Test 1 Flashcards
Laga
Forces: female group, drums Concluding the excision rite for young girls. Rite of Passage dance swords=symbol of virginity Pentatonic melody
Yole
Forces: female group, female solo
call and response
Young girls learn the songs from older sisters.
Sang during play.
Two girls sing solo parts and are answered by the group.
Soloists must be strong and confident.
Pentatonic Melody.
Rice Harvest Music
Forces: Male group, Drums, bells
Two drummers give the rhythm for work to which the reapers sing.
The foreman of the reapers wears metal bells on his ankles which jingle as he moves.
Relieves boredom, increases motivation, call upon the days to bring good harvest.
Giata-Music for the Mask Race
Forces: Male solo, male group, drums, calabash rattle
Races held on market days.
Masker chases young man who tries to dodge him.
Way to impress girls.
Kneebone Bend
Forces: Male solo, mixed group, clapping, stamping
Demands singers shout
Danced in loose circle counter clockwise.
Africanisms: Pentatonic melody, Call and response, building intensity
Purpose: Communicate with the Orisha
Juba: Stamping and clapping pattern
Chickens Done Crowed
Forces: Male solo,
Hollers expressive of occasions when emotion or distance render ordinary song or voice inadequate.
Tonal aspect of African languages may have delivered specific info or messages.
Africanisms: Improvisation
Pick A Bale O Cotton-Hoedown
Forces: Fiddle, male solo, mixed group, harmonica, banjo, tambourine,
Sung at the end of work parties
Africanisms: Pentatonic melody, improvisation, call and response, building intensity
Doncha Hear Yo Po Mother Callin
Forces: Male group,
Shares elements of field work song holler, but with rhythmic aspects to keep going
Africanisms: Pentatonic Melody, improvisation, harmonization in thirds
Were You There?
Forces: Male group, mixed group
“Lining out”-the only way congregations sang hymns for a long time. The song leader had the hymnal and would chant out the next line. In many cases there are only two lines.
This song is AABA
Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?
Forces: Piano, Male solo,
Old Testament cult spiritual-b/c it said when certain circumstances occurred, there would be the next escape.
Jubilee
Ain’t Got Time To Die
Forces: Male solo, Mixed group
Example of a jubilee
Call and response
Gospel Train
Forces: male solo, mixed group
Jubilee, cult spiritual
Musical Type: Figure
Africanisms: Pentatonic
Wade In The Water
Forces: Mixed group
Musical Types: Figure, call and response
Textual Types: cult spiritual, Jubilee
Africanisms: Call and Response, Pentatonic
Reference to the red sea, also babtism (which is what the slave owners would’ve assumed)
De Boatman’s Dance
Forces: Fiddle, male group, male solo, banjo, tambourine, bones
Probably borrowed from oral tradition.
Baby In A Guinea Blue Gown
Forces: Male solo, guitar/banjo, fiddle, trumpet (horns) , trombone, clarinet
Gullah People
Former Slaves
African American community that has preserved more Africanisms in their speech, customs, and rituals, than any other in the U.S.
Due to the fact that they were allowed to keep aspects of their culture because they were needed for their rice harvesting skills
Lorenzo Turner
Linguist who studied the music and language of the Gullahs
Amelia Dawley
Mary’s Mother
A daughter of African slaves
Gullah woman who had maintained the Mende song
Absorbed some of the traditions through games the elders played with her.
Joseph Opala
Historian studying slave trade between Sierra Leon and the coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia.
Found Amelia Dawley’s song
Worked with Cynthia Schmidt to retrace the song back to the Mende country (Sierra Leon).
Cynthia Schmidt
Musicologist
woman who went outside of the region they were searching to the small town where they found the song;s origins
Tazieff Koroma
Linguist
Made the connection between the word and knowing it could only come from Sierra Leon
Senehun Ngola
The town where they found the song’s origination
Baindu Jabati
The head woman
Related to Mary
Woman whose grandmother had remembered the song
Mary Moran
Amelia’s daughter
Nabi Jah
Elder chief
remembered parts of the burial ritual called Tenjami
Death Rites
Ceremony begins at night with the call asking the ancestral spirits to help the person who died cross the water.
Typically entrusted to women. Women apply white clay to their skin (sym: Death, mourning, ancestors).
The women start the procession and the song that calls everyone in the village together to the burial site.
Mourners cook a domestic animal, take the food to the grave site, dish out the food and blend the rice with palm oil and meat, they share with everyone present.
What was the role African Music played in life?
Music for almost every activity: battle, rejoicing,
commemorating agricultural rites, religious rites etc.
