Culture
A shared set of beliefs and practices that defines a group of people
Music Culture
A set of shared musical beliefs and practices that defines a group of people
Enculturation
The process of how infants learn culture
Acculturation
Cultural change that occurs in response to extended first hand contact between 2 or more previously autonomous groups
Appropriation
To take a trait or practice from another individual or cultural group and make it your own
Examples of Organology
Aerophones (woodwinds)
Chordophones (guitar, banjo) Membranophones (drums) Idiophones (cowbell, triangle, etc.)
Electronophones & mechanical instruments
Aerophones
woodwinds
Chordophones
guitar or banjo
Idiophones
Cowbell, triangle, ect
Electronophones
Mechanical instruments
Frequency
pitch
Amplitude
volume
Spectrum
timbre
Sound & perception
Frequency = pitch Amplitude = volume Spectrum = timbre
Rhythm
Pulse/Beat Polyrhythm (two different rhythms going on simultaneously) Meter (Duple, triple, Compound) Rubato (Nonmetered)
Meter
Duple, Triple, Compound
Polyrhythm
two different rhythms going on simultaneously
Melody
scale Ornmentation Syllabic vs melismatic singing
Ornamentation
Taking one melody and making it your own Example(Jimi Hendrix Nation anthem)
Harmony
Chord
Texture
Monophony - Solo, or same Heterophony - All playing or singing same tune but a little off (ex. When people sing happy birthday... all not same key or same texture) Polyphony - Many different sounds/ words going on
Monophony
Solo or same
Heterophony
All playing or singing same tune but a little off (ex. When people sing happy birthday... all not same key or same texture)
Polyphony
Many different sounds/ words going on
Arrival of Indians in America
Asian hunters crossed Bering land bridge 40k to 15k years ago
European Contact
They arrived to: -2-18 million inhabitants -100 tribal groups -300 distinct languages -Attempted to convert them to evangelism -Forced relocation -Tried to get them to drop their ways for "western culture"
Difficulties of studying early Indian Music
It was an oral culture making it hard to track/ understand with no writings
Language barrier (300 different languages)
Eurocentric biases
How to study Indian Music
Material Culture - First hand sources, bones, paintings, instruments
Oral Culture - Talk to American Indians about their tradition and oral stories
Historical Accounts - "read between the lines" of Eurocentric historical sources... note the biases though (above)
Extrapolating Backwards- Track current music backwards
Role of music in native culture
Linked to rituals very strongly and important tribe functions
Ownership of songs is related to tribes not one specific writer/ composer, etc.
Used for vision quests, successful hunts etc.
Spiritually powerful and important, deeper meaning and effects on the audiences or performer
They are judged by "efficacy" (effect) not the beauty or complexity and flow of the song
Musical characteristics of Native American
Monophonic - Predominantly vocal
Vocables, not words, no direct meaning
Short repeating melodies (3-6 notes)
Musical instrumentsRepetitive with subtle variation
Musical instruments of Native Americans
Membranophones and Idiophones - Drums, rattles, flutes were Most commonly used
Aerophones - Less common but used for love/ courting a woman
Plains style (Pow-wow style)
Male singers
Central Drum
Leg Bells
Tense pulsing voices
Downward, terraced couture
"Honor Beats" signal the end
Ululation: Female singers yodel like sound
LISTENED to "War Dance Song"
Southwest style (Pueblo)
Melodic contour, wide leaps to high accented pitch
Angular, undulating phrases
Rhythm: long - short
LISTENED to "Round dance song"
Northwest Pacific
STRONG song ownership
meant To reinforce social hierarchy
Potlatch ceremony (celebration)
Characteristics: Planks, drums, and rattles Undulating melodies Open relaxed voice LISTENED to "Whale dance"
Example of Pan-Indian movements
Trail of tears (1830-1842)
Ghost dance
Pow wow
Wounded Knee massacre (1890)
Trail of tears (1830-1842)
Forced relocation to Oklahoma
Many died while being forced to relocate
Ghost Dance
Used to wish for the white man to die so they could revert back to before the Europeans came over
Pow Wow
Cross tribal gatherings
Songs, dance, food, culture, contests
Celebration of life and culture
Wounded Knee massacre (1890)
Killed unarmed Ghost dancers
Native Influences on American popular music
Mildred Baily
Jimi Hendrix
"Come and Get Your Love" - Redbone
The drum in Indian music
metaphor for the heartbeat/heart of tribe
Protestant Reformation
Challenged key catholic beliefs
Martin Luther (1483-1546)
John Calvin (1509-1564)
Anglo Settlers in the US brought (Came to NA because?):
An aversion to State religion and Church Hierarchy
Sang early Psalm Books
Reverend Henry Ainsworth
Psalm meter
based on syllables per line
Music as a vehicle for words
Bay Psalm Book
"message over music"
Long Meter in Psalm books
8.8.8.8
Common Meter for Psalm Books
8.6.8.6
Short meter for Psalm Books
6.6.8.6
Bay Psalm Book
first book printed in British North America
Divergent themes of early Sacred Music
Praise - Direct praise
Edification - Intellectual, moral, and spiritual improvement
Edification
Praise through Intellectual, moral, and spiritual improvement (should lift you)
Lining out
Song leader gives each line of the tune and the chorus repeats it back
Criticized as "praising god through piece-meal"
LISTEN to "Guide me, O thou great Jehovah"
Singing schools
Centered in New England
"regular singing"
Brings about the return of church choirs
William Billings (1746-1800)
New England Psalm-Singer (1770)
----First by an American composer
----Waited to print until he could print on American paper
The Singing Master's Assistant (1778)
"First American composer worthy of note"
Known for Subscription sales
LISTEN to "Chester" ---Popular revolutionary-era song
Shape Notes
Popular in rural north and the south
