Music Midterm

Panorama

a metaphor for America’s music viewed as a number of more or less distinct but parallel streams

folk art

• native or innocent art

• artist’s technique: relatively unschooled; amateur

• artist’s intent: not certain; probably intended for the artist’s own community

• composition: little action; presents facts, without comment or emotion

features of folk music

• music close-knit communities; contributes to a strong sense of group solidarity

• Traditionally rural and geographically isolated

• many in the community perform the music themselves

• center of attention is on the music performance itself, NOT on the singer, performer, or the quality of singing or performing

• dissemination: predominantly by oral tradition (now including radio, recordings, television, and film)

features of ethnic music

• shares some qualities with folk music

• distinction from folk: music that originated in societies whose homeland was outside of the United States (with the exception of American Indian)

• music in cultures in which the principal language is not english

Popular Art

• artisits tecnique: highly skilled; professional; almost photographic realism

• artist’s intent: to appeal to a large public

• composition: illustrates a story: we are drawn into the scene

features of popular music

• created for and enjoyed by the vast majority of people, undefined by region

• no requisite ethnic background necessary to appreciate it

• primarily music for entertainment

• produced by skilled professionals

• commerically produced and distributed

• can adopt familiar sounds to both folk and classical music

• dissemination: first, primarily by notation, sheet music; later, oral tradition

• its worth is largely measure by its popularity

fine arts

• artist’s technique: highly skilled; professional

• artist’s intent: less a representation of a subject - more a focus on the artist’s vision of a subject; little or no regard to appeal to a large public

• composition: a quality of detachment or objectivity - an aesthetic distance from the subject matter

features of classical music

• artist’s technique: its performers are highly skilled. it rewards a certain degree of musical experience in the listener

• artist’s intent: while classical music may become popular, it does not depend on mass appeal for its existence. requires cultivated listening skills

• the composition: encompasses a wide variety of media, forms, textures, harmonies, rhythms, and styles. will nom-representational or programmatic in character

ballad

• a musico-literary genre

• combines a poetic narrative with music

• ballads tell stories with poetry and music

3 strains of ballads

• imported

• naturalized

• native

imported ballad

tends not to vary from the form in which it existed in its country of origin (the “old country”)

• example: Barbara Allen

naturalized ballad

recognizable as having descended from the “old country” in spite of having adopted the trappings of its new cultural surroundings

native ballad

incorporated wholly new stories indigenous to the United States

psalm tunes

• the earliest musical sounds from the old world to resonate in what is now the United States

• make up the most important body of religious music in constant use throughout the colonies founded by the English and the Dutch, almost until the time of the revolution

• catalogued according to the number of syllables per line

calvanism and the psalms

• calvanism was the dominating religious practice for a large portion of the early settlers on the east coast

• music in the early calvanist churches was unaccompanied singing of metrical versions of psalms

two divergent “ways”

• written tradition

• oral tradition

written tradition

• tunes sung as they were notated

• regular singing

  • singing from written notation in a songbook

  • led to publication of numerous instruction books

  • led to the need for instruction by a “master”

  • led to the development of the singing school tradition

oral tradition (the usual way)

lining out. used when the congregation could not read music

• deacon, precentor, sang or recited each line before it was sung by the congregation (quasi- call-and-response)

• led to fewer number of tunes in common use

• led to a marked slowing of the tempo

singing- school movement

• private venture

• taught by an itinerant msater

• students enrolled by subscription

• did not always take place in a church (nondenominational institution)

• common schedule: two or three meeting per week for three months

william billings

• publisher of the first tune book in America consisting entirely of music by a single composer

• the best known of the American composers that developed out of the singing-school tradition

• composer/ teacher and tradesman

• could not support himself solely with music

the wester african influence

• Dominance of rhythm (featuring both a
  steady, metronomic pulse and a high level
  of complexity and diversity)

• Use of short vocal phrases, repeated and
  varied, against a continuous rhythmic
  background

• Use of the pentatonic scale

Religious Folk Music: The Spiritual
Musical Traits

• The metronomic sense: the basic “drumbeat” is
  present in the foot tapping and the backbeat (or
  offbeat) that is clapped.

• Call and response pattern

• The use of the pentatonic scale

• The “blues seventh” – pitch “bending”

secular folk music

Cries, Calls, and Hollers: Highly individualized expressions which served the purpose to:

• Communicate

• Relieve loneliness

• Give vent to feelings

• Express the fact of one’s existence

• Utilitarian street cries were used to advertise goods and services

the african american ballad

• Narrative folk song of the African American

• Developed out of the work song and the need to prolong the song

• Most often improvised

• Indefinite number of stanzas

• Stories on biblical figures as well as folk heroes

• African American ballads often reveal a greater empathy with the unfortunate subjects of the ballads.

Alabado

• a religious folk song in free meter sung in unison

• the most characteristic form of music cultivated by the Penitentes

• it has been called the “backbone'“ of congregational singing since the sixteenth century

• it is still sung in Hispanic Catholic churches throughout the Southwest

secular music from mexico

• much of this secular music reflects what is called a mestizo folk culture

• mestizo folk culture is made up of: spanish, indian, african, etc

the mariachi

• trumpets

• violins

• a vihuela (small five-string guitarlike instrument)

• a guitar

• a guitarron (bass guitar)

• a harp

• complex rhythm of the Mexican son, the alternation of ¾ and 6/8

music nortena or conjunto

• comes from the far northeastern part of Mexico or mexico side of the border

• conjunto comes from the Texas side of the border

• the instrumentation of these ensembles is traditionally similar

• conjunto music is more widely popular among Mexican Americans

• polka or the waltz

early labels for country music

• hillbilly

• old time music

instruments of country music

• fiddle

• banjo

• guitar

• mandolin

• string pass (plucked)