Black America

This chapter is a little tricky because of how often it jumps around chronologically quite a bit.

Three main sections in the book:

Religious
Work song
“Play” song (blues, etc)

⚠️Pg176 quote about the origins of Black music in america: “neither african nor european”

This point is worth remembering as you read this chapter. Obviously it is a little confusing because the book speaks about the influence of african and european music, which, by itself doesn’t detract from the blues and black music being a true creation of america, but perhaps we have a mixed sentiment.
Creation itself is not an act of pulling something out of nothing, it is a careful expansion on previously established ideas. A new idea that had no association to any known concepts that humans have already explored would likely not be widely liked because people would not find it very relatable or easy to understand.
Igor Stravinsky suggested, “Good composers borrow, Great ones steal,” Pablo Picasso is widely quoted as having said that “good artists borrow, great artists steal.” Who wore it better? AI as we know it is very good at “creating” for this very reason

2 initial song examples to compare

1926 Peerless Quartet & Billy Murray - My Dream Of The Big Parade
Responsive image

Lyrics:

Last night I was dreaming of days that are gone
Of days that you might recall
And just like a photoplay upon my wall
Once more I saw it all;
It was just a dream you see
But how real it seemed to be

I saw buddies true, marching two by two
In my dream of the Big Parade
I saw angels fair with the Red Cross there
In my dream of the Big Parade
I saw Gold Star Mothers, sisters and brothers
What a sacrifice they made;
I saw one-legged pals coming home to their gals
In my dream of the Big Parade

Millions of soldiers, millions of men
All going over - I see them again
Oceans of water, submarines, too:
Millions of sailors helping them through
Millions of doughboys landing in Brest
Marching, marching, never a rest
Millions of bullets thundering past
Millions of bodies, wounded and gassed
Valleys of ruin, mountains of mud
Beautiful rivers and rivers of blood
Airplanes flying, bombs coming down
Millions of cooties crawling around
Pieces of shrapnel, pieces of shell
Many a cross where somebody fell
Fighting and fighting a horrible war
And God only knows what you're fighting it for

Then came November, that armistice day
Out of a trench, into a cafe
Paddy, (?), Jimmy, and Jack
Over their bottles of wine and cognac
Telling their love tales to Gene and George
Yet little French girls they had to forget
Ahh, then came the journey over the foam
But all that went over didn't come home

I saw Gold Star Mothers, sisters and brothers
What a sacrifice they made;
I saw one-legged pals coming home to their gals
In my dream of the Big Parade

Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey - Hustlin' Blues
Responsive image

It's rainin' out here and tricks ain't walkin' tonight, (2)
I'm goin' home, I know I've got to fight.

If you hit me tonight, let me tell you what I'm going to do, (2)
I'm gonna take you to court and tell the judge on you.

I ain't made no money, and he dared me to go home, (2)
Judge, I told him he better leave me alone.

He followed me up and he grabbed me for a fight, (2)
He said, "Girl, do you know, you ain't made no money tonight."

Oh Judge, tell him I'm through, (2.)
I'm tired of this life, that's why I brought him to you.

⚠️What are the differences according to the book?

Rainey’s sound is closer to conversation that burr.
No rolled R’s in Rainey's vocals
Rainey sings through the downbeat rather than on it. (across the bar syncopation)
Different sounding ensembles. Rainey’s is decidedly a feature of not having access to money and resources, while clearly Burr had access to significant resources.
“The instruments do not blend” (pg 177) This is to say that the characteristic tone of each instrument is so distinct that it can easily be identified in the texture.
Black blues and jazz were not recorded until the 1920s, so we must abstract from what we know about the development of this music in the 1800's from the recordings that we can actually hear that were created in the 20th century.

⚠️What are some other distinctions we can make about these 2 pieces?

Stark difference in the lyrics. What can we say about each of the pieces based on the lyrics alone?
How about the stark difference in the lyrics as compared to the 2 other chapters we have looked at? Many of the other musics we have seen have less 'personal' lyrics, usually religious.
What is the function of these pieces? Are they are for art’s sake?
When is improvisation used in either piece?

Vocab!

heterophony = review this term: when 2 melodic lines sung/played together are mostly the same, with the exception of some improvised or varied elements.
Lining out = using call response for each individual line of a hymn.
Whooping - transitioning from speech to chant/singing during a sermon, and from a speech tone to a harsher blues vocal tone

AmazingGrace-NewBethelBaptistChurch.m4a

AmazingGrace-FellowshipIndependentBaptistChurch.m4a

⚠️Shape note singing:

Shape notes are a musical notation designed to facilitate congregational and social singing. The notation, introduced in late 18th century England, became a popular teaching device in American singing schools. Shapes were added to the noteheads in written music to help singers find pitches within major and minor scales without the use of more complex information found in key signatures on the staff.

