ch. 9 music history in the age of recordings

Question 1

modernism

Answer 1

the rejection of traditional boundaries and rules in art

Question 2

impressionism

Answer 2

a French modernist movement; painters would blur their images and figuratively “blur” the rules that painters had followed since the Renaissance

Question 3

who wrote and performed “Backwater Blues”?

Answer 3

Bessie Smith (1892-1937)

Question 4

what does a blues song consist of?

Answer 4

a strophic song most typically in a repeating AAB form of 12 bars

Question 5

features of blues songs

Answer 5

• entertainment music
• highly syncopated, blue notes
• story telling; emotional; used to deal with hardships

Question 6

blue notes

Answer 6

pitches that fall in between the pitches of the 12 equal-tempered pitches of the piano.

Question 7

swing feel

Answer 7

beats are subdivided unequally with the first note longer than the second note

Question 8

how does it work? (backwater blues)

Answer 8

p. 242

Question 9

what was “backwater blues” a response to?

Answer 9

a flood in Nashville that displaced nearly 10,000 people, mostly African Americans. white flood victims were entitled to receive relief services for free, while Black flood victims were forced to pay for food and other services, and sometimes take loans which were paid thru unpaid work in the fields. the blues provided a way to deal with this oppression at an individual and collective level

Question 10

classic blues

Answer 10

usually sung by Black female singers accompanied by a band or pianist. usually performed in theaters, tents, and “juke joints”

Question 11

Gertrude “Ma” Rainey

Answer 11

• known as “The Mother of the Blues” bc she was one of the first African American women to perform blues music professionally

Question 12

race records

Answer 12

phonograph recordings of African American musicians produced between the 1920s and 1940s and marketed to African American consumers

Question 13

country blues

Answer 13

• emerged in rural areas
• typically involved a male singer accompanying himself on the guitar, fiddle, or banjo
• the performer could adjust the form, tuning, and harmonies of a given song since he did not have to coordinate with other instrumentalists or the preset tuning of a piano

Question 14

John Philip Sousa

Answer 14

• 1854-1932
• the most prominent composer of band music
• composed more than 100 marches
• his father was a trombonist in the marine band
• conducted the marine band from 1880-1892
• helped invent the sousaphone
• helped standardize the typical American march form

Question 15

who composed “the stars and stripes forever”?

Answer 15

john philip sousa

Question 16

obbligato

Answer 16

in band music: a second melody played simultaneously and in counterpoint with the main melody

Question 17

strain

Answer 17

the melody of each section in a march

Question 18

what is band music an index for?

Answer 18

inspiring loyalty and patriotism

Question 19

march form

Answer 19

I = introduction; a fanfare (4 bars)

A = first strain; 16 bars, balanced 4-bar phrases repeated once

B = second strain; 16 bars, commonly played softly once + repeated loudly

C = third strain, called trio; 16 bars, played legato, often in secondary key

D = fourth strain, called break strain or dogfight; 24 bars, often the most exciting music of a march + contrasts sharply with the more reserved trio melodies

IAABBCC’DCC’DCC’

Question 20

mehter

Answer 20

Ottoman armies were accompanied into battle by a mehter; a band of valveless trumpets, shawms, drums, cymbals, and other idiophones

Question 21

shawms

Answer 21

loud, double-reed aerophones

Question 22

fifes

Answer 22

high-pitched, side blown flutes

Question 23

ragtime

Answer 23

features a “ragged” or syncopated rhythm accompanied by a steady bass line with regular accents in duple meter. played by every type of ensemble

Question 24

“to rag”

Answer 24

African American term meaning to enliven a piece of music by shifting the melodic accents to the offbeats

Question 25

syncopation

Answer 25

technique of playing “against the beat”, creates rhythmic momentum

Question 26

who composed “maple leaf rag”?

Answer 26

scott joplin

Question 27

scott joplin

Answer 27

• best known composer of ragtime music
• african american composer + pianist
• received instruction in classical music theory from a German instructor
• 1893 - attended World’s Fair in Chicago + started a brass band

Question 28

elements of “Maple Leaf Rag”

Answer 28

• started nationwide craze for syncopated music
• form + style typical of “classic” ragtime
• form: AABBACCDD
• right hand plays syncopated rhythm against regular bass part played by the left hand

Question 29

how does it work (maple leaf rag)

Answer 29

p. 254

Question 30

habanera rhythm

Answer 30

a syncopated rhythm that, in a bar of 4 beats, accents the first beat, the offbeat after beat 2, and the 4th beat; appeared in tango and was part of the “Spanish tinge” in jazz

Question 31

stride piano

Answer 31

a piano style featuring the left hand “striding” b/w bass notes and chords, along with heavy syncopation and many other virtuosic techniques