M100: Music Appreciation Discussion Group Ben Tibbetts, T.A. [e-mail] Welcome! Please sign the attendance at the front of the room.

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M100 Music Appreciation Discussion GroupBen
Tibbetts, T.A.benjamintibbetts_at_yahoo.com
Welcome! Please sign the attendance at
the front of the room.

• Thursday April 11, 2013

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• Discussion, not lecture today and Tuesday
• 20th century lecture on Thursday April 18

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Todays Agenda

• Pages 383-398 (Scott Joplin Robert Johnson)

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• Ill work on it this weekend.

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• Question If I uploaded lesson materials, would
  you use them?

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• Jazz.

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• Some humility not a historian
• (Wikipedia to the rescue!)

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• Jazz a music that originated at the beginning
  of the 20th century within the African-American
  communities of the Southern United States. Its
  roots lie in the African-American adoption of
  European harmony and form to existing African
  musical elements. African musical influences are
  evident in the use of blue notes, improvisation,
  polyrhythms, syncopation and the swung note. From
  its early development until the present day, jazz
  has also incorporated elements from American
  popular music. Wikipedia
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz

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• Some background
• American racism and the Emancipation Proclamation
• Jazz as an African American tradition

Some Dates January 1, 1863 - Emancipation
Proclamation was issued April 9, 1865 - Lee
surrendered, officially ending Civil War
December 6, 1865 - The Thirteenth Amendment of
the US Constitution was ratified (officially
abolishing slavery).
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• Minstrel shows (or salon music) an American
  entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety
  acts, dancing, and music, performed by white
  people in blackface or, especially after the
  Civil War, black people in blackface. Wikipedia
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minstrel_show

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• Musical improvisation
• immediate (in the moment) musical
  composition, which combines performance with
  communication of emotions and instrumental
  technique as well as spontaneous response to
  other musicians. -Wikipedia http//en.wikipedia.o
  rg/wiki/Musical_improvisation

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Scott Joplin
c.1867-1917 American composer/pianist
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• Ragtime A style of generally piano music
  from the early twentieth century that emphasizes
  rhythmic syncopation while continuing many of the
  characteristics of marches, cakewalks, two-steps,
  and popular songs from the late nineteenth
  century. -page 518

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• Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin
• (performed by the composer)

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• Syncopation
• A type of rhythm in which the notes run against
  the regular pulse of the musical meter, with
  accents on beats other than the ones usually
  accented. -page 518
• Listen Dont Worry, Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin
• The rhythms in this song exhibit a high degree of
  syncopation.

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• Review (to clarify)
• Rhythm vs. Tempo

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• A further rhythmic distinction
• Swung vs. Straight

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• Some influences on Scott Joplins rags
• Marches
• Cakewalks
• Two-step and Polkas
• Vaudeville

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• March a piece of music with a strong regular
  rhythm Wikipedia
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_(music)
• Always in duple meter. Straight eighth notes.
• Listen excerpt from
• Pomp and Circumstance by Edward Elgar

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• Cake-walk was developed from a "Prize Walk"
  done in the days of slavery, generally at
  get-togethers on plantations in the Southern
  United States....At the conclusion of a
  performance of the original form of the dance in
  an exhibit at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in
  Philadelphia, an enormous cake was awarded to the
  winning couple. Wikipedia
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cakewalk
• Always in duple meter
• Listen excerpt from
• Golliwogs Cakewalk by Claude Debussy

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• Two-step a step found in many folk
  dances.from the 19th century dance related to
  the Polka Wikipedia
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-step_(dance_move)
  
• Listen excerpt from Pennsylvania Polka

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• Vaudeville a theatrical genre of variety
  entertainment popular in the United States and
  Canada from the early 1880s until the early
  1930s. Wikipedia
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaudeville

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• Dixieland a style of jazz music which
  developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th
  century, and was spread to Chicago and New York
  City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s.
  Wikipedia
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixieland
• Listen excerpt from
• When The Saints Go Marching In
• Performed by The Dukes of Dixieland

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• Boogie-woogie
• is an African American style of piano-based
  blues that became popular in the late 1930s and
  early 1940s, but originated much earlier, and was
  extended from piano, to three pianos at once,
  guitar, big band, and country and western music,
  and even gospel. Wikipedia
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogie_woogie
• Listen excerpt from Swanee River Boogie
• performed by Albert Ammons

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• Player piano
• and
• piano rolls

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• stride bass, stride piano, or stride A jazz
  piano style that was developed in the large
  cities of the East Coast, mainly New York, during
  1920s and 1930s. Wikipedia
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stride_(music)
• Listen improvisations by Martin Spitznagel,
  pianist
• (using melodies from
• Super Mario Bros., Harry Potter, Star Wars)

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• Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin
• (performed by the composer)
• Form A A B B A A C C D D

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Robert Johnson
1911-1938 American blues singer/musician
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• Blues - "A musical genre derived from African
  American performance traditions that uses blue
  notes (flattened pitches) in its melodies and
  tells first-person stories of hard knocks and
  love gone wrong." -page 515

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• Terraplane Blues by Robert Johnson
• Lyrics on next slides

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• "TERRAPLANE BLUES" LYRICS
• And I feel so lonesome, you hear me when I moan
• When I feel so lonesome, you hear me when I moan
• Who been drivin' my Terraplane1, for you since I
  been gone.
• I'd said I flash your lights, mama, you horn
  won't even blow
• (spoken Somebody's been runnin' my batteries
  down on this machine)
• I even flash my lights, mama, this horn won't
  even blow
• Got a short in this connection, hoo well, babe,
  it's way down below
• I'm goin' heist your hood, mama, I'm bound to
  check your oil
• I'm goin' heist your hood, mama, mmm, I'm bound
  to check your oil
• I got a woman that I'm lovin', way down in
  Arkansas

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• Now, you know the coils ain't even buzzin',
  little generator won't get the spark
• Motor's in a bad condition, you gotta have these
  batteries charged
• But I'm cryin', pleease, pleease don't do me
  wrong.
• Who been drivin' my Terraplane1 now for, you
  since I been gone.
• Mr. highway man, please don't block the road
• Puh hee hee, please don't block the road
• 'Cause she's reachin' a cold one hundred and I'm
  booked and I got to go
• Mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm
• Yoo ooo ooo ooo, you hear me weep and moan
• Who been drivin' my Terraplane now for, you since
  I been gone
• I'm goin' get down in this connection, keep on
  tanglin' with your wires
• I'm goin' get down in this connection, oh well,
  keep on tanglin' with these wires
• And when I mash down on your little starter, then
  your spark plug will give me fire

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• 12-bar blues A common model for blues songs,
  in which each verse consists of three lines of
  text over twelve measures of music. Each line
  receives four measures in a predetermined
  harmonic pattern using chords built on the first,
  fourth, and fifth scale degrees. -page 519

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• Every measure is a different chord.
• 12-bar blues chord progression
• I I I I
• IV IV I I
• V V I I
• 2 measures text, 2 measures fill
• Listen again Terraplane Blues by Robert Johnson

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Final Reminders / Homework

• Read pages 399-415
• Questions? Email benjamintibbetts_at_yahoo.com