

- Their leader was Dan Emmett - They are credited with the first minstrel show in 1843 - Their origins were urban even if they sought to depict a rural sensibility, particularly a rural South - The group members "corked up" and performed in blackface, playing the characters that came to be part of the standard minstrel show.

Casta Diva from Bellini`s Opera Norma

- This is an arrangement for piano, or transcription, of a popular opera aria. - The harmonies are chordal, even if the "chords" are played one note at a time in an arpeggio style. - The texture is characterized by a flowing melody with accompaniment. - melody is most prominent feature

European classical influences have

- Trained voices and instrumentalists; - Smooth melody, often long and flowing, which is the most prominent feature; - More complex harmonies than African or folk styles, but no dense texture or layers; - Slow to moderate tempo.

Which of the following were the most common--and sometimes only--ways of hearing European music in 19th Century America:

- Travelling performers - Sheet music "arrangements" of opera arias to play and sing at home and at local venues - Piano transcriptions of famous composers' works

The chapter on The Parlor Song begins with Stephen Foster's famous letter to E.P. Christy, taking back his request to remain anonymous as the composer of "Old Folks at Home" as he no longer thought it would ruin his reputation as a composer of parlor songs. Foster wrote, "I find that by my efforts I have done a great deal to build up a taste for Ethiopian [minstrel] songs among refined people." Blind to his own ingrained bigotry of race and class, Foster touches one of the important aspects of minstrelsy, that it was the first truly popular and commercial American music and appealed to all social groups. Which of the following are the musical aspects of minstrelsy we hear in Foster's most popular song, that highlight the musical importance of minstrelsy.

- Used American vernacular and folk styles - Its chorus--strophes or stanzas with the same words and music--returns often - Employs dance rhythms (that is, regular pulse and accent patterns)

Tin Pan Alley refers to

- an area in New York that housed the music publishing business - the 'metonym' for popular song from the decades surrounding the turn of the previous century [1900] (just as Hollywood is a 'metonym' for the popular film industry today)

minstrelsy

- city slicker, Zip Coon, and country bumpkin, Jim Crow - first real minstrel show: performed in Boston in 1843 by the Virginia Minstrels, four blackface entertainers sang, danced, and played folk instruments - "endmen"--Tambo and Bones, named for the instruments they played. The minstrel show concluded with a "walkaround," or grand finale. - Sound American, not European, and use American vernacular and folk-style music; - Use a returning chorus and have dance rhythms--two features that will continue to be important in popular music; - introduced an accompaniment that mixed timbres--songs included stringed, strummed, and percussion instruments.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

- is a true product of Tin Pan Alley: composed by a von Tilzer, produced by a music publishing house, and written in verse-chorus form. - has a three-beat waltz rhythm giving it energy and bounce, but the emphasis is really on its melody.

George M. Cohan (1878-1942

- songwriter, performer, director, and producer of numerous hits in the early 20th century. - His musicals are about Americans, for whom he wrote music that sounded American. That means, it has: ---Energetic, sometimes march-like music. often patriotic--for example, "You're a Grand Old Flag" and "Over There" (see sheet music cover at right); ---Vigorous melodies; ---A bit of syncopation; ---Clever lyrics, with no sentimentality; ---Everyday speech. yankee doodle boy

Love and Theft, Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class, Oxford University Press, 1993)

Eric Lott - The title captures the fundamental idea: the "love"—the attraction, the "mass appeal" of minstrel songs is undeniable. - white majority gave not a second thought to taking—stealing, "appropriating" -anything they fancied in black culture without paying for it—with money, respect, or anything else, and making it their own is also undeniable.

revue

Featuring a loose plot held together by songs and dances, revues were slightly more sophisticated than vaudeville. - Along with vaudeville, the revue replaced the minstrel show in the early 20th century.

The New Orleans jazz band's two parts:

Frontline: instruments that play the melody rhythm section: marks the beat and supplies the harmonies. The standard rhythm section at this time comprised banjo, piano, tuba, and drums.

Louis Armstrong (1901-71)

He was the first great soloist in jazz; - "Hotter than That" (1927) 1) Frontline: clarinet, trumpet/voice, trombone; 2) Rhythm section: piano, banjo, guitar; 3) Improvised solos by each instrumentalist, with collective improvisation at the end; 4) Armstrong on trumpet, which mimics a voice, and "scat" singing, which mimics an instrument; 5) Rhythmic play among the group causing syncopation; 6) Form comprises several choruses.

bessie smith blues music

Her recordings epitomize the classic commercial blues style; most of her songs mix blues with jazz and popular song styles. Form: a) 12-bar blues, although some of her songs have other forms, especially the AABA form of 1920s popular songs (more on this form in Unit 4); b) Call and response between Smith and the instrumentalists. Singing style: a) Personal touches; highly inflected style--almost sounds like speech intensified into song; b) Rough, gravely voice; c) Phrases that start high and end low. Feeling: a) Blue mood; b) Racy metaphors.

