America’s Musical Landscape
5th edition
PowerPoint by Myra Lewinter Malamut
Georgian Court University
Part 1:
Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
Folk Music

Folk Music = Simple songs and instrumental pieces whose
origin has been lost or forgotten

Or music composed in an informal style traditional in certain
cultures

Unpretentious, easy to remember and to perform, folk music
appeals to inexperienced listeners and sophisticated
musicians alike

Folk music of the United States springs from many ethnic and
cultural sources

English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, German, other European
influences, Africa—especially West Africa
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
2
Folk Music: Spanish Traditions

Spanish traditions date from 1565, when the Spanish founded St.
Augustine, Florida--The oldest European settlement in the United
States

Today in the Southwest, Spanish folk songs and dances, and
hymns (religious songs) are heard
 reflecting origins in seventeenth-century Spain or more recent
Mexico

Alabado = A Spanish hymn
 A religious song of praise
 Part of a thriving Spanish and Mexican folk tradition that
survives in the American Southwest
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
3
Listening Example 4
El Cutilio
Anonymous
Listening guide page 35
Unlike the stately cotillion,
performed by formally dressed
dancers in elegant settings,
the lively cutilio is the last of a
set of square dances popularly
danced in New Mexico through
the nineteenth century. The
dance posed a challenge to
dancers to keep up with its
fast tempo and complex steps.
Instrument: Fiddle
AAB BAAB B
Melody:
Meter: Duple
Section A begins with an upward leap and continues with a rising
inflection, then is repeated
Section B begins with a downward inflection, then is repeated
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
4
Folk Music: British Traditions


Early English settlers in the New World brought few musical
instruments with them

Violins and other stringed instruments became available; people
played British fiddle tunes and dances from their childhood

Many traditional songs acquired new words and altered
melodies reflecting American dialects, New World experience
These folk music traditions survive today in rural and mountain
areas, where the style of singing and playing instruments is close to
that of seventeenth-century Britain

Lullabies, nonsense songs, work songs, singing games
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
5
British Traditions: Folk Ballads

Most common of all folk songs are ballads

Ballad = A story told in song

Sung from memory by solo voice, with or without
accompaniment

Strophic in form, often with many stanzas

Ballad song texts evolved over long time periods
 Singers often add, alter, or delete stanzas, lending a
song local or timely relevance, expressing creativity
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
6
Listening Example 5
Barbara Allen
Anonymous
Listening guide page 38
A favorite of George Washington,
this example of a ballad is
sometimes called “Barbry Ellen”
or another similar name, and
probably originated in Scotland
The story is of the young “Sweet
William,” who is dying for love of
“hard-hearted Barbara Allen,”
who of course loves him and is
remorseful for having repelled
his advances
Form: Strophic, with several four-line stanzas
Melody: Based upon a pentatonic scale, which is a fivenote scale within the range of an octave—Barbara Allen
uses only the tones of the five black notes of a keyboard
Rhythm: Irregular, but a steady underlying pulse with a
general sense of triple meter
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
7
Early American Folk Music

Early emigrants reflected the
influence of the British broadside…

A topical ballad, printed on a big sheet
or sets of sheets called songsters

From the seventeenth century,
Americans altered traditional ballads to
fit their new experiences


Setting original words to old tunes
Broadsides included historical or
topical events, moral instruction,
political commentary, sometimes satire
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
John Dickinson’s “Liberty Song”
8
Early American Folk Music

Songs and instrumental music:






Frontier people sang about freedom,
equality, danger, beauty of nature
Ballads about the Erie Canal (1825),
the California gold rush (1849), more
Slaves had their own music
Miners, farmers, railroad workers
even outlaws had folk music
Lullabies, play party songs
Chanteys were sailors’ work songs;
popular in New England
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
The Pemigewasset Coach
Painted by
Enoch W. Perry, Jr. (1831-1915)
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
9
Listening Example 6
Oh Shenandoah, I love your daughter.
Wa-ay, you rollin’ river.
Oh Shenandoah, I love your daughter,
Away, we’re bound away
‘Cross the wide Missoura.
Shenandoah
Anonymous
Performed by Pete Seeger
Oh Shenandoah, I long to see you.
Wa-ay, you rollin’ river.
Oh, Shenandoah, I’ll not deceive you.
Away, we’re bound away
‘Cross the wide Missoura.
Listening guide page 41
For seven years I’ve been a rover.
Wa-ay, you rollin’ river.
For seven years I’ve been a rover.
Away, we’re bound away
‘Cross the wide Missoura.
Form: Strophic, with refrain at end of each verse
Meter: Quadruple
Tempo: Slow
Accompaniment: Sparse strumming by guitar
This song originated in the areas of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers,
traveling down to the ocean, where sailors adopted its rolling melody;
Shenandoah was an Indian chief living on the Missouri River
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
10
African Traditions

