Chapter 2
The Beginnings of American Popular Music
Sources of Popular Music
African Influences
No hard evidence of music of slaves in the U.S. during
the early 19th century.
Comparing field recordings of African folk musicians to
musicians of African descent living in New World show
strong connections: Cubans singing in old Yoruba
(Nigeria) dialect and Mississippi bluesman sounding like
one from Senegal.
African Roots
“Song for Odudua”
Prominent percussion
Complex rhythms – constant syncopations
Call and Response – exchange between leader and
group
Melody built on African pentatonic scale
Syncopation: accents that come between the beats of a
regular rhythm rather than with them.
From Senegal to Mississippi
“Louisiana”/Field Song
Similarity in vocal styling between Henry Ratcliff, a Mississippi
prison inmate, with a fieldworker in Senegal
Vocal timbre: basic sound and inflection of the voice
Melodic shape
Rhythmic Freedom
Melody built on pentatonic scale
Use of melismas: several notes sung to a single syllable
Reconstructing a Heritage
During the 20th Century, we hear prominent Africanderived musical features in pop music
Yoruba chorus/”Ladies Night”
Dense, syncopated rhythms
Melismas in vocals
Layered texture made up of voice, percussion, and
pitched instruments
Reconstructing a Heritage, cont.
Popular Music musical traits derived from African
roots:
Unvarying beat or other regular rhythm
Several layers of rhythmic activity/syncopation/rhythmic
conflict
Percussion instruments and percussive techniques
Riff-like melodic ideas
Layered textures
Folk Music from the British Isles
Folk Song from the British Isles
“Barbara Allen” (1936)
Ballad: simple song with a lyric that tells a story
Simple four-phrase melody
Anglo-American pentatonic scale
Strophic: different words sung to same melody
Important points: storytelling song, telling a “real” story,
strophic form (leads to verse/chorus form), unpolished
but effective vocal style.
Folk Music from the British Isles,
cont.
Anglo-American Folk Dance
“Old Joe Clark” (1927)
Down-home, good-humored
Story told in everyday language
Melody set to danceable beat
Rough, untrained singing voice
Verse/chorus form
Folk Music from the British Isles,
cont.
Upper- and Middle-Class European Music
“Casta Diva” from Norma (1831)
Aria from an opera
Simple arpeggiated accompaniment
Florid, wide-ranging vocals
“Woodsman, Spare That Tree” (1837)
Simpler than “Casta Diva”, but unfolds similarly
Style leads to use of chords/chord progressions,
melody/accompaniment texture, form in which phrases coalesce
into larger formal units
Many of the instruments will be used in pop music: piano,
several wind/brass instruments, violins, acoustic bass
American Popular Music: From
Sources to Synthesis
Differences between African and European:
URBAN EUROPEAN:
Chord instrument (piano) is only instrument
Chordal harmony
Long, flowing melodies
Gentle rhythmic beat keeping, no syncopation
WEST AFRICAN:
Several percussion instruments (including handclaps); also plucked
instruments
No chords
Short melodic phrases ending in long notes
Strong rhythmic feel
Prevalent syncopation in drum parts
Popular Song in the Mid-19th
Century
Stephen Foster and the Parlor Song
The Early Minstrel Show
Social Acceptance and Synthesis
Stephen Foster and the Parlor
Song
Parlor song: resemble art songs of classical music, but
more modest in their expressive range and musical
requirements
Told sentimental stories, set to simple melodies with
modest accompaniment
Meant to be played in the “parlor” of the home.
Stephen Foster and the Parlor
Song, cont.
Stephen Foster (1826-1864)
Most important songwriter in the 19th century
American popular music
Versitile and skillful, his songs were well-written and
often inspiring and innovative
“Oh, Susanna!”, “Camptown Ladies”, “Jeanie with the
Light Brown Hair”
Stephen Foster and the Parlor
Song, cont.
“Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair”
Style: Parlor Song
Form: AA1BA2
Long flowing lines, ending in clearly punctuated phrases
Sentimental text
Songs for home use
Irish connection – British Isles – pentatonic scale
Beautiful melody
The Early Minstrel Show
Def.: A form of stage entertainment distinguished by cruel parodies of African
Americans.
Early 1840’s to end of 19th century.
Lacked consistent form and evolved quickly.
Crowds were often rowdy (rock concerts/soccer-match hooligans)
Loosely structured:
At least three minstrels: the interlocutor and two endmen, “Tambo and Bones” (one
played tambourine, one played bones)
Troupe sat in semicircle with interlocutor in middle and endmen at either side.
No plot or storyline, though there were stock routines and characters
Interlocutor spoke with proper diction, rich vocabulary
Endmen spoke in caricature of African American speech.
