Chapter 4: North America/Black America

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Chapter 4 North America/Black America

• Music from Africa
• Work Songs Field Hollers
• Spirituals
• Ragtime
• Blues
• Jazz
• Gospel

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Homework

• Read Chapter Four North America/Black
  America Religious Music Work Songs/Field
  Hollers Blues
• Work on projects - update due Mon., Oct.
  3Project updates MUST include working thesis
  statement outline list of sources (in
  bibliographic format)

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Work Songs Field Hollers

• Work Song accompanies work and makes time pass
  more pleasantly usually multiple singers
  regular pulse/beat that goes with work. (ex. Ho
  Boys Cancha Line Em, and Rosie)
• Field Holler sung by solo worker free or
  flexible rhythm no accompaniment one of the
  ancestors to the blues. (ex. sung by Baby Doo
  Caston)

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Ho Boys, Cancha Line Em

• Chain-gang Work Song
• Strophic (repetitive)
• Primary motor rhythm is strong and straight
  (work), syncopation makes the melody lift and
  rise above the work.
• Call-and-response between song leader and group -
  with direct repetition of sung line by the group.

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Ho Boys, Cancha Line Em

• Intro
• Ho, boys, is you right?
• I done got right (repeat)
• Verse 1
• If I could I surely would
• Stand on that rock where Moses stood (response)
• Chorus
• Ho boys, cancha line em?
• Ho boys, cancha line em?
• Ho boys, cancha line em?
• See Eloise go linin' rail.

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• Verse 2
• July the red bug, July the fly
• If August aint a hot month, I sure hope to die
  (response)
• Chorus
• Ho boys, well they cant wait
• Ho boys, well they ain't time
• Ho boys, well they cant wait
• See Eloise go linin' rail.

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• Verse 3
• I got a woman on Jennielee Square
• If you wanna die easy, let me catch you there
  (response)
• Chorus
• Ho boys, cancha line em?
• Ho boys, cancha line em?
• Ho boys, cancha line em?
• See Eloise go linin' rail.
• go linin' rail.
• go linin' rail.

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Elements of African-American Music

• Blue Notes
• Motor Rhythm
• Syncopation
• Swing
• Improvisation

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Work Songs Field Hollers

• Purpose
• Themes
• Tradition
• Musical characteristics
• Differences

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Work Songs (cont.)

• Field Holler
• sung by Baby Doo Caston (CD 118)
• More Work Songs
• Rosie (CD 1 19)
• Kneebone Bend

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Religious Music

• Amazing Grace (CD 117)
• Differences between other traditions
• Influence on other music

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Homework - due Monday, Oct. 10

• Part I Online Quiz, Chapter 4
• Part II
• What are Work Songs and Field Hollers? How do
  they differ? Use examples.
• What is a spiritual, and how is it different
  from a European hymn?
• Compose the lyrics for at least 2 stanzas
  (strophes) of a 12-Bar Blues.

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The Blues

• Originated in the Deep South
• Mississippi Delta Blues (Charley Patton, Robert
  Johnson)
• Active throughout South, slightly different in
  each region.
• A Feeling (Ive got the blues, but thats ok)
• A Form (12-bar blues)

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The Blues (cont.)

• Commercialization
• cornet, voice, organ, piano, guitar, trombone,
  etc.
• Regular form
• W.C. Handy St. Louis Blues
• Folk Blues
• voice, guitar, harmonica
• Free sense of form and phrasing
• Robert Johnson, Hellhound on My Trail
• Urban Blues
• Electric blues (B.B. King).
• Chicagos South Side Electric Blues (Muddy
  Waters, Hoochie Coochie Man)
• New Orleans (Louis Armstrong--West End Blues)
• Influenced Jazz, Rock nRoll, and Country.

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Strophic?

