Chapter 2
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Earliest (original) US popular forms (18th C)
Minstrelsy (1840s-80s, and beyond)
Stephen Foster – 1st US popular composer
Bands – Brass and other
Tin Pan Alley – the Sheet Music Industry
Ragtime (1880s-1910s) – syncopated piano
Phonograph – modern technology
Stephen Foster
(1826-1864)
• b. Pittsburgh, d. NYC
(never in the South)
• 1st US professional song
composer (“popular”)
• Over 200 songs
• Sold outright (no royalties)
• Hardworking “craftsman”
• Incredibly popular
• Marginally successful
• Stephen Foster
(Memorial at U of Pitt )
“Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair”
Ex.: Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair - YouTube
“Jeanie” (p. 3-4)
“Jeanie” (p. 5-6)
Form of “Jeanie”
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Introduction (4 mm)
“A1” Phrase – (4 mm) incomplete cadence
“A2” Phrase – (4 mm) modulates to dominant
“B” Phrase – (4 mm) new melody
“A3” Phrase – (4 mm) strong cadence in tonic
Repeat for each new stanza
Coda
Dance Music & (Brass) Bands
• Social activity for upper classes (& wannabes)
• Balls based in European social practices
- formal dress & strict etiquette
- pre-selected list of dances (group & couples)
• Dance types include: Cotillion (Promenade),
Waltz, Polka, Mazurka, Two-Step, One-Step
• Rural imitations much less formal
Civil War Bands (and After)
“Town Bands”
Danville, KY: AdvocateMessenger Brass Band
Allentown (PA) Band
(since 1828!)
“Business Bands”
• Professional Concert Bands
• 50+ members (winds, brass & percussion)
• Sousa Band – most famous
- John Philip Sousa (US Marine Band)
- independent concert band
• Touring Ensemble (US & the World)
• Recording – early cylinders and records
(Sousa opposed “mechanical music”)
The Sousa Band
Sousa Band (c. 1900)
John Philip Sousa
(1854-1932)
United States Marine Band
“The President’s Own”
Band Music Examples
• Civil War Brass Band Re-creation – YouTube
• Allentown Band Documentary
- Allentown Band - Seg 1 – Introduction - YouTube
- Allentown Band - Seg 2 – YouTube
- Allentown Band - Seg 3 - YouTube
- Allentown Band - Seg 4 – YouTube
• Orlando Concert Band
- Orlando Concert Band Documentary
- "Jingle Celebration" - Orlando Concert Band Brass
“The Stars and Stripes Forever”
• BA2104 Stars and Stripes Forever - Sousa's
Band.wmv – YouTube (Edison Cylinder)
• SOUSA The Stars and Stripes Forever - "The
President's Own" U.S. Marine Band – YouTube
• Form of SSF:
- Introduction
- 1st Strain (16mm, repeated)
- 2nd Strain (16 mm, repeated)
- Trio w/ “dogfight” (repeat Trio w/ piccolo solo),
(repeat “dogfight”), (repeat Trio w/ piccolos & brass
countermelody)
“Tin Pan Alley”
• Music Publishing
Industry in NYC (28th St)
• Music as commodity
- for home use
- sold everywhere
• Public performances
- Music Halls
- Vaudeville
• “Song Pluggers”
Sheet Music
• 1st “mega-hit”
• Charles K. Harris (1892)
• J Aldrich Libby sang in
A Trip to Chinatown
• Verse (tells the story)
• Chorus (repeats exactly)
• Examples
- Charles K. Harris - After the Ball –
YouTube (c. 1920s)
- After The Ball - Joan Morris
(mezzo-soprano) with William
Bolcom (piano) [Text, p. 59-61]
“Ragtime” (c. 1896-1918)
• Origins in imitations of
Af-Am styles & rhythms
• “Coon Songs”
• Use of syncopation
- regular beat in LH (bass)
- shifting accents in RH
(melody)
• Sectional form (like a march)
• Emulated by white
composers, e.g., Irving Berlin
• Ex. HQ - Piano - "All Coons Look Alike
to Me" – YouTube
• Ex. Alexander's Ragtime Band Columbia
A1032 - YouTube
Ernest Hogan (1865-1909)
Scott Joplin
1867/8-1917
• Leading Composer of Ragtime
• Pianist in St. Louis & Midwest
• “Ragged” style (influences of)
- improvisation
- brass bands
• “Maple Leaf Rag” (1898)
• Sheet music & player piano rolls
• Ex. Maple Leaf Rag Played by
Scott Joplin - YouTube