African Origins and Acculturation in the New World

Chapter 3

Slaves and their community

• Slaves mainly came from the Western Region of Africa

• Village-based culture – individuals work towards a common good. Music is a communal activity and all participate on some level.

• WORK SONG – music performed while conducting a task

• FIELD HOLLERS – related to above, sung solo and echoed by others or passed along; cries for water or food and to explain events, religious devotions, and for motivation.

Music for Activity

• Music is always linked to an activity– Births– Deaths– Weddings– Rites of passage– Religious Celebration/Agricultural events– Music in ceremonies is to invoke Deities –

appease spirits to ward off bad luck & illness.

Music for Dance

• West African music is used primarily for dance and/or body movement.

• Master drummers are also master dancers

• Drum students take dance lessons

• Music is seamless and very repetitive

• It can be hypnotic – creating a trance-like state for medicinal and healing purposes.

• Non-participants would be bored.

TYPES OF DRUMS

*Types of Drums

http://www.ehow.com/about_5447619_african-drums.html#page=0

*DJembe – rope tuned skin-covered goblet drum played with bare hands

*How to play djembe drum.  6 sounds

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rlfZ68GTAs

AFRICAN DRUM ENSEMBLES

• 4-6 players

• The rhythmic concept is very complex

• There is a steady basic pulse that the other rhythmic elements play off

• Multilinear rhythm – composite effect of different linear lines

CALL AND RESPONSE

• The fundamental form of African music• Leader performs a portion of music and the group

performs a response• Not unique to West African music; it is found in many

musical cultures around the world, even today.• Beetlejuice dinner scene• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3j9jpBez8g • Zulu Battle chants

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODM1RJe4FvQ

• Whoopin’ Blues https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymP9p-Iv2x4

Call and Response/Work Songs examples from book

• Kneebone (from book) • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGt-aX-m

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•  Arwhoolie (from book)• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPrZ-YsD

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• Hammer, Ring (from book)• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0cfIIO3C

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COMING TO A NEW WORLD

• The extent to which African slaves were able to keep their folkways depended on their location and the ethnic background of their owners.

• African Americans living off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia retained more than those in constant contact with whites and other cultures.