• same music repeated, different words.
• Ex. 1 Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Verse,
  Chorus, etc.
• (most songs heard on radio today)
• Ex. 2 Succession of verses or choruses
• (Hymns, Ballad Songs, and the 12-bar Blues form)

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Blues Form

• Combined the spiritual, field holler work song,
  and the 3-line ballad (as sung by songsters).
• 3-line vocal stanza (or strophe)
• 2nd line repeats 1st, 3rd line rhymes with
  above.
• Example
• Im gonna lay down my head on some lonesome
  railroad line. Im gonna lay down my head on
  some lonesome railroad line.
• And let that 515 train pacify my mind.
• Musical phrases or sections
• Folk-blues had no standard length for phrases or
  sections their blues were flexible and varying,
  moving when they felt like it.
• Urban blues follows the following form

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Blues Form

• Combined the spiritual, field holler work song,
  and the 3-line ballad (as sung by songsters).
• 3-Line Vocal Stanza (or strophe)
• 2nd Line repeats 1st, 3rd line rhymes with above.
• Example
• Im gonna lay down my head on some lonesome
  railroad line.
• Im gonna lay down my head on some lonesome
  railroad line.
• And let that 515 train pacify my mind.
• Musical Phrases or Sections
• Folk Blues had no standard length for phrases or
  sections the singers used a flexible approach
  to form, and moved to a different chord and line
  whey they felt like it.
• Urban blues and commercial blues uses the
  following form

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Diagram of Blues Form (12-bar Blues)
Line 1 (4 measures) Line 2 (4 measures) Line 3
(4 measures)
Voice Fill Voice Fill Voice Fill
I (2) I (2) IV (2) I (2) V (2)
I (2)
Tonic Subdominant Tonic Dominant
Tonic

• Line 1 (4 measures)
• I (2) - Im gonna lay down my head on some
  lonesome railroad line.
• I (2) - instrumental fill
• Line 2 (4 measures)
• IV (2) - Im gonna lay down my head on some
  lonesome railroad line.
• I (2) - instrumental fill
• Line 3 (4 measures)
• V (2) - And let that 515 train pacify my mind.
• I (2) - instrumental fill

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Blues Examples

• The Thrill is Gone - B.B. King
• The thrill is gone, the thrill is gone away
• The thrill is gone baby, the thrill is gone away
  
• You know you done me wrong baby, and you'll be
  sorry someday

1 2 3
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• The thrill is gone, It's gone away from me
• The thrill is gone baby, The thrill is gone away
  from me
• Although I'll still live on. But so lonely I'll
  be
• The thrill is gone, It's gone away for good
• Oh, the thrill is gone baby, Baby its gone away
  for good
• Someday I know I'll be over it all baby, Just
  like I know a man should
• You know I'm free, free now baby, I'm free from
  your spell
• I'm free, free now I'm free from your spell
• And now that it's over, All I can do is wish you
  well

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Examples from Textbook

• Lazy Bill Lucas
• Poor Boy Blues (CD 1 20) -- 12-Bar Blues
• She Got Me Walkin (CD 1 21) -- 12-Bar
  Quatrain-Refrain (stop-time) Form
• Otis Rush
• Aint Enough Comin In (CD 1 22) -- 12-Bar Blues
  with Bridge

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Summary

• Blues feeling, form, expression
• Folk, Urban and commercial blues
• 12 - Bar Blues form
• Music of North America, and now the world,
  influencing many musical genres
• Discussion points
• Do the blues help you -- personally?
• Is some blues music better than others?
• Do you get bored with some blues music?
• Does marketing diminish the blues?

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Gospel Music

• African-American religious music based on large
  church choirs, featuring virtuoso soloists
• Started originally by Thomas A. Dorsey, it has
  always been influenced by contemporary pop music
  of the time.
• Includes many elements of African-American Music
• Artists include Andrae Crouch and CeCe Winans
• White Gospel (Southern, Country, etc.) is not the
  same thing. Think Billy Graham and the Gaithers.

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Spirituals

• African-American song, usually with a religious
  text.
• Originally monophonic and a cappella, these songs
  are antecedents of the blues.
• Spirituals were primarily expressions of
  religious faith, sung by slaves on southern
  plantations.
• Examples Swing Low, Sweet Chariot Were You
  There Woke Up This Morning Follow the Drinking
  Gourd Go Tell it on the Mountain

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Homework - due Monday, March 6

• Part I Online Quiz, Chapter 4
• Part II
• What are Work Songs and Field Hollers? How do
  they differ? Use examples.
• What is a spiritual, and how is it different
  from a European hymn?
• Compose the lyrics for at least 2 stanzas
  (strophes) of a 12-Bar Blues.