Early seventeenth century
 The first Africans were forcibly brought to America in European
slave ships

Many slaveholders harshly discouraged references to African gods
and religions in any traditional song or dance

Slaves in New England, treated with more leniency than southern
slaves, would entertain themselves and their masters
 Singing, dancing, playing musical instruments

The first generation of slaves born in America began to develop
their own music, American music rooted in African customs and
sounds
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
11
African Traditions: Field Hollers

Slaves working on plantations
poured all the anguish of their new,
tragic experience into field hollers,
which were…

Loud, rhythmically flexible,
emotionally expressive chants or
cries sung by a solitary voice

Slaves working in a field
Some had words but most used
neutral syllables, enabling contact
with fellow workers over distances
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
12
Listening Example 7
Field Holler
Listening guide page 43
The field holler enabled the
slaves to establish
wordless but heartwarming
contact with fellow workers
who, hearing the poignant
cries, could respond with
expressive hollers of their
own.
Timbre: Solo male voice
Rhythm: Free, flexible
Melody: Simple, narrow, mournful phrase on three tones,
repeated
Text: Neutral syllables, easy to sing and to hear over
distances
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
13
Listening Example 8
Father’s Field Call
Listening guide page 43
Notice the sound of the high
falsetto range, lying above
the normal, full, chest voice
Falsetto enhanced the
ability to call over long
distances
Timbre: Solo male voice in falsetto range
Rhythm: Free, flexible
Melody: Begins with upward leap, succeeded by a
naturally falling inflection, reminiscent of the familiar
“Yoo-hoo”
Text: Wordless
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
14
Listening Example 9
Complaint Call
Oh, da time don’t get no better here
I’m goin’ down the road
I’m goin’ away to leave ya
If the time don’t get no better here
Down the road I’m goin’.
If the time don’t get no better
If the time don’t get no better
Down the road I’m goin’.
Listening guide page 44
Timbre: Solo male voice
Rhythm: Free, flexible, accommodating the text
Melody: Based on a five-note, pentatonic scale, the melody begins
high, then falls to lower pitches
Notice the “bent,” or slurred melodically ambiguous blue notes that
touch and linger slightly below the normal tones of the western
scale, which later applied to jazz music
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
15
African Traditions: Ring Shouts

Another African tradition translated to an African
American experience was the religious shout or
ring shout

Performed at religious services or camp meetings

The “shouters” formed a ring and shuffled energetically to
the singing of the spiritual, gradually quickening their
pace, barely lifting their feet, falling from exhaustion
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
16
African Traditions: Work Songs

Work Songs accompanied tasks such as rowing, hoeing,
chopping trees

Slaves made up, or improvised work songs

Work songs often set the pace and synchronized movements of
forced laborers

Strophic in form

Call-and-response = Leading lines of each verse were sung by
a single voice, alternating with a repeated phrase or refrain sung
by the group
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
17
Listening Example 10
Hammer, Ring
Chorus
Won’t you ring, old hammer?
Hammer, ring!
Won’t you ring, old hammer?
Hammer, ring!
Performed by Jesse Bradley and
group at State Penitentiary,
Huntsville, Texas, 1934
Listening guide page 45
Form: Strophic, call-and-response
Meter: Duple
Hammer songs accompanied men driving the spikes fastening long
steel rails to wooden railroad ties; relentless rhythm, driving energy
reinforce and support the regular rhythm of the hammering men
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
18
African Traditions:
Musical Instruments

In Africa, drums accompanied work songs, providing two or three
underlying complex rhythmic patterns

Many slaves brought small drums and simple string instruments to
America

Slaveholders banned the use of African drums, fearing drums would
incite revolt
 Slaves made percussive instruments from empty oil drums,
metal washbasins, more
 Slaves clapped, body-slapped, stamped rhythms
 Rattles or bits of shell or bone enhanced rhythms

Banjos were created by using a hollowed-out gourd or calabash
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
19
What of African Music Survives
Today?

Today’s African American musics are deeply rooted in African
traditions that arrived in the New World with the first slaves

Call-and-response became a basic characteristic of African
American vocal and instrumental music

Improvisation is basic within jazz, and colors much other music


Much African American music is still based on the “bent” or
flexible tones of the blues scale, unheard in this country until the
first West Africans arrived
The emphasis in African American music on rhythm over
melody, and the complexity of African rhythms compared with
those of Western (European) music is apparent
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
20
Image Credits

Slide 8: John Dickinson’s Liberty Song
Public domain

Slide 9: “The Pemigewasset Coach,” painted by
Enoch W. Perry Jr., Photograph © Corel

Slide 12: Slaves working in a field, Library of
Congress (LC-USZ62-115201)
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
21