5.24 Music in America: Jazz and Beyond

Instead of using “classical” and “popular,” we have…

%%Cultivated music%%: music brought to a country and consciously developed

%%Vernacular music%%: music from our native tongue

Early American Music: An Overview

• Puritans thought music was %%frivolous%%
  • Exception is psalms of Bay Psalm Book of 1640 (first book printed in North America)
• First composer was %%William Billings%% (1746-1800)
  • From Boston
  • Hymns and %%fuging tunes%% (simple hymn-based pieces w/ counterpoint)

The Cultivated Tradition

• %%Concerts%% grew in popularity with cities
• By 1850s, there were %%concert halls%% in all major cities and opera organizations- by 1860s, we had %%conservatories%%
• Americans saw %%European%% musicians too
  • Italy for opera, Germany for instrumental music
• We had many great American composers by %%1900%%

Music in the Vernacular

• Includes psalms and hymns
• %%Stephen Collins Foster%% (1826-1864)
  • Traveled w/ theatre troupe %%Christie’s Minstrels%%, who had rights to his music (exclusively)
  • Created some %%folk songs%%
  • Not a financial success
  • Died an alcoholic at 38
• %%John Philip Sousa%% (1854–1932)
  • Spanish and German (first gen American)
  • %%Marine Corps%% bandmaster
  • Had a touring %%band%%

African American Music

• Foster wrote songs about Black %%slaves%%
• Minstrel shows had comedy routines performed by white actors in blackface (ugh)
• “%%Call and response%%” West African musical procedure remained in Black American church music
• Religious folk music outside an established church is called “%%spiritual%%”

Jazz: The First Thirty Years

• %%Jazz%% began with Black musicians around 1910, but has grown since then
• Has foundations in %%improvisation%%
  • %%Breaks%%- improvised interludes
• Highly developed %%syncopation%%
  • More subtle %%beat syncopation%% derived from African drumming (accents are a fraction of a beat ahead of meter)

Ragtime: Scott Joplin (1868-1917)

• %%Ragtime%% is informal piano music which preceded jazz
• Very popular in the %%early 1900s%% in America
• Similar to %%march%% music
• “Ragging” described %%syncopation%%
• %%Scott Joplin%%
  • Son of ex-slave
  • Wrote “Maple Leaf Rag” and “The Entertainer”
  • Didn’t “break into cultivated musical circles,” as he wished to
  • Wrote two operas

The Blues

• %%Blues%% is a category of black folk song with sad/lonely themes
• Emerged around %%1900%%
• %%Strophic%% genre
  • Typically three 4-measure phrases (“%%twelve-bar%% blues”)
• Uses the “%%blues scale,%%” which borrows from major and minor modes
• Sonorous model for jazz

Sippie Wallace (1898-1986), “If You Ever Been Down” Blues (1927) (Composed by G. W. Thomas)

• %%Sippie Wallace%% was a legendary female blues singer
  • Accompanied herself on the piano
• Instrumental introduction and breaks
• Textbook recording has %%Louis Armstrong%%

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African American %%gospel music%% also developed around this time

New Orleans Jazz

• Early jazz was %%casual%%
• %%Small%% bands (6-8 instrumentalists), commonly w/ three melody instruments and a rhythm section
• “%%Jamming%%”- collective improvisation
  • Nonimitative polyphony
• %%New Orleans%% was an early home of jazz
  • Louis Armstrong
• %%Recording%% tech helped jazz spread

Big-Band Jazz: Swing

• %%Armstrong helped jazz get big around 1930%%
• Bigger overall meant bigger audiences and…
• %%Big band%%s- 10 to 25 players and large numbers w/ less improv
• %%Swing%%, aka big-band jazz, had a variety of tone color and instrumental effects
  • There were soloists
  • Jazz arrangers had difficult jobs, and were just as important as composers
• %%White%% musicians/managers infiltrated jazz

Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) Biography

• Born into New Orleans poverty
  • Juvenile delinquent
• Carrer grew from riverboats to important jazz bands
• Went along with the %%commercialization of jazz%%
  • Caused him to eventually drift away from “true jazz”
• %%Nationally loved star%%
  • Also sponsored by the State Department for international tours
• Appeared in almost 20 movies

Duke Ellington, “Conga Brava” (1940)