Everything that was done had a spiritual component
Rituals were performed in larger community celebrations with singing, dancing, and drumming, but were also a part of daily routine
Most important rituals were burial and funeral rites
Important Instruments
Horns drums rattles chanting singing
Characteristics of African Music
Poly rhythmic Pentatonic Call and Response Improvisation Harmonization in thirds
Malinke
Closest thing to a professional cast of musicians. They travel. Might supplement or lead other drummers.
Also good at carpentry and leather working because they had to make their own drums
Talking Drums
Two heads connected by cords.
Hold the drum under arm, squeezing and relaxing the arm changes the pitch.
Acculturation
Process of changes that occur when two different cultural groups come into prolonged contact
The Spiritual
Most widely known of early African American musical genres.
Created out of African cultural memory and the protestant cultural experience.
Used simile, metaphor, personification
Focus of songs was slavery and the possibility of freedom
Ring Shout
an African tradition that predates the spiritual.
Counter clockwise circle, walking w/dance-like movements.
Call and response melodic figures
intensity building to a dramatic climax
poly rhythmic
interconnection of movement and song
collective participation
Characteristics of the Spiritual
Syncopation
many melodies are pentatonic
call and response pattern/verse and refrain structure
improvised harmonization and hetero-phony
Textual Types of Spirituals
- Sorrow songs
- Jubilees
- Cult spirituals-coded messages. Israelite, Moses, rover Jordan (Ohio river), Red sea (Atlantic ocean).
Musical Types Spirituals
- Call and Response-medium-fast tempo, emotional, often ecstatic quality, tend to be pentatonic (Aint got time to die)
- Sustained-slow tempo, long sustained phrases,
(were you there?) - Figure- fast tempo, musical lines made of segments, rhythmic swing, short phrase lengths
(Didn’t my lord deliver Daniel)
Early Minstrelsy
Not developed by Black, but was rooted in depictions of slave culture.
Staged theatrical entertainment
Exaggerated versions of life, included backface
Performers prided themselves on their acting skills and being able to portray slave life.
Jim Crow
Caricature of ignorant plantation slave
Zip Coon
Caricature of an urban slave, ridiculous, womanizing braggart.
Three part productions of Minstrel Shows
1st- “minstrel line” banter between the MC and the end-man (Mr.Tambo and brother Bones), light-hearted songs and a promenade
2nd- “Olio” featured singing, dancing, and verse speaking
3rd-finale with entire cast
African American Minstrels
Black troupes began to perform in 1840’s.
Emphasize their authenticity as Negroes and most claimed to be ex-slaves.
Inherited white created stereotypes, and could often only make minor changes to the parts.
Finally had the chance to become paid performers.
Many felt they weren’t skilled enough to play themselves.
How did troupes legitimize themselves?
quoting reviews-showed they were at least equal to the whites
Using burnt cork to affirm their blackness
Playing up the natural spontaneity of their performances
Georgia Minstrels
“The only Simon pure negro troupe in the whole world”
toured successfully throughout the N.E.
Audiences began to question the white minstrels qualifications to perform black material and began to decrease. Their shows became more dance hall and vaudevillian, whereas black troupes had to stick to plantation material.
Charles Callendar
A white tavern owner bought and toured one of the best troupes
Billy Kersands
Emerged with his own minstrel company. They could sing, dance, and were funny.
James Bland
Most prolific, famous, and influential black minstrel song writer
“Carry me to old virginny”
“In the evening by the moonlight”
“Dem Golden Slippers”
Themes of Minstrels
City slicker vs. country coon
finding families lost in slaver (happened post civil war. before it was more about the struggles of slavery)
songs emphasizing the humanity of African Americans
How do we know what musical practices were prevalent in African Society During the slave trade period?
Chronicles of European travelers and traders
Which family of instruments was most prevalent in African music making?
Percussion
In which area of Africa did the slave trade focus?
West Coast
What were characteristics of African musical texts?
extemporization (improvization)
call and response
spoken sections
What were drums made out of?
logs or gourds
What were plantation instruments most commonly played by slaves?
Banjo and fiddle
What is Pattin’ Juba?
Rhythmic foot tapping, thigh slapping, hand clapping
Means of drum substitution
rhythmic support for singing
What are types of work songs?
boat song
corn song
woodcutting song
Upon what African American genre is the ring spiritual built?
Shout
What is the goal of the ring spiritual?
religious ecstasy
How did the performance of spirituals spread?
Fundraising efforts of small black colleges
What were part of the original spiritual performance practices?
call and response
strong clear voice
communal participation
What is the most common method of creating spirituals?
combining material from pre-existing religious songs
What instruments are most associated with Minstrel songs?
banjos and fiddles
Who were the most common antebellum performers?
whites in blackface
What were minstrel traditions?
lunch time parade through town
emotional ballads
all-male troupes
What were some stereotypes about African Americans perpetuated by minstrel shows?
they were irresponsible
they were thieving
happy go lucky
