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Civil War & post-WWI developments

African Brass Band
"Highlife Music" performed by the Nyakrom Brass Band (Ghana); field recording by James Koetting, 1975

• musical theater--repertoire for the bandstand & parlor; "Broadway" may be considered the birth (late 1800s) of the pop music industry; between vaudeville & operetta:
• skits connected tenuously by thin plots
• scantily clad show girls
• risqué lyrics
• music of Appalachia remained amazingly untouched by this "city music", retaining its oral transmission of folk music, until ...
  • access to musical instruments--Sears, Roebuck & Co sold not only hardware & houseware, but violins, guitars, banjos, & pianos!!--changed forever the unaccompanied ballad vocal style of much of the English/Scottish Appalachia

American transplant - 20th Century African American Musics

• Gospel (religious, spiritual); vocal styling ("blue" notes)

Amazing Grace
performed by the New Bethel Baptist Church (Detroit, MI); field recording by Jeff Titon, 1977

compare the above performance to this congregation in a white, rural Virginia Baptist Church:

Amazing Grace
performed by the Fellowship Independent Baptist Church (Stanley, VA); field recording by Jeff Titon, 1977

• Work Song (take mind off of circumstances, aid in performing repetitive tasks)
  • call & response:

Mississippi State Penitentiary - "Rosie"
work song performed by inmates at the Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman, MS); field recording by Alan Lomax, 1947

for an interesting integration of this work song ("Rosie"), check out David Guetta's "Hey Mama," featuring Nicki Minaj, Bebe Rexha, & Afrojack

 

• Ragtime--strong syncopations & chromaticism

Scott Joplin - Maple Leaf Rag

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