soundscapes exam 1

Famous Tin Pan Alley Musicians

1. George Gershwin: made the song "I Got Rhythm" which was an up-tempo African-American influenced song 2. Irving Berlin: "How Deep is the Ocean?" 3. Al Jolson: rose to success as a singer of "coon" songs in blackface minstrel shows. -"The World's Greatest Entertainer", self-proclaimed

coon songs

A ragtime kind of song that were derived of the songs of southern blacks, very racist.

Entertainers from the Mississippi Delta region:

Charley Patton Robert Johnson Willie Brown Ike Zinnerman Son House

Entertainers from the Atlanta area:

Charlie Lincoln Robert Hicks Blind Willie McTell

Entertainers from the Dallas area:

Hubbie Leadbetter Lonnie Johnson Blind Lemon Jefferson

call and response

In this form the leader performs a portion of music and the group performs a response.

Louis Chauvin

King of Ragtime players, best pianist performing in St. Louis, was said to play completely from memory, unable to read musical notes

Classic ragtime

Notated or written compositions for piano, in four sections; associated w/ Scott Joplin and his contemporaries

Royalities

Payment made by a music publisher to a composer based on the number of printed or recorded copies sold. Also, payments made by record labels to artists and song publishers based on the number of records sold

Rag or ragging

The term applied to syncopated or embellished melodies during the ragtime era, inseparable part of jazz, term used in the titles of the first jazz recordings by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1917, main characteristic = syncopation, any composition could be played this way

blue note

To us it sounds like the minor scale and is what gives Blues music its sound.

pitch bending

a purposeful raising or lowering of a tone's pitch; usually done for coloration or expressive purposes.

TIn Pan Alley

composed styles of popular music reflecting the musical values of middle-class White America; published between 1880 and 1950, primarily by NY based firms

Scott Joplin

created classic ragtime, set concrete guidelines for playing ragtime, dubbed "the king of ragtime writers"

vaudeville

featured a playbill of individual performances that had never before appeared on the same stage. Vaudeville was also considered more appropriate for family entertainment than the minstrel show. Every vaudeville bill contained a performance by a singer of sentimental ballads. With a constant flow of new and established talent on the vaudeville stage, this new theatrical format continually demanded more music to present to the public; thus the new "pop" song industry was created. (mixture of specialty acts such as burlesque comedy and song and dance.)

Tom Turpin

first major African American composer of rags, his famous Rosebud bar became the site where many ragtime pianists started their careers, fostered the careers of other Black piano players by enabling them to play and compose ragtime in his bar, his own compositions showed clear traces of his own improvisatory style

tin pan alley

got its name from Monroe Rosenfeld, who described the song publishing neighborhood as sounding like a cacophony of tinkling pianos coming from the open windows of the houses on a hot summer's day.

Maple Leaf Rag

increased Joplin's visibility and that of it's publisher John Start, who actively committed himself to advocating for ragtime music, its incredible success inspired other music publishers to produce hundreds of rags

field holler

nonrhythmic chant sung by a solitary worker, usually while plowing or harvesting. The words were sometimes preplanned and sometimes whatever came to mind.

strophic

one melody is repeated over and over with a changing lyrical verse. (same music the whole song)

plugger

someone who demonstrates sheet music on the piano for potential customers. (george gershwin start)

work songs

song that took its rhythm from synchronized group tasks such as cutting trees or driving railroad spikes. It was a steady, rhythmic song, utilizing call-and-response between the task leader and the other workers.

broadside

the precursor of popular sheet music, topical songs that use a casual language style. they were like a gossip tabloid of their day, they were usually printed without a musical line and could be sung to familiar popular and folk music

Entertainers from Chicago:

Big Bill Broonzy Sonny Boy Williams Elmore James Howlin' Wolf Junior Wells Muddy Waters:

Charley Patton

Father of the delta blues from dockery plantation. Patton's vocal quality was rough, growling, and intense. He often deliberately slurred his words, a practice that became an identifying trait of the Delta blues style. used the blunt end of a knife or the neck of a glass bottle to slide up and down the neck of the guitar, allowing it to imitate the sliding pitch of his voice. The bottleneck guitar technique is also characteristic of Delta blues.

Cutting contest

Informal competition among musicians, intended to identify the artist with the greatest creativity and skill, emphasis on the art of improvisation that is central to ragtime tradition

Tin Pan Alley

The center of commercial songwriting and publishing business in New York, influenced by the European American Stream -Two Main Types of Songs 1. Songs of Sentiment -Ex: "My Blue Heaven", "April Showers", "How Deep is the Ocean?" 2. Fast moving rhythmic songs -Tends to show the clear influence of African American musical styles.

