Mus 215- Music
Blue Notes
"Bent" or "flattened" tones lying outside traditional European-based scale structures that reflect particular African American melodic characteristics.
Salvation
(Christianity) the act of delivering from sin or saving from evil
Harmony
(n.) - agreement, often of sound
Pentatonic scale
5 note scale
Creole
A language that results from the mixing of a colonizer's language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated.
Prohibition
A law forbidding the sale of alcoholic beverages
Storyville
A part of New Orleans in the early part of the twentieth century which contained bars, nightclubs, and brothels that hired jazz musicians to provide entertainment and dance music.
Rhythm
A strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound.
Sharecropping
A system used on southern farms after the Civil War in which farmers worked land owned by someone else in return for a small portion of the crops.
Middle Passage
A voyage that brought enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to North America and the West Indies
Social commentary
A way of speaking out about issues in society
Jelly Roll Morton
African American pianist, composer, arranger, and band leader from New Orleans; Bridged that gap between the piano styles of ragtime and jazz; Was the first important jazz composer
Two beat music
Also "playing in two." A form of rhythm organization in which the first and third beats of the bar are emphasized (particularly by the bass), often leaving the second and fourth beats silent, with a resulting "boom-chick" feel. Two-beat was especially common in early jazz, but can be found in all eras.
Antebellum
Belonging to a period before a war especially the American Civil War
Brass Trumpet/trombone, French horn, tuba
Brass section of a band
Sidney Bechet
Clarinet, Soprano Saxophone
Moans, hoops and Shouts
Common in folk songs and spirituals, defining element of both. They were encouraged as audience participation was more common in african culture, as is evidenced by the call and response.
Cross rhythms
Contrasting rhythms played at the same time or played with unusual emphasis on notes.
Dynamics
Degrees of loudness or softness in music
Hocketing
Dispersing the tones of the melody among several voices and/or instruments, which play it in alternation or sequence rather than simultaneously. Traditional performance practice for south Andean panpipe music, such as "Kutirimunapaq," but also found elsewhere in the world.
2 beat music
Emphasis on 1 and 3 beat
Black Swan Records
First major black owned record company, founded in 1921 by Harry Pace
The Gospels
Four books in the New Testament that tell the story of Christ's life and teachings
Scale
In music, it is a set of notes that are grouped together arbitrarily. It is said that the notes of a scale go together naturally. For example, the Pentatonic scale is often used in melodies as no note is particularly dissonant when paired with other notes in the scale.
Motives
In music, motives are the start of a musical phrase that "motivate" the rest of the pattern. It is easily repeatable and easy to expand upon.
Scott Joplin
King of Ragtime
Jim Crow
Laws designed to enforce segregation of blacks from whites
Louis Armstrong
Leading African American jazz musician during the Harlem Renaissance; he was a talented trumpeter whose style influenced many later musicians.
Oral Tradition
Literature that passes by word of mouth from one generation to the next.
Black Folk Church
Look at andrews
The Gospel
Means "good news"
Great Migration
Movement of African Americans from the South to the North for jobs.
Self-empowerment
Music is a form of self-empowerment in African culture. It allows for self expression and is used to connect with the gods in African culture.
Jazz Age
Name for the 1920s, because of the popularity of jazz-a new type of American music that combined African rhythms, blues, and ragtime
Antebellum
Occurring before a war
Second Line
People who follow the band in the jazz funeral, dancing as they go.
backbeat
Placing a strong accent on the offbeats. In a four-beat measure, the drummer typically emphasizes beats 2 and 4, creating the basic rhythm of rock music.
Minstrelsy
Popular theatrical entertainment begun around 1830, in which white actors in blackface presented comic routines that combined racist caricature and social criticism. White people stereotyping black people.
Tuning preachers
Preachers who sing their words to increase their impact.
Harry Pace
Publisher, business partner of W.C. Handy and founder of Black Swan Records, the first black-owned record label of the 20th century
Unison
Singing same melody at the same time
Spirituals
Song form that emphasized Christian values and embodied many of the rhythmic aspects of the folk songs. There were two types of spirituals- arranged, which were songs appropriated by white people to "europeanize" folk songs, and folk spirituals, which was closer to african culture.
Blues Aesthetic
The blues Aesthetic is more than the "black" aesthetic.
Old Testament
The forty-six books that make up the first part of the Bible and record salvation history before the coming of the Savior, Jesus Christ.
Fisk Jubilee Singers
The group that introduced the spiritual to the northern states and Europe
Congo Square
The place in New Orleans where slaves were allowed to play traditional African music and dance.
New Testament
The second part of the Christian Bible, containing descriptions of the life and teachings of Jesus and of his early followers
TOBA
Theater Owners Booking Association
King Oliver
United States jazz musician who influenced the style of Louis Armstrong (1885-1938)
Plessy v. Ferguson
a 1896 Supreme Court decision which legalized state ordered segregation so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were equal
glissandos
a continuous slide upward or downward between two notes.
Syncopation
a deliberate upsetting of the normal pattern of accents
Soli
a group of soloists, multiple soloists.
Pathos
a quality that evokes pity or sadness
Call and Response
a question-and-answer pattern in which a group responds to a leader
Polyrhythm
a rhythm that makes use of two or more different rhythms simultaneously
Melody
a sequence of single notes that is musically satisfying.
riff
a short, catchy, and repeated phrase that is similar to a melody but is shorter.
Call and response
a song style in which a singer or musician leads with a call and a group responds
cakewalk
a strutting dance popularized by minstrel shows in the late 19th century
New Orleans Jazz
a style of jazz that originated in that city shortly after 1900, involving a syncopated, improvisatory style of playing built on the tunes and harmonies of blues, parlor songs, rags, and marches
Chattel
an item of personal, movable property; slave
Meter
bars or beats, regularly recurring demarcations in music.
Double Entendre
double meaning
Falsetto
high voice
falsetto
high voice
Inclusion relation
logical relation--set a is included in b if every element of A is in B.
vocables
meaningless sung syllables that take the place of song lyrics
Collective Improvisation
method of improvisation found in New Orleans jazz in which several instruments in the front line improvise simultaneously in a dense, polyphonic texture.
Great Migration
movement of over 300,000 African American from the rural south into Northern cities between 1914 and 1920
Functional Music
music that fulfills a social purpose outside itself
Octoroon
person of one-eighth black ancestry
Timbre
quality of sound
timbre
quality of sound
Beat/pulse
regular, recurrent pulsation that divides music into equal units of time
Hymns
songs of praise to God
Arranged Spiritual
spirituals that retained the melodies and texts of their folk predecessors, but sung in the European tradition and formal performance style
Blues
style of music evolving from African American spirituals and noted for its melancholy sound
Oral tradition
the custom of passing along stories by speech
Reconstruction
the period after the Civil War in the United States when the southern states were reorganized and reintegrated into the Union
Mute
to soften or tone down the sound of
Polymeter
two or more meters sounding simultaneously
Work song
type of folk song used during work to regulate physical activity or engage worker's attention
Ragtime
type of music that blended African-American rhythmic elements and European musical forms. It required technical prowess when playing the piano. Made huge waves through Scott Joplin. It's on the piano and isn't improvised. It's a sectional music.
A cappella
without instrumental accompaniment