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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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.
  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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Selected Characteristics of African-American Music

• Blue Notes
• Blues Scale
• Motor Rhythm
• Syncopation (define this)
• Swing
• Improvisation

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Blues Scale Comparison
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Swing Eighths Comparison
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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 I24)
• Work Song
• Rosie (CD II1)

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Religious Music

• Amazing Grace (CD I22 and 23)
• Compare and contrast
• Apply characteristics listed above
• Influence on other music
• Spirituals (Dr. Payne)

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(No Transcript)
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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, Quatrain-Refrain)
• 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.

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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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Examples from Textbook

• Lazy Bill Lucas
• Poor Boy Blues (CD II 2) -- 12-Bar Blues
• She Got Me Walkin (CD II 3) -- 12-Bar
  Quatrain-Refrain (stop-time) Form
• Otis Rush
• Aint Enough Comin In (CD II8) -- 12-Bar Blues
  with Bridge

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How do these compare?

• I Need 100 (II4)
• Kokomo Blues (II5)
• From Dark Till Dawn (II6)
• You Dont Love Me (II7)

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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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Spirituals

• African-American songs, 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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Assignment 4

• Compose the lyrics for at least 2 stanzas
  (strophes) of a 12-Bar Blues. This should result
  in six total lines of text. The proper rhyme
  scheme for the ends of the lines should be used
  (as shown in text examples).