cakewalk

became synonymous in marketing scheme w/ ragtime and coon songs, A dance that parodies White upper-class behavior derived from slave masters, originally performed by African American slaves; the best performance was awarded a prize, usually a cake, from which the dance takes it's name, one of the most popular dances on the vaudeville stage

voice inflection

change in voice pitch or tone to express something, like raising your voice at the end of a sentence to ask a question

minstrel show

common man's vs the upper aristocrat. music was a common language between people of different ethnic backgrounds, who shared a common economic and social status. Racist because whites would adopt the image of the American black in the white people's eyes, and would exaggerate stereotypical characteristics such as appearance, speech, movement, and behaviors for a comic effect. In later minstrel shows, The audience was expected to sit and behave themselves rather than dancing and being rowdy. In early minstrelsy it resembled a modern-day mosh pit at a rock concert with people hanging from the balcony and chandeliers and crowing on stage with the performers, rather the polite-setting of the theater.

ragtime

music characterized by a syncopated melodic line and regularly accented accompaniment, evolved by black American musicians in the 1890s and played especially on the piano. Anything current and peppy.

swing feel

musician uses a softer articulation to begin each note than would be played for a more rigid rhythmic feel. For instance, if you sang a march melody, you would probably use a deliberate and crisp articulation, saying "Ta—ta ta—tata." On the other hand, if you were imitating a swinging jazz melody, you would use a softer articulation singing "Da—da da . . ." or "Doo—doo doo. . . ." Second, musicians playing with a swing feel play three subdivisions of the beat instead of two. Therefore, in a pattern of two notes per beat the note that begins on the beat is twice as long as the note that occurs off the beat (1-2 3).

troubadours & trouveres

originated in france in the 12th and 13th centuries. Love songs which idolized women and romance

Atlanta blues singers

preferred the 12 string guitar with its rich two-guitar sound. Atlanta blues features a more delicate fingerpicking style on the guitar, as opposed to the more forceful rhythmic feel of Delta blues guitarists. Atlanta singers used more distinct pronunciation and lighter vocal tone quality.

improvisation

spontaneous creation of a performer reacting to the musical environmental situation of the moment. The range of freedom used in musical improvisation is wide. At one extreme, improvisation involves a free rendering of the existing melody of a song only, altering the original rhythms of the melody or adding some extra notes in an ornamental fashion. This is called paraphrasing the melody. From about the mid-1920s on, musicians moved toward spontaneously creating entirely new melodies assembled from their personal repertoire of well-practiced musical phrases, or licks. These new melodies were constructed to fi t the preexisting succession of chords. From about the 1950s, musicians began to create even freer improvisations that were not obligated to follow a set of chord changes or even a particular key or scale.

Scott Joplin, James Scott and Joseph Lamb

three creators of compositional ragtime

What Were Tin Pan Alley Songs About?

1. They were designed to help people escape the pressures of daily life -Allowed listeners to identify his/her personal experiences to that of the singer 2. Crooning: intimate/gentle style of singing -Reinforced the links between pop. music & personal experience (i.e. Gene Austin in "My Blue Heaven") 3. Songs reflected the efforts of composers to tap into the aspirations of an expanding/ethically mixed, but predominantly white culture.

Robert Johnson

He was such a great musician that people believed he sold his soul to the devil in return for his incredible musical talent. The recording of "Terraplaine Blues" was a huge success, but all 41 of his recordings have been cherished by generations of blues fans.

Blind Lemon Jefferson

His voice had a high, strained sound and a haunting, urgent quality. He had a tough, defi ant character, both in his personality and in his music. His lyrics were often tragic and violent and at times had sexual nuances. his style was close to the chantlike field holler; concomitantly, his guitar style lacked a steady rhythm, prompting bluesman Son House say no one was lucky enough to dance to his music

pleasure garden & parlor songs

Pleasure garden songs began as a popular pastime in England in the eighteenth century where there was dining and strolling through public gardens, which offered music and entertainment. The pleasure garden songs were strophic in form, and the sheet music led to production of parlor songs. The parlor songs were specifically made for amateurs as they were easy to perform, and the standard form was ABA. They rarely exceeded three chords harmonically.

Entertainers listed since 1960:

Ray Charles Sam Cooke Aretha Franklin The Blues Brothers Stevie Ray Vaughan Jimi Hendrix Jonny Lang B.B. King

Tin Pan Alley Song Form

Verse-Refrain form with an AABA refrain -The refrain (chorus) was designed to be the most memorable part of the song -A Section: the main melody, basic pattern of lyrics, and set of chord changes -B Section (bridge): presents new material-new melody, chord changes, and lyrics.

motor rhythms

a steady rhythmic pulse at a consistent tempo. most commonly found in music that facilitates coordinated body movement such as dancing, marching, rowing, or hammering. An audible steady pulse lays the foundation against which rhythmic devices such as syncopation and swing feeling work.

coon songs

became synonymous in marketing scheme w/ ragtime and cakewalk, popular song style of the late nineteenth centuries that presented a stereotyped view of African Americans, often performed by White singers in blackface

belters & crooners

belters were more loud forceful singers and were replaced by crooners in 1920s. Crooners sang more sentimental songs in a soft, low voice. (bing crosby)

Big Bill Broonzy

brought electric guitar into music

Sonny Boy Williams

brought harmonica into music

syncopation

emphasizing notes that do not align with the pulse. In a four-beat rhythmic group, the fi rst and third beats tend to be the strong beats. By accenting the weak beats, or displacing the accents, we create a lighter feel that is the basis of syncopation.