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Throughout history African American music has significantly altered the course of our country the United States of America. Starting during the spread of Africans as slaves the music of the cultures of Africa have come together and blended to help transform the music of the past into the music that most Americans listen to today including selections such as hip pop, r & B, and rap. Slaves thought they may have been, these first Africans helped shape the culture that we live in.
During the African Diaspora, when slaves from the east Africa's were brought to India and the Americas, much of the music was tribal hymns and religious chants. Used as a way to communicate long distance or messages to mass crowds, African music has a quality of pure volume over the other music being brought to America. The instruments of African decent mostly consisted of the bells, drums and rattles. While the music at first was used as a form of communication between tribes that could not linguistically understand each other, it eventually developed into a form of entertainment in the late 100's. Slaves before the emancipation proclamation generally used music as a form of entertainment, recreation and a means to work through a day in the fields. "He happened upon Congo square, a grassy plain on the northwest edge of the city where the city fathers permitted slaves to dance and sing for a few hours on Sunday," (ward, ). During the African Diaspora we see slave traders forcing Africans from various tribes to live together. Having no common background except a hatred of their captors. These slaves used dance and music as a way to communicate secret messages to one another. "Music was provided by drums bells."(Altman, 44) Using instruments that they were allowed and could easily make, was one of the main ways slaves brought their music with them to the Americas. When these slaves were transported to the Americans many times they were taken to the south or Caribbean. In their time in the Caribbean many of these black slaves were influence by other cultures, changing their music and creating new blends. "In the Caribbean many elements of Europeans tradition influenced the music of African slaves"(African music, 4). Although instruments were used, drums were prohibited. The work songs that these slaves eventually sang out in the fields helped develop the blues.
"Jim Crow the expression was taken from the name of a comic character created by a white actor who painted his face black (an offensive practice known as wearing black face) and pretended to be a foolish black man."(Altman, 16) Black face started out as a comical theatre that made fun of the black society. Originally the artists who preformed where white men who painted their faces to resemble elongated and distorted black men and women. These performances were done as a mockery of black life but eventually became an outlet for black entertainment to expand.Slowly the music performed by black face artist became a main stream for black Americans to write and perform their own music. As these performers grow in popularity so to did the black culture change. After the emancipation proclamation and the gaining of black American right in 1865 many of the attitudes about African Americans began to change. While these black face shows were mockeries of black culture, they also became an outlet for the rest of Americans to accept this culture. While breeding intolerance it also helped those who would not normally associate African Americans as citizen of American to view them as more then animals. Many may disagree with this opinion but the way I believe to make people understand you is to comically express yourself. Comedy allows people to become more compliant and connect with an actor or perform and this was no different in the black face shows. While the main characters often where Jim crow and zip coon types, many Americans could find some identification with them and what started out as a comical act changed into a comparison of life between African Americans and the rest of America.
Some of the most popular songs during the black face era were "all coons look alike to me " by Ernest Huges,"my long tail blue" "old rosin the bow" "the star spangled banner" byold corn meal. As this period progress many big time African American bands came into existence. Such as the Louisiana Slave Troop And Brass Band and the Smallwoods Great Contraband Minstrels Brass Band. These bands and others like them became more dominant until the turn of the century when ragtime became a popularized musical style.
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At the end of the Black face period Afro-Americans entered into the ragtime period of musical development. Many of the most famous songs during this era where songs such as "maple leaf rag" by the king of ragtime Scott Joplin and "River Side Rag" by Chase Cohen. The music of this era was the "formal growth of the decades- old African -American improvisational practice of ragging tunes."(Wade, 11) this music was composed of rearranging old tunes into a more complete danceable version. Using everything from country tunes to operatic arias to military marches ragtime recomposed much of the music prevalent in our society into fresh rhythms and melodies. First spread by pianists who combined the percussive sound found on the banjo into something playable on the piano then by the increasingly popular demand for sheet music, ragtime spread like wild fire. Popularized among the youth of American for it's close and provocative dancing style ragtime was denounced by the older generations who viewed it as "syncopation gone mad and it's victims can only be treated successfully like the dog with rabies, with a dose of lead." (Wade, 14) Ragtime's star composer was Scott Joplin and it was felt that the center of ragtime was wherever he was. "There was ragtime. It's capital was no New Orleans but Sedalia Missouri, where Scott Joplin had settled." (Huesmann, 5). Ragtime is what it's name suggest 'ragged time'. Unlike in other music rhythm is its main focus.It seems to be composed like most 1th century piano music, but in reality it doesn't adhere to all of the ideas found in such music. Ragtime was one of the most popularized forms of music, for the better part of a quarter of a century and everything was give a ragtime beat. Yet as ragtime increased in popularity other black music came into the scene.
Blues was a "distillate of the African music brought over by slaves. Field hollers ballads, church music and rhythmic dance tunes called jump-ups evolved into a music for singer who would engage in call and response with his guitar. He would sing a line and his guitar would answer it." (Rolling stones, 5) The first major artist of the blues was W.C. Handy. "However the poetic and musical form of the blues first crystallized around 110 and gained popularity through the publication of Handy's "Memphis blues (kamien, 518) Composing music in blues format was not a challenge for most African Americans. Still segregated against and treated as Negroes, blacks had a lot of pain to draw upon to sing the blues. "One must experience the blues. Subsequently one sings the blues in order to rid oneself of the blues."(breckenridge, 17) Blues is the outpouring of emotion into song verses. "When African and European music began to merge to create what eventually would become the blues, the slaves sang songs filled with words telling of their extreme suffering and privation"(tanner, 6) Many time the artist will talk about the trouble that they have had in their life. The instrument of the blues was the guitar.
