Chapter 33:
American Popular Music to World War II
Folk Music and Country Music
• Folk music
– Usually remembered by ear, not written down
– Music and text change over the years
– Product of an entire group
• Country music
– Repertoire of songs for solo singer, male or female,
with lyrics treating the subjects of love and life’s
disappointment
– Came from ballads of Anglo-Irish settlers in
Appalachian region
– Fiddle, banjo, dulcimer
– Uncomplicated harmonies
– Radio, recording separated country music from folk
tradition
Blues
• A form of black folksong
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Emerged during the 1880s and 1890s
Passed along by oral tradition
Work song and field holler of black laborers
Wailing vocal style, the blues scale, and a body of subjects
• Anglo-American folk ballad
– Regular, predictable pattern of chord changes
• First printed as sheet music in 1912
• First recorded in 1920, most made by black artists
• Sung to relieve a melancholy soul, to give vent to feelings
of pain and anger
• Blues subjects: Poverty, loneliness, oppression, family
troubles, infidelity, separation
• Blues Lyrics
Blues
– Three to six stanzas common
– Each stanza three lines (AAB form)
• A: The blues is a lowdown, achin’ heart disease,
• A: The blues is a lowdown, achin’ heart disease,
• B: It’s like consumption, killin’ you by degrees.
• Instrumental Break
– A short instrumental response to the voice
– Occurs at the end of each line
• Guitar as accompanying instrument
– Provides a solid harmonic support
– Serves as an expressive “second voice” answering the
singer
• Blues Scale
Blues
– Features “blue notes”
• Notes that fall between the diatonic notes of the scale
• Common in African-American folk song
• Used in place of a major or minor scale
Bessie Smith (1894-1937)
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“Empress of the Blues”
Sold 2 million records her first year
Highest-paid black artist of the day
Powerful voice capable of strength, precision, and tender
beauty
• “Lost Your Head Blues” (1926)
– Huge sweeping voice
– Twelve-bar blues
Jazz
• Influenced by traditional musical practices of Africa
(found in African-American spirituals and blues)
• European influence of marches, hymns, and folk
music
• General definition
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Lively and energetic
Pulsating rhythms and frequent syncopations
Played by small ensemble (a combo) or big band
Tends to be polyphonic
improvisation
Ragtime: A Precursor of Jazz
• The immediate precursor of jazz and includes many of
the same rhythmic features
• “To rag”: Play or sing music in a heavily syncopated
jazzy style
• Musical style:
– Steady bass, syncopated treble
– Jaunty and upbeat
– Originated during the 1890s
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Primarily piano music
Emerged in saloons and brothels
Eventually accepted into middle-class homes
Lost popularity after World War I
Scott Joplin (1868-1917)
• Scott Joplin (1868-1917)
• “King of Ragtime”
• Maple Leaf Rag (1899)
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His most successful composition
Sold more than a million copies
Form similar to an American military march
Harmony distinctly European
Syncopation
New Orleans Jazz
• Early jazz greats lived in New Orleans:
– King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong
• Style
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Melody played by the trumpet
Clarinet supports trumpet, embellishes the tune
Trombone adds a lower contrapuntal line
Rhythm section sets harmony and tempo
Improvised
Louis Armstrong (1901-1971)
• Born in New Orleans
• Followed his mentor King Oliver to Chicago
• Invented “scat” singing
– Nonsense syllables
– Voice treated like an instrument
• Gravelly sound to his voice in “Hello Dolly” and
“Mack the Knife”
• Hot Seven
• “Willie the Weeper”
– Never written in music notation
– Chorus: Each presentation of the tune
Big Bands and Swing
• Swing: A popular style of jazz played by a big band in the
1930’s and 1940’s
• Glory days of the bands of Duke Ellington, Count Basie,
Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman
• Large ensemble (“Big Bands”):
– Multiple trumpets, trombones, and saxophones
– Rhythm section still consists of single instruments
• “Charts” rather than improvisation
– Everything planned out
– Played from notation
– A more disciplined, polished sound
A Jazz and Folk Synthesis:
George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (1935)
• George Gershwin (1898-1937)
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Began his career as a song plugger
Soon writing his own songs
Rich and famous at age 21
Created symphonic jazz
• Rhapsody in Blue (1924), Piano Concerto in F (1925),
An American in Paris (1928)
• Porgy and Bess (1935)
– Story revolves around African American life in
Charleston, South Carolina
– “Summertime” functions recurs throughout
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7-Qa92Rzbk
Review
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With whom did country music originate?
With whom did the blues originate?
What are the primary features of blues music?
Who is one famous blues artist?
What are the primary features of ragtime?
Who was the most important composer of ragtime?
What are the musical origins of jazz?
In what city did jazz begin?
Name and describe the first jazz style.
Why is George Gershwin important for the history of
music?