Chapter Two: The Sociocultural Context In Which AfricanAmerican Music Emerged

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Chapter Two The Sociocultural Context In Which
African-American Music Emerged

• From Africa to Afrocentric Innovations
• Some Call Jazz

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The Sociocultural Context in Which
African-American Music Emerged

• The Natives of America..X
• Africans Limited Access to Musical Instruments
  and Performance Venues in America.
  .X
  
• Slave Era Music and Cultural Cross-Fertilization
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• African-American Music Convergence Affected by
  Sex and Marriage.X
  
• Sociocultural Influences on Seventeenth Century
  African-American Music..
  .X
  
• Eighteenth-Century Sociocultural
  Changes..X
  
• Witch CrazeX

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Think about conceptual, psychological, and social
differences between the captives of war that
became slaves in Africa, and the feudalism
involved in the epoch of the European
slaveholders. Is there a significant difference?
What is the history of slavery in the countries
surrounding the Mediterranean? How do
Mediterranean cultures factor into the European
slave trade? What history of slavery do we find
in Asia?
Africans involved in the slave trade involving
European captives
Europeans involved in the slave trade involving
African captives
1. Egyptians 2. Nubian Sudan 3. The Moors in Spa
in
4. In Moslem societies 5. Carthage (Hannibal)
1. Portugal 2. Dutch 3. English 4. French
5. Spanish
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The cross-fertilization of African European
music in Pan-America, and the historical
connections that account for these mixtures

• 1. Haiti ---- French ---- Dahomean
• 2. Cuba ---- Spanish ---- Yoruban
• 3. Brazil ---- Portuguese ---- Senegalese
• 4. Jamaica ---- British ---- Ashanti
• 5. Trinidad ---- British ---- Yoruba
• 6. America ---- West African ---- French
• ---- Spanish ---- Amerindian
• ---- Mexican ---- British
• Note
• New Orleans ---- Yoruba ---- Dahomean
• ---- French ---- Spanish ... etc.

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• Modern-day cross-fertilization of Global African
  styles Trinidadian dancer Wilfred Mark
  performing with Hesterian Musicism at the 2003
  Global African Music Arts Festival/Symposium at
  UC Santa Cruz.
• Image Photo by Sarah Blade

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Musical CharacteristicsAfrocentric
Eurocentric

• Polyrhythms
• Pentatonic emphasis
• Pantonal, multi-melodic rhythmic
• Socially functional/Artistic
• Improvisational
• Incidental Harmony
• Polytonal
• Wide range of timbre (solo)
• Largely oral tradition
• Individual in communal setting
• Emotion expressed freely
• Intuition a high priority
• Curves, circles

• Monorhythmical
• Diatonic Emphasis
• Contrapuntal, tonal atonal
• Artistic/Academic
• Premeditadedly compositional
• Predetermined harmonies
• Tonal conception
• Uniformity of timbre (solo)
• Almost exclusively literate
• Individual in conformist setting
• Restrained emotion
• Analysis a high priority
• Straight lines, angles

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1850-1890

• Joseph W. Postlewaite, published his dances,
  marches, and piano music
  
• Henry "Juba" Lane, "the greatest dancer known"
  (changing African American image abroad)
  
• William Appo and Robert C. Johnson, Antebellum
  Sacred Music Concerts
  
• Henry Brown, dramatic troupe at The African
  Grove (Bleeker Mercer, NYC), Shakespeare, music
  
  

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