Originally the banjo being one of the major instruments of African American music was discarded because of its use by other styles of music. The guitar however was a cheap instrument easily carried around and if tuned properly had a much lower resonance that went well with the blues. The blues is easily recognizable by it's tone and rhythm as well as it's structure. "The classical form of blues is the well known pattern three line verse, in twelve measures of 4/4 rhythm, with the a-a-b rhythm pattern and a time length usually measured by five stressed syllables"(cohn, 17). However blues is still debated about in relationship to when it was originally introduced. W.C. Handly was truly the first recorded artist, however the true first artist to publish a true folk blues song recorded on record was done by Blind lemon Jefferson. "It was the 16 recording of Blind lemon Jefferson, a true southern folk blues man from Texas, that opened the flood for the recording of down home blues." (cohn , 7)
Blues is noted for it's unique style of call and responses as well as the use of blue notes to create a sad melody. "When the copyist attempted to write down the music, they came up with the so called "blues scale" in which the third, the seventh and sometime the fifth scale degrees were lowered a half step, producing a scale resembling the minor scale.(machlis, 578). Yet the music of blues is more than just the lowering of a few notes to make it sound melancholy. It also has many characteristics such as the 1 bar progression. "There are many nuances of melody and rhythm in blues that are difficult if not impossible to write in conventional notation." In every way blues was a form of music new unto itself. It broke many of the original constraints thought to be on music and came up with something wholly unique unto America. "By the mid-twenties, instrumental blues were common and "playing the blues" for the instrumentalist could mean extemporizing a melody within a blues cord sequence. Brass, reed and string instruments, in particular were able to produce many vocal sounds of the blue singers"(machlis 578-57). Blues was an attempt at an artist to emotionally connect with his audience and convey his feelings. Also much of blues is extemporaneous meaning coming up with it as they perform it and thus a habit of A-A-B lyrics where conceived. "The repetition of the first line servers a purpose as it gives the singer some time to come up with a third line. Often the lyrics of blues song do not seem to fit the music, but a good blues singer will accent certain syllables and eliminate others so that everything falls nicely into place."(Tanner, 8). Rhythm in the blues is also very unique. "Blues rhythm is also very flexible. Performers often sing "around" the beat, accepting notes either a little before or behind the beat."(kamien, 50)
In 10 Jelly roll Morton claimed to have "I invented jazz in 10". New Orleans jazz was the next major step for African American music. Much of this jazz was considered blues music however. Closely related jazz and the blues seem to use a very similar basis for their music. New Orleans jazz is the first progression of jazz music. Some like Jelly Roll think that they were the inventor of this particular form of African American music. However the true defining point of Jazz is not a real clear point. Mostly created out of a jumbo of several hands it was truly a work of a people. However Jelly roll had a larger claim then most realize to the creation of jazz. One of the first to compose a new form of music Jelly Roll began composing a new form of music about 105. He felt that "blues player were one tune players while ragtime players on the other hand were to prone to speeding things up."(Ward, 5) " 'Jazz music' he said on the other hand is 'a style, not composition. Any kind of music can be played in jazz if one has the knowledge"(wade, 5) Jazz was a form as stated by Jelly Roll of composition. It is a feeling and a mood much like the blues has it's particulars Jazz is similarity unique. "Jazz instrumentalists frequently use the chord progressions of the twelve bar blues as a basis for extended improvisation. The twelve or sixteen bar pattern is repeated while the new melodies are improvised over it by a soloist. As with the baroque bassocontinuo, the repeated cord progression provides a foundation for the free flow of such improvised melodic lines. "(kamien, 50)
Jazz uses a great many of the same types of style as blues but is different in that it has a much grater range of Melody called polyphonic melody. This is the blending of three melodies played by three different instruments simultaneously. Although jazz only became popular in the late 0's it had one of the most dramatic effects on the world of music. The free flowing form of the music allowed it to easily change into styles such as funk and R& B
Personally I think that the greatest achievement of the African Americans is ragtime. The music of this era was so popularized because it just gets under your skin and you have to start dancing. Blues and jazz are both equally interesting, but I still find ragtime as my personal favorite. The rhythm and beats that are incorporated just make you feel good. While African tradition did bring these songs into America they are truly American music. Ragtime combines the music of so many cultures it is in my opinion actually hard to distinguish who added the most to the mix. However there would never have been a Ragtime if it were not for the idea of the heavy piano beats that were created during its era. The rhythm and musical composure are made up of many African traditions that make it very stimulating. In conclusion the African Diaspora took many Africans out of their home countries. While in many ways it was a horrible crime against these people to enslave them against their will, the music that they produced will always stand as a testament that you may enslave a people but you cannot make them be something other then what they are. While slavery was such a horrible act, think of the amazing accomplishments it lead the African people to.Deprived even the most basic human right, freedom, they still managed to change the world around them
Bibliography
1. Ward, Geoffrey Jazz a history of American Music
New York Alfred A. Knopf 000
. Altman, Susan The encyclopaedia of Africans American Heritage
New york 17, facts on file, Inc.
. A Hisotry of African Music http//www.acslink.aone.net.au/christo/histmain.html, Internet 00
4. Huesmann, Gunther The Jazz Book
New YorkLawarance Hill Books 1
5. The Rolling Stone encyclopedia of rock and roll
New York Rolling Stone Press 18
6. Kamien, Micheal Music Appreciationedition
New York, McGrawhill 184
7. Breckenridge, Stan African American Music
Dubuque, Iowa Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company 001
8. Tanner, Paul and Maurice Gerow a study of jazz
Dubuque, IA William c Brown Publishers 184
. Cohn, Lawrence Nothing But the Blues
New York, Abbeville Press 1
10. Lomax, Alan The land where the blues began
New York Pantheon Books 1
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