Interlocutor controlled the pace of show.
Grew out of blackface entertainment of late 1820’s and 1830’s.
Two stock characters: city slicker Zip Coon and country bumpkin Jim Crow
The Early Minstrel Show,
cont.
Show evolved into three parts:
Highly ritualized material w/pop parlor songs
Olio: (from Sp “olla” for stew) variety portion w/wide
range of acts from novelty acts to burlesques (humorous
parodies) of cultured material (Shakespeare, etc.)
Walkaround: entire troupe in grand finale of song and
dance
The Early Minstrel Show,
cont.
“De Boatmen’s Dance” (1843)
Dan Emmett
Written for Virginia Minstrels show in 1843
Similar to “Old Joe Clark”
Unison: more than one voice or instrument playing the
same melodic part
The Early Minstrel Show,
cont.
Black Faces and Black Sounds
Bones and tambourine formed proto “rhythm section”
Song “Zip Coon” became the fiddle tune “Turkey in the
Straw”
Majority of minstrel performers had only incidental contact
with the African Americans whom they supposedly portrayed
After Civil War, white minstrels “did not capture the quality
of African American music making…show evolved away from
traditional minstrelsy”
Routes to Popularity: Written and
Oral Traditions
In mid 19th century, two outlets for minstrel show songs
were sheet music and live performance
Many of the melodies were so simple, audience members
could simply remember them
To take advantage of this, publishers put out songters: books
with just the lyrics to popular songs of the day
“Camptown Ladies” : original sheet music vs. contemporary
version
Social Acceptance and
Synthesis
Most “respectable” people felt minstrel show to be lowclass entertainment, though some still went
Foster created new genre – “plantation song” – brought
sentimentality of middle-class song into rough world of
minstrel show and ended up with a more human
portrayal of blacks.
Popular Entertainment after the
Civil War
Tin Pan Alley
Area of New York City where music publishing house
song pluggers, house pianists playing pieces for pro
singers or possible customers, could be heard
In 1890, Gussie Davis – first black songwriter to achieve
songwriting success in Tin Pan Alley
“After the Ball” (1892) first big Tin Pan Alley hit – sold
more than 5 million sheet music copies.
Popular Entertainment after the
Civil War, cont.
Waltz songs: songs popular around 1900 in which a
flowing melody is supported by a simple, waltz-time
accompaniment
“Take Me Out to the Ballgame” (1908)
Waltz time = OOM-pah-pah
Popular Entertainment after the
Civil War, cont.
Stage Entertaiment
Vaudeville: variety show.
Singers, dancers, comics, acrobats, magicians, jullgers, etc.
No dramatic unity
Operetta: Originally a kind of European musical drama
that was less serious than opera, with more speech
instead of singing between songs, but with more
dramatic integrity than musical comedy. Generally a
fariy-tale type story. Show Boat began American operetta
tradition.
Popular Entertainment after the
Civil War, cont.
Revue: topical, upbeat, aimed at the masses, full of
comedy, song, and dance
Interpolation: plot of musical comedy was adapted to
include a currently popular song
Patriotic Songs: “Yankee Doodle Boy”, George M.
Cohan (1904)
Energy of a march, vigorous melody, hint of syncopation,
clever lyrics without trace of sentimentality
The Concert Band
Instrumental ensemble
In an era w/out TV, radio, etc., touring bands and
municipal bands were found in almost every town
Primary source of musical entertainment
Broad range of music – from classical to current pop
songs and marches
JOHN PHILIP SOUSA (1854-1932)
Gave over 10,000 concerts in U.S. and Europe.
composed 136 marches, 15 operettas, 70 songs and many
other pieces
“The Stars and Stripes Forever” (1897)
Looking Back, Looking Ahead
The infusion of rhythm into pop music
Dance rhythms innovation of minstrel show music; by end of century in almost all
kinds of music
Impact of “low-brow” styles
Impetus for change comes from more marginalized segments of American society:
rural folk traditions, white and black, at mid-century, then African American
traditions at end of century
Innovation through synthesis
Innovation mainly a matter of integrating diverse, even contradictory, musical
elements into a new sound: the minstrel show song and Foster’s plantation songs
evidence this trend.
Increased role of blacks
Presence of African Americans in pop music industry (post Civil War) continues
during later part of 19th century. Blacks being breaking into genres other than
minstrelsy around 1900
Terms to Know
Call and response
Unison
Melisma
Songster
Ballad
Song plugger
Strophic
Tin Pan Alley
Parlor song
Waltz song
Minstrel show
Vaudeville
Interlocutor
Operetta
Tambo and Bones
Revue
Endmen
Interpolation
Olio
Patriotic song
Burlesque
Concert band
Walkaround
March trio
Cakewalk