American Popular Music Chapter 2

The Phonograph

- In 1902, the twelve-inch disc was introduced played at a standard speed of 78 r.p.m., these discs could hold up to four minutes of music. - In 1904 the double-sided disc was introduced played at 33.3 r.p.m..

musical elements of ragtime

- influenced by minstrel-show songs, blacks' banjo styles, and syncopated (off-beat) dance rhythms of the cakewalk, and also elements of European music characteristic expression in formally structured piano compositions. The regularly accented left-hand beat, in 4/4 or 2/4 time, was opposed in the right hand by a fast, bouncingly syncopated melody that gave the music its power

Stephen Foster

- known for his ballads, minstrel show tunes, and plantation songs - Songs: Jennie with the Light brown hair, Oh Sussana

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)tothemusic

Scott Joplin

1. Best known composer of ragtime music 2. African American composer and pianist

Foster's success was supported by a number of social and technological factors

1. Minstrel troupes performed his songs on their tours. 2. Sheet music expanded during the mid-nineteenth century, fueled in part by the rapid growth of public mass education, which allowed many more people to read and play simple piano arrangements

John Phillips Sousa

1. Most popular bandleader from the 1890s through WW1 was... 2. one of the first to negotiate royalty payments.

James A. Bland (1854-1911)

1. One of the best-known and most successful composers of plantation songs. 2. wrote some seven hundred songs In the Morning in the Bright Light In the Evening by the Moonlight 'Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (1878) "Oh, Dem Golden Slippers" (1879)..

John Phillips Sousa songs

1. Stars and stripes forever 2. king cotton 3. Semper Fidelis

Stephen Foster

1. composed around 200 songs during the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s 3. regarded as the first important composer of American Popular Song.

standard song form

A common form for the choruses of "standards" or popular hits of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. It consists of 32 measures divided into four phrases in the pattern AABA

Vaudeville

A kind of variety show that became the dominant form of popular entertainment in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in America. A typical performance might feature singers, actors, jugglers, animal acts, and other novelties. popular chiefly in the US in the early 20th century,

Ragtime

A musical genre of African Americ.in origin, later exploited to great advantage by white performers, that emerged in the 1880s and became quite popular at the turn of the century. Ragtime is characterized by melodic accents that fall on "off" or weak beats; it is highly syncopated. Scott Joplin is the recognized master of this genre, having com posed numerous rags for the piano impossible to pinpoint the precise origins, it is generally agreed that the word itself derives from the African American term "to rag", meaning to enliven a piece of music by shifting melodic accents onto the offbeats.

arrangement

A piece of music that has been adapted for performance by a particular set of voices or instruments

Minstrel Show

A popular form of mid-nineteenth century entertainment featuring white performers performing in black face makeup. The classic minstrel show was organized around a series of more or less independent sketches and songs, featuring characters such as Mr. Interlocutor, a lead performer who sang and provided patter be tween acts, and Bones and Tambo, who sat at either end of the line of performers.

Charles K. Harris

A self taught banjo player from Wisconsin who could not literally write music; instead, he dictated his songs to a professional musician. He was offered $10,000 for all rights to his song, "After the Ball," which he turned down to self publish, and soon cleared around $25,000 a month, proving that popular music could be a lucrative business and encouraged young entrepreneurs to set up their own publishing firms.

strophic form, strophic song

A song in several stanzas, with the same music sung for each stanza; as opposed to "through-composed" song. "Verse and chorus" structure, common in popular music, is a type of strophic form

Song pluggers

A song plugger - song demonstrator was a vocalist or piano player employed by department and music stores and song publishers in the early 20th century to promote and help sell new sheet music, which is how hits were advertised before quality recordings were widely available.

Harry Von Tilzer

A successful turn of the century songwriter sometimes referred to as the "Daddy of Popular Song." His big hits included "A Bird in a Gilded Cage" (1900) and "I Want a Girl (Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad)" (1911).

How does a waltz differ from a march? Give an example of each

A waltz is written in 3/4 and has a slightly lilting feel to it (not swung but not strictly straight time either - listen to the Blue Danube for an example). A dance in triple time with a strong emphasis on every third beat A march is strict 4/4, very straight time (sounding regimental as would be expected-listen to the Nutcracker March for an example).

