Ragtime And Scott Joplin's Opera Treemonisha

Music during the progressed quite a bit over time. It all started out with a less complex type of music known as ragtime. Ragtime was popular from around the 1890’s through 1915. Ragtime originated from the

“When first entering in America, British folk music was distinguished by three-chord tunes, sparse instrumentation (with some fiddlers), mostly male performers, improvisation, the singers’ sporadic shouts (Scottish “yips”), Christian themes served up in hundreds of hymns, and a secular collection of songs that told stories, generally about love and lost love, using metaphor and symbol to tell those stories” (Allen 101). By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, British music changed and became Americanized. Vocal harmonizing slowly evolved, and fiddlers were accompanied by those who played banjo, an African American opening. “Tambourines and “bones” (tapping out rhythms using pork rib bones) were a minstrel show contribution” (Allen 102). When African Americans were forced into slavery and brought to North America in the 1600s, they brought their own musical traditions and sounds. Slaves who were on the Mississippi River Valley delta soil developed what will later be introduced as blues music. On the plantations, slaves greatly changed British American hymn singing. They took non-religious British American songs and turned it into their own forms of music that followed their culture and taste of music. Blues emerged in the early twentieth century at the same time country music became settled from its folk roots. Blues music talked about the indifferences African American slaves were going through at that time. “The blues voiced human

African American influence in music has been an ever present and controversial subject in American history. Stemming from many different cultures, religions and backgrounds, large portions of American music was introduced by, and credited to African Americans. Although in many cases, this music was used for entertainment by the masses or majority, contrary to popular belief, black music served a greater purpose than just recreation. Dating all the way back to the beginning of slavery in the U.S. during the 17th century, music has been used to make a statement and send a message. As African American music progressed over the years, there were common themes expressed as the genres evolved. It has been an open letter to the world, documenting and protesting the ongoing oppression faced by blacks in the United States, as well as an outlet for frustration. For many African Americans, the music gave them the only voice that couldn’t be silenced by their oppressors.

Ragtime and Blues are two different styles of music that came together to make what is known as jazz music. Ragtime was more about freedom, fun, and giving the listener an elated feeling while Blue’s intent was to appeal to the listeners emotions and make them feel better about the troubles in their life. The way Jazz came about was the collaboration of these 2 very different styles of music. Due to very influential people in the music world like Jelly Role Morton, Joe Oliver, Louis armstrong, just to name a few, Jazz has flourished into the music known all over the world. Although Jazz and Ragtime have many differences, they also had many similarities and each style is significant to the amercement of jazz.

s toured throughout the country. It reached its peak in the 1850's and 1860's as it became the popular music of the people. It ran on New York's Broadway for over forty years, and it was the music of the Mexican War, the California Gold Rush, and the Civil War. This form of popular music gave birth to our Ragtime, Blues, Dixieland, Country, and Bluegrass music of today. When a plantation owner had a man with musical talent, he might send him to New Orleans or up north to be trained in violin so he could play Celtic music for the cotillions and parties. But, when that man was alone in his quarters, he would pour his African soul into his Irish fiddle. This was the music the blackface minstrels tried to copy.

Black folk traditions like spirituals and “ragged music” evolve into the blues, ragtime, and jazz.

For this music analysis project, I would like to discuss the oral nature of the legacy of Appalachian music. I would like to complete this project to bring attention to the amazing history of Appalachian music and the distinct ways it lives on. I plan to use research to study the different manners in which Appalachian music has continued to survive throughout the years despite the general modernization of the world.

Music is such a beautiful creation, the way the melody, rhythm, tempo, all mix together to become a masterpiece. One specific genre of music, the blues, was heavily popular in the early 20th century. The blues is a tradition-oriented music style from the rural Southern African-American origin (“Jazz in America”, n.d. ). It usually had secular content, which is disparate from how it was when it first began. Blues music originated in plantations, where slaves sung, using it as a mental escape method from their oppression. Even though it started off in a simple way, it eventually turned into a serious entertainment. Bessie Smith and Billie Holliday, two well-known blues female singers, became hit sensations.

The roots of modern american rock and roll music, are firmly planted in Africa. As the native Africans were torn apart from their family’s and brought to the new world their lives were immediately and drastically changed forever. Finding themselves immersed in a completely new environment with a foreign culture, they thankfully persevered and carried on with their own traditions and most importantly to this paper, musical ones. Most American slaves originated from Western and Central Africa. The West Africans carried a musical tradition rich with long melody lines, complicated rhythms (poly rhythmics) and stringed instruments CITATION. The West Africans music was also strongly integrated into their everyday lives. Songs were preformed for religious ceremonies and dances and music was often a

Both the Kingston Trio and the song were extremely popular and moved folk music to different heights. Starting with how folk music came to be, there were folklorists. These people traveled across the nation to “document musical styles of many communities.” Then came the idea of anthology.

Thus the similarity between ragtime and blues is significant but there are numerous differences between the two music styles. First, their origin was different. Even though they both had African influence as mentioned, ragtime was more strongly influenced by European music style, and blues was heavily African music style. According to Durk Sutro in his book Jazz for Dummies, “Ragtime was European-influenced, in the sense that it was composed, not improvised, and featured carefully crafted melodies and harmonies…ragtime could sound concisely European” (ch.5). Although European-influenced, there is some African influence such as rhythm and African banjo music as mentioned during the lecture. Ragtime rhythm was “the rhythms of the black dancers who used their heels to make drum sounds, or to that of the black church singers who could vary the rhythms of a Christian hymn so much that a white Christian could not even recognize it”(Tirro, pp.37).

The fiddle had a high pitched sound that went along well with the “high lonesome” singing (Langrall, 1986). It is not certain when the banjo entered, but it was the next instrument added to strings for Appalachian music. The next stringed instrument was the guitar. Bands called String Bands came around and as they were reserved, they when out and entertained people, instead of just singing with a couple of people (Langrall, 1986). These String Band players played court days, political rallies, country fairs and at other social gatherings (langrall, 1986). Sting bands would play for dances such as the waltz (Olson). As the string bands started with the fiddle when the banjo gain popularity in the Appalachian music it was included in the sting bands followed by the guitar and the mandolin

One Time I was at a restaurant and “Caravan” came on and I noticed how the older folks responded to the beat, the same way we respond to our generation of Music. After that day I went and googled up the song and I found out that it was Duke Ellington who composed that song.

Upon listening to the melody, it is one that sound familiar and one I’ve heard before. I have heard this popular melody in the movie “The Sting”, while I also feel that it resembles a sample used in the theme song of Charlie Brown. Syncopation is defined as a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of rhythm. It can also be described as the placement of rhythmic stresses or accents where they wouldn’t normally occur. Syncopation is something that is often prevalent in jazz music, and “The Entertainer” is no exception and is one of the most popular pieces of music in the history of the genre. The Entertainer is written in 2/4, 2 beats per measure, with the 1st beat being strong and the 2nd detonating an upbeat, while syncopation remains

by the writer and the chorus would then perform dance movements to compliment those lyrics. In today's day and