A Great Day in
Harlem
The Roots of Jazz
European
influence on Jazz
Church hymns
Folk songs and
dances
Military marches
and airs
Classical
compositions
The Roots of Jazz
Instruments
Instruments
Since the slaves
brought no property with them to America, the banjo was the only instrument
with an African heritage to be used in early jazz.
Varied scales and
tuning
Styles
Military bands
and marching bands
Christian hymns
Transformed into
Spirituals
Spiritual: a
religious folk song; an expression of hope for release from oppression and
sorrow
Secular songs,
the forerunners of the 12-bar blues, began to appear
Orally passed
The blues became
fundamental to jazz
Minstrel Show
Music
The interchange
of cultural elements between blacks and whites
Before the Civil
War, white companies prevailed. After the Civil War, Black Americans also
created minstrel companies
Cakewalk
Sundays
Parody dancing
ÒWalkaroundÓ
The prize was
often a cake
The Cakewalk is a
strutting, high-kicking dance to syncopated music and became a craze in the 1890s
Cakewalk and
Ragtime
Which came first?
Cakewalk or Ragtime?
Jazz originated
from a mix or African and European music and probably could not have developed
anywhere but in the United States
The African, South American, and Caribbean Influence on Composers
Louis Moreau
Gottschalk
American - 1812-1860
Night in the
Tropics (c.1858)
second movement
(allegro molto) is a rumba, a Cuban dance unknown in the United States until
the 20th century
Debussy
Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Russian - 1882-1971
Piano Rag Music
(1919)
dedicated to
Artur Rubinstein
Ebony
Concerto (1945)
commissioned b y
Woody Herman
(written for jazz
ensemble)
Gershwin
George Gershwin
American - 1898-1937
Porgy and
Bess (1935)
Others
Darius Milhaud
French - 1892-1974
La creation du
monde (1923)
influenced by
Harlem jazz
Uses jazz
saxophone
George Antheil
Polish-American - 1900-1959
A Jazz Symphony
(1927)
William Albright
American - 1944-1998
Grand Sonata in Rag (1967-1970)
TodayÕs Review
The Roots of Jazz
Musical forms
the Spiritual
a transformation
of Christian hymns
began about 1780
with the Great Awakening
lined out
Secular songs
loneliness
infidelity
rootlessness
repression
not written down
led to the 12-bar
blues
The Roots of Jazz
Minstrel Show Music
the interchange
of cultural elements
white companies
in blackface
after the Civil
War, black companies in blackface
The Cakewalk,
Ragtime, and the influence of Jazz on European Music and visa-versa
parody of
European dances
contests, with
the prize often being a cake
very popular in
the 1890Õs
probably resulted
in the development of Ragtime
The Roots of Jazz
Rhythm
Polyrhythms
Field Hollers
Call and Response
Instruments
no property
African
instruments were reconstructed in America
the bandora became a guitar
the balafou became a marimba
the banya became the banjo
European
instruments were adopted through
military bands
social bands
Suggested
Additional Listening
New World Records
(RAAM)
#205 White Spirituals from the Sacred Harp
#224 Brighten the Corner Where You Are:
Black and White Urban Hymnody
#294 The Gospelship: Baptist Hymns and White
Spirituals from the Southern Mountains