Music 203 Andrew Connell Test 1 Study Guide

James Madison University Andrew Connell Music in America Study guide

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.)

Aerophones

Woodwinds

Chordophones

Guitar, 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

Non metered

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-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 cam 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

1) Teach singing before notation
2) Active learning
3) Teach one element at a time
4) Master each step before moving on
5) 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

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