• Written by Ellington w/ Puerto Rican Juan Tizol
• The “%%conga%%” is an Afro-Cuban dance (named after the drum)
• Has a %%latin beat%%

Popular Song

• Jazz isn’t a genre, but a %%performance style%%
• Lots of jazz associations
• “%%Standards%%” were songs favored by jazzmen

Duke Ellington (1899-1974) Biography

• Washington DC native
• Influenced by %%ragtime%%
• Uniquely “a major bandleader who was also its composer and its arranger”
  • Extremely %%impressive%%
• Played piano in jazz bands
  • The %%Ellington band toured internationally%%
• Nicknamed “Duke” due to his %%fastidious%% nature (born Edward Kennedy Ellington)
• Wrote “%%Sacred Concerts%%”

Early Jazz in the Concert Hall

• %%Symphony and opera lovers hated jazz%%
  • This was largely due to %%racism%%
• Some classical musicians/composers %%loved%% jazz, such as Maurice Ravel
• The 1920s was “a confident era”
• %%The “Jazz Age” was between 1920 and 1930%%
• %%George Gershwin%% merged jazz with previous styles very well, and wanted to “enter the world” of concert-hall music

George Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue (1924)

• A “%%rhapsody%%” in this time was a piece with free form and “expressive flights of fancy”
  • Liszt popularized the term
  • Ancient Greek roots
• Composed for an %%NYC concert%%
• Lots of melodies “in a loosely organized work”
• Three main themes with repeats
• Most popular version is the %%1942 piano and full symphony orchestra version%%

Later Jazz

• %%Big bands collapsed post-WWII due to costs%%
• %%New genres%%, such as rock-n-roll and bebop

Bebop

• It was hard for young Black jazz artists to find work in big bands during the %%early 1940s%%
• %%Less improvisation%% overall
• In Harlem and NYC, clubs began to be centers for %%bebop%%, a new style with “%%improvisation%% at a new level of technical virtuosity”
• Bebop trumpeter %%Dizzy Gillespie%% used “hard, percussive sounds and sharp, snap rhythms”
• “Aggressive and exciting”
• %%Very complex and “far-out” harmonies%%
• Hard to follow melodies

Charlie Parker (1920–1955) and Miles Davis (1926–1991), “Out of Nowhere” (1948)

• %%Charlie Parker%% was “bebop’s greatest genius,” and his life was very complex
  • Was on drugs, and died at 34 after committing suicide and spending time in a mental institution
• %%Popular 1930s standard%%
  • Basis for swing and bebop
• Miles Davis trumpet solo
• %%AA’%% form

Jazz After Bebop

• %%Avant-garde came to jazz%%, and melody, harmony, and tonality were questioned
• MANY %%new jazz styles%%, such as cool jazz, free jazz, modal jazz, fusion jazz, and Latin jazz
• New %%improvisation without any basis%% whatsoever

Miles Davis, Bitches Brew (1969)

• %%Miles Davis%% was a founder of cool jazz, and he later with modal jazz and several other genres
• Conscious blending of jazz and rock- “%%fusion jazz%%”
• Pushed against “the complex extremes of bebop”

The American Musical

• NY theatre around 1900 is a source of modern American popular music
• %%Operetta%% is “a popular European genre of light opera in the late 19th and early 20th centuries”
  • Spoken dialogue between musical numbers
  • Amusing and far-fetched plots

Musical Comedy

• Jazz gave American popular theater a “%%characteristic accent”%% around 1910
• Musical comedies (%%musicals%%) rose in the %%1920s and 30s%%
  • Smart, catchy verses
  • Appeared due to a %%“golden age” in popular song%%
  • Composers included Jerome Kern and George Gershwin

The Musical After 1940

• %%Plots were more carefully designed%%
  • The selling point for musicals now, instead of the songs
• Big composers included Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein
• “More %%challenging subjects%%”

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), West Side Story (1957)

• Bernstein was “brilliant and versatile,” as a “crossover artist”
  • Won Grammys, Emmys, and a Tony
• West Side Story has a “moving story,” “sophisticated score,” and “superb dances”
  • Based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

The Later Musical

• West Side Story lyricist Stephen Sondheim was an “aspiring composer”
  • Wrote lyrics/music for Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, etc.
• 1960s musicals “acknowledge[d] the rock revolution”

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