Blues songs tend to follow a simple chord progression using:

I, IV, and V chords

The New Orleans jazz band's standard instrumentation came from three sources:

Marching band: clarinet, cornet or trumpet, trombone, brass bass (tuba), drums; Minstrel show and string bands: banjo and string bass; Saloons and brothels: piano.

european classical music

Melody and Harmony: - Long, flowing melodies (usually not riff-based); - Complex harmonies; organized chord progressions. Rhythm and Instruments/Timbre: - Regular accents, but sometimes syncopation; - Trained voices and instrumentalists.

Anglo-American Folk Sources

Melody and Harmony: - Melodies are simple and easy to sing; - Harmonies are simple; - Often use pentatonic scale. Instruments/Timbre: - Homemade instruments, but also European instruments played in unusual ways; - Self-trained instrumentalists; - Untrained, but expressive voices; - Nasal, "mountain" sound. Lyrics: - Lyrics tell a story in a simple and direct way; - Everyday language, slang, and humor. Texture and Form: - Texture is simple and thin in sad ballads; more complex and layered in folk dances. - Forms are simple, usually strophic or verse/chorus (both are "closed" forms).

legacy of ragtime

Responsible for some "firsts": 1)The first true musical mixture of European and African-American styles. (Minstrelsy had mixed African-American idioms with folk styles.) 2)The first time that many African-Americans became aware of their own culture. This encouraged other black artists (for example, W. C. Handy) to preserve their musical heritage. 3)The first time African-American music was published and disseminated to a wide audience. Many composers followed Joplin's lead in publishing rags, which became a big business for music publishers.

african sources summary

Rhythm: - Complex rhythms, with irregular accents (syncopation); - Rhythmic freedom; - Multiple layers of rhythms. Melody and Harmony: - Sometimes conversational, sometimes more tuneful; - Rhythmic riffs are often important. These combine to form phrases, which in turn combine to form the melody; - Phrases often start high, end low; - Use of melismas (several notes to a single syllable); - Harmony is unimportant; - Uses African pentatonic scale. Instruments/Timbre: - Homemade instruments, especially percussion; - Self-trained instrumentalists; - Untrained, but expressive voices; - Call and response; - Bent pitches. Lyrics and Texture: - Lyrics often tell a story in a direct way; - Textures are layered. Form; - Songs are not always organized into "closed" forms, which means that the sections don't always have a clear beginning and a clear ending. - Sometimes instruments enter gradually (fade-in) and sometimes at the end there is a fade-out

operetta

The only stage entertainment in America that had a cohesive plot with musical numbers that made dramatic sense. - Usually set in an exotic locale and featured European-style musical numbers. - Popular in urban centers--high-brow music. - Eventually lost audiences to the new, more "American" musical comedy.

This dance flows from ____ and shows this musically by it's slightly complex melody in regular phrases, regular yet continuously flowing rhythm (which happens to be in the accented 3-beat meter of the popular "waltz"), and the ____ musicians that play in a small brass ensemble--professional or amateur-- that perform it. Even without words its form is clear: in this case the dance is made up of equal-length sections, A and B, which play in an A-A-B-B-A-A pattern (and if there are dancers, will repeat as many times as necessary until the dance is done.)

Urban European sources trained

Foxtrot beat

a dance with two beats and a strong backbeat

old joe clark is an example of

a folk dance song

A short melodic (usually instrumental) idea is:

a riff

a short melodic (usually instrumental) idea.

a riff

The term syncopation is defined as:

a shift in accent in a song, when the accent doesn't line up with the beat

An emphasized note or chord is called:

an accent

non-commercial blues

an oral tradition performed in rural areas well out of the mainstream (often in tent shows and on the vaudeville circuit)

bent pitches

are notes that fall "between the cracks" (for example, between a white and black key on the keyboard) and are not found in either the 7-note or 5-note scales. Blues and jazz singers use bent pitches for expression.

a chord in which the pitches are played in succession.

arpeggio

The ____ is a percussive sound on the second of a pair of beats:

backbeat

A typical rhythm section contains at least one chord instrument, one ____ instrument and one percussion instrument.

bass

One of the most important blues singers who was recorded was

bessie smith (1894-1937)

Unusual (by our standards) rhythm instrument heard in both minstrel songs and African-American folk music of the 19th Century

bones

A dance fad of the 1890s.

cakewalk

Musical exchanges between a leader and the group.

call and response

African music often involves

call and response - diff people - voice and instrument1

hat defines a "popular song" according to the 1A interview with the "Switched on Pop" hosts? (choose all that apply)

catchy tune or hook lots of people like it Sometimes it can finds its way to the collective unconscious through other than commercial means. usually ranked on the billboard charts

In the late 19th century, before radio, TV, or other forms of mass communication, this touring form of entertainment was a primary source of entertainment:

concert bands

Handy's "St. Louis Blues" (1914)

most frequently recorded Blues "song" in the first half of the 20th century.