Thomas Dartmouth Rice

A white actor born into a poor family in New York's Seventh Ward who demonstrated the potential popularity (and profitability) of minstrelsy with the song "Jim Crow" (1829), which became the first international American song hit.

"After the Ball"

Charles K. Harris, 1892 Composer

Enrico Caruso

Death Sales

George Washington Dixon

First to establish a wide reputation as a "blackface" entertainer.

AABBACCDD

Form of a classic rag

The Cakewalk

In his routine, Rice imitated the dance step called this, slaves making fun of their white owners-an Africanized version of the European quadrille, which was a kind of square dance.

Dance Music

Main venue: The Grand Ball, Ballroom Dancing

Where did Tin Pan Alley originate?

New York City

brass band concerts

One of the most important musical aspects of American Life from civil war thru 1920s very patriotic sounding music, know for accompanying national/patriotic events

Paul Dresser

One of the most popular composers of the early Tin Pan Alley period who wrote a series of sentimental and nostalgic songs, including "The Letter That Never Came" (1885) and "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" (1899).

Cause of the phonograph

Record Companies: Columbia and Victor Talking Machine Company

Syncopation

Rhythmic patterns in which the stresses occur on what are ordinarily weak beats, thus displacing or suspending the sense of metric regularity. Deliberate upsetting of the meter or pulse through a temporary shifting of the accent to a weak beat or an offbeat.

Maple Leaf Rag

Scott Joplin 1

Types of popular music

Sentimental -- nostalgia, home, family

Because of Tin Pan Alley

Sheet Music, Song pluggers

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.

Describe the different musical forms discussed in this chapter: strophic form, verse-chorus, multi-sectional/march form, standard AABA song form.

Strophic form-A strophic song uses the same melody repeated over and over, with different text for each repetition. The song may include a chorus or a refrain. In the refrain, the same text is sung to the same melody for each repetition. This most frequently occurs at the end of the song, but refrains may be used at the beginning or in the middle of the song as well ( ex: Amazing Grace, Old McDonald Had a Farm) 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 A B B C A B B B Ex-Rick Springfield "Jessie's Girl" Multi-section/march form- A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's Götterdämmerung to the brisk military marches of John Philip Sousa and the martial hymns of the late 19th century. Standard AABA 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 Ex- Ethel Waters "I Got Rhythm" Ex- The Beatles "Yesterday"

James A. Bland

Successful black songwriter and one of the best known and most successful composers of plantation songs. Bland wrote some seven hundred songs, including "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (1878) and "Oh, Dem Golden Slippers" (1879).

Tin Pan Alley

The center of the commercial songwriting and publishing business in New York from approximately the 1880s through the mid-twentieth-century. The term has been applied to the popular-songs published there by composers like Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, and George Gershwin.

Ragtime style

Type of Popular Music progressive, novelty, excitement)

Describe vaudeville. How did vaudeville differ from the minstrel show?

Vaudeville- A kind of variety show that became the dominant form of popular entertainment in the late 19th and 20th centuries in America. A typical performance might feature singers, actors, jugglers, animal acts, and other novelties. Minstrel show- A popular form of mid-19th-century entertainment featuring white performers performing in black face makeup. The classical minstrel show was organized around a series of more or less independent sketches and songs, featuring characters such as Mr. Interlocutor, a lead performer who sang and provided patter between acts, and Bones and Tambo, who sat at either end of the line of performers. Vaudeville was a popular 19th century show that offered a variety of acts while Minstrel shows offered white performers who artificially blackened their skin and enacted parodies of African American music, dance, dress, and dialect.

Thomas Dartmouth Rice 1

Who was the march king?

waltz

a ballroom dance in triple time with a strong accent on the first beat

verse-chorus form

a pattern diagrammed as a-B-a-B-a-B (etc.), in which the a verses have differing text (but a shared melody), while the B choruses repeat a single melody and the same words each appearance

mazurka

a polish folk dance in triple meter, often with a heavy accent on the second or third beat of each measure

strophes

a rhythmic system of two or more lines repeated as a unit

multisectional/march form of music

band music

strophic form

vocal form in which the same music is repeated for each stanza of a poem

dances of the late nineteenth century might include...

waltz, mazurka or polka