The earliest form of musical notation can be found in a cuneiform tablet that was created at Nippur, in Babylonia (today's Iraq), in about 1400 BCE. The tablet represents fragmentary instructions for performing music, that the music was composed in harmonies of thirds, and that it was written using a diatonic scale.

Some shape note books
shape note books

⚠️Examples of music in a Black church setting

Pg 182 We have some transcriptions with no audio to compare it to. Here are some alternatives to consider for this part in the book:

County Line Primitive Baptist Church on HWY 212 in Milledgeville, GA Pastor: Elder Tony Lee Goggins
Tony Lee Goggins

Deacon Daniel Johnson Prayer (good singing!! A+!!!)
FAITH TEMPLE OFW BAPTIST
Deacon Prayer

Rev C L Franklin
Rev CL Franklin

Rev. C.L. Franklin - A Mother At The Cross
Rev CL Franklin

Good whooping example:
Whooping Sermon Close-Pastor Dennis Carl Jones @ The House of Hope ATL
whooping sermon

Here is an example of the transcription in the book:
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot · Fisk Jubilee Singers Fisk Jubilee Singers Vol. 1 (1909-1911)
swing low sweeet chariot

Work Song

⚠️ FieldHoller-BabyDoo.m4a

Leonard "Baby Doo" Caston - Do I Got The Blues (1984)
baby doo

(audio only)
Leonard "Baby Doo" Caston I'm Gonna Walk Your Log (1940)
baby doo

⚠️ Pg189 it is mentioned that a group of white singers made this song famous. Here that is:
"michael row your boat ashore" the highwaymen
the highwaymen
From wikipedia:
The American folk quintet the Highwaymen had a #1 hit in 1961 on both the pop and easy listening charts in the U.S. with their version, under the simpler title of "Michael", recorded and released in 1960. The Highwaymen's arrangement reached #1 for three weeks on Top 40 radio station WABC in New York City in August 1961,[20] and for two weeks in September 1961 on Billboard's Top 40 nationally, remaining in the top ten into October.[21] This recording also went to #1 in the United Kingdom.[22] Billboard ranked the record as the No. 3 song of 1961.[23] Out of respect for the original, unknown authors of the song, Saletan kept his royalties from the Highwaymen's hit in escrow "seeking some good use for it."[24]

Northern Neck Chantey singers explain their work songs:
neck chantey

Rosie.m4a

Additional Work song examples:
work songs

Music of Play

⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️Pg 195 - read first paragraph and second paragraph which compares blues to Rock and Jazz. The book explains this quite well.

Blues Lyrics

⚠️What are blues lyrics about?

I would argue the following: Authentic, personal, misfortune, expressive, rhyming
Read the passage on 196 and play the example “Poor boy blues”. (Read the lyrics from the book)
What makes a good set of blues lyrics? The book argues that good blues lyrics have the following characteristics:
- “Deep”
- True (pg 196, “That’s the truth!! amen!”
- Relatable? Personally relatable
- Well rhymed
- Not sentimental
- Not cliché
- Involves the listener
- Mistreatment as the major topic
- The singer is the victim although not free from sin
- There is often no positive resolution

⚠️ PoorBoyBlues.m4a

Big Bill Broonzy:
bill broonzy

⚠️Pg 199 The books asks if the “I” in the song is Bill Lucas? The book then goes on to give a biography of Bill Lucas the blues singer.
Some takeaways from the autobiography:

Some of the lyrics in the song aren’t true (christmas presents)
“Father I never seen” perhaps isn’t a line about an absent father, but rather a blind individual?
What to make of these fictional lyrics?
Bill could not make a living playing music
Pg205 we learn that Bill didn’t compose the song.
The book goes on to state the importance of learning a song to understand it. (read quote)

Figure 4.11 provides one of the worst transcriptions of this book. I didn’t bother re-transcribing this one, but obviously the rhythm is much more intricate than what they have here.

the substance of a blues “song” is just the lyrics

kokomo blues mississippi fred mcdowell
Kokomo blues
The book offers this example of a joyful moment of a relationship (as opposed to misfortune, conflict and strife)

Vocab:

Riff: a guitar ostinato
Downhome blues / early blues / country blues = unaccompanied men singing on guitar
Shouters: Blues singers that sing with jazz big bands (See Example of Jimmy Rushing (shouter))
Signifying= using a metaphor in your lyrics

Jimmy Rushing w Dizzie Gillespie Quintet - Blues After Dark - France 1959 (LIve Video)
Jimmy Rushing

⚠️⚠️ ⚠️ Pg 219: The blues is everywhere!

The book goes on to discuss how blues fell out of fashion and then returned in the 60’s featuring white and black musicians (eric clapton, john lee hooker) and subsequently influenced “all” music. Not directly but like a stone dropped in a pond the ripples can be clearly seen towards the center but as they bounce around they touch everything at different times.

DuskTillDawn.m4a