Melody in middle voice tenor
"Sacred Harp" (1844)
"Of, for, and by the people" ----Democratic music making
was looked down upon by some due to "dunce notes" and it was "unscientific music"
looked down upon by those supporting Edification... "correct singing"
Black Sacred Harp Singing
Cross cultural
"The Colored Sacred Harp" (1934) by African American composers
"The Colored Sacred Harp" (1934)
Composed completely by African American
Lowell Mason (1792-1872)
Born into singing school tradition
Moved to Boston ----Involved in Boston Handle & Haydn Society collection of church music (1821)
Sold 50,000 (split 50/50 with publisher = great deal for him)
LISTEN to "Olivet"
Lowell Mason's influence on music education
Children singing schools in 1830 ----1,500 students in year one
Had goal of universal music literacy
Entered music into Boston school curriculum in 1838 ----Manual of the Boston Academy of Music
Mason's System
Teach singing before notation
Active learning
Teach one element at a time
Master each step before moving on
Theory & principal follow practice
Slave trade
First slaves brought over in 1619
About 10 million taken to new world
Only about 500,000 taken to US
Economics dominated morality, fueling importation/ harsh treatment of slaves
Because cotton drove US economy
Economics dominated morality, fueling importation/ harsh treatment of slaves because
cotton drove US economy
End of Slavery
1863: Emancipation Proclamation
13th amendment (1865)
outlawed slavery
14th amendment (1868)
if born here you are a US citizen protected by the US and the constitution
15th amendment (1870)
stated that all MEN can vote regardless of ethnicity
Post emancipation relations
Roughly 100 years of racial terrorism and systematic discrimination
1964 civil rights act
1965 voting rights act
African musical traits:
Lack of texts
Oral culture
Only euro-American written accounts ----BIAS behind it
Percussion dominant
Polyrhythms Interlocking parts
Call and response
"Heterogeneous sound ideal"
Vocal style
Dance is prevalent and important
Music integrated into their daily life
Regional differences in slavery
North: ----Urban ----Greater acculturation (definition on first page), less retention of African ways
South: ----Rural plantation culture ----Less white/black interaction ---------Led to them keeping more traditions with out adapting to white culture
African holiday festivals
Had African festivals on Christmas, Election days, and the Pentecost
Music in African Diaspora
Cuba ----Santeria, rumba "spirit possession"
Haiti ----Voudoun, rara
Brazil ----Candomblé, samba
Work Songs, Field hollers
These songs were part of daily life Listen "I don't mind the weather" - holler
Evangelism among African Americans
North: predominantly Methodists
Trinity Church in NY was the first mixed church that accepted blacks
Opponents feared conversion of blacks why?
Because baptism would mean they are humans and gods children that would then, in turn, be considered humans with rights
Also, they feared that they would be "too uppity and proud to work"
The Great Awakenings (1730-1740 & 1780-1830)
Evangelical revivals
Whites and Blacks worshiped together
Criticized by conservative Methodists
Richard Allen (1760 - 1831)
1784, appointed preacher in Philly
Old St. George's Methodist Church
African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME)
Founded by Richard Allen in 1794
Published songs and hymns in 1801
Wandering refrains
1 to 2 lines put in any song (call & response)
Ring Shout and the Spiritual
West African dance performed by dancing in a circle and responding to the preacher's shouts; influenced Jazz
Aesthetic transformation of Music (African Americans)
European music transformed to African/ hymn tune
Hymn turned into African American Spiritual music
Georgia Sea Islands
Isolated African Americans, no white males, enabled them to carry on strong/ historic African culture
LISTEN - Adam in the Garden
Cloaked meanings in spiritual texts
Used to communicate messages songs, had encoded meanings
Slaves used Bible imagery to describe their life such as
The wretchedness of slavery
Hopes/ dreams of escaping
Symbols Slaves used Bible imagery to describe their life
Israelites = Slaves
Pharaoh = Owner
Chariot = Underground railroad
Canaan = Northern lands and safety
Israelites hidden meaning
slaves
Pharaoh hidden meaning
Slave owner
Chariot hidden meaning
Underground Railroad
Canaan hidden meaning
Northern lands and safety
Ballad Tradition
Popular narrative song
Stanzas
Strophic is music stays same, words change
Oral tradition, not written down
Strophic
music stays same, words change throughout the song
Ballad types
From US perspective ----Imported ----Naturalized to new world through meaning, words, etc. ----Native ones are composed in Americas LISTEN to Barbara Allen
Barbara Allen
Composers ----HJ Beeker ----May Kennedy McCord ----Pete Seeger
Scottish roots
Based on 17th century Scottish ballad
Emotional core
Native Ballads
Songs composed in Americas
Naturalized Ballads
Music that has been changed to make it more local to America
Murder ballads
Often based on real events, past or present
Colonial Music Activities, why was this an issue?
because it is seen as a primitive activity to dance could Also, can be seen as a sin
Francis James Child (1825-1896)
Known for his collection of ballads, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (5 total volumes)
Cecil Sharp & Olive Campbell
known for their folk songs collection called Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians (1917)
Founded in 1928 by father and son John and Alan Lomax
Archive of American Folk Song
Archive of American Folk Song
Founded in 1928 by father and son John and Alan Lomax
Folk researchers and political activists
Recorded some of the first rural folk songs
Though music had the power to inspire political change
Representation of the working man
Urban Folk song movement
focused on social advocacy