A musical term that describes two melodies that fit together, as in the final "collision of choruses" in Britney Spears' "Oops, I Did It Again":

counterpoint

This term refers to the contrast between loud and soft:

dynamics

blues form

each chorus has three lines of text. The first two have the same words and generally the same music (a,a), and the last has different words and music (b). Each line has 4 bars of music, so we call it "12-bar blues." Notice that each line of text begins with a different chord (harmony), but each line ends with the same chord (I).

Chuck Berry's instrument was the:

electric guitar

1920 Mamie Smith recorded "Crazy Blues

encouraged record companies to look for other black singers who sang in the blues style

"De Boatman's Dance" - Dan Emmett

example of a mixture of traditional and homemade instruments. (instrumentation) - earthy lyrics that tell a story; - Fast dance tempo; - Simple melody; - Folk instruments (banjo, fiddle, tambourine, bones); - Verse/chorus form (although "De Boatman's Dance" has two choruses).

The term intensity refers to the duration of the pitch of a musical sound.

false

​In a blues song, the identical first two lines of a chorus are called a rhymed couplet.

false

​Pitch refers to the duration of a sound.

false

​The terms measure and beat refer to the same thing and are used interchangeably.

false

handy's memphis blues is an example of

features of the march (form) and ragtime (syncopation), blended with blues (bent pitches and 12-bar blues form).

the organization of a piece of music

form

African musician and storyteller, an occupation passed down within families.

griot

The vocalist in this West African song is known as s

griot

The sounding of two or more notes at the same time is:

harmony

A song plugger worked for:

music publisher

During the nineteenth century--and even today--this umbrella term is used to describe all forms of entertainment that appeal to urban and cultivated listeners.

highbrow

performance style

how the instruments and voices are being used.

backbeat

in 2-beat rhythm, each beat can be subdivided into two parts, with the accent coming between the beats - is an African-American interpretation of the afterbeat of a march or polka, so that the normally unaccented beats (2 and 4) are accented.

the musical instruments utilized in a piece of music.

instrumentation

The straight man in a minstrel show who would ask questions of the endman and invite comical responses.

interlocutor

The insertion of a song into a musical comedy simply because it was a popular piece.

interpolation

The santería

is an adaptation of Yoruba religious practices (influenced by Catholic belief). is an afro-cuban practice

Country bumpkin stock character in a minstrel show

jim crow

America's "March King" was:

john philip sousa

African stringed instrument used to accompany singing

kora

The accompaniment is played by a stringed instrument called a

kora

duration

length of a sound

intensity

loudness of a sound

In the nineteenth century rural and "vernacular" [language of everyday life] forms of entertainment might be referred to as:

lowbrow

The mid-1800 entertainment form which gave rise to American musical theater.

minstrel show

The first time the perceived styles of music of black Americans became wildly popular among the majority population was with

minstrel songs

a sound "frequency" such as A-440.

pitch

commercial blues

published and recorded earlier - mixed blues elements with other styles for commercial purposes. - Commercial blues, especially as promoted by W. C. Handy (photo at right), mark the entrance of blues into the mainstream and shaped the sound of popular song in the early part of the century.

The march and the concert band played a seminal role in the development of which of the following musical styles:

ragtime syncopated music jazz

pattern(s) of musical movement in time

rhythm

In 4-beat rhythm, each beat can also be subdivided. If each beat is divided into two equal parts so that it sounds as if there are 8 parts to each bar: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and, we call it a

rock beat

lowbrow

rural culture minstrel songs

intervals combine to make

scales

A book containing the lyrics of a popular song.

songster

Chuck Berry's song "Maybellene" has country music influence because of its:

strong honky-tonk two-beat in the chorus

Each verse of a song is sung to the same music.

strophic

In the 1800s, the music of Stephen Foster became most readily available to the widest possible audience as a result of:

the availability of sheet music

texture

the musical fabric, or the relationship among the parts. It refers to: - The number of voices and instruments; - The distance (range) between the highest and lowest sounds; - Where the sounds are concentrated: are they mostly high as in King Oliver's "Dippermouth Blues," or are they mostly low as in T Bone Walker's "Stormy Monday Blues"? - We also talk about melodic texture (where is the melody?) and rhythmic texture (how many different rhythmic layers do you hear? do some parts push against the beat?);

Form in music refers to:

the organization of a musical piece

At the end of the nineteenth century, the minstrel show was slowly fading from popularity. For the next twenty years it was replaced with a breezy, loosely-jointed show with lots of song and dance and a skimpy plot line to hold it all together. This new form of stage entertainment was known as:

the revue

blues originated from

work songs and other music sung by slaves, which, in turn, had been influenced by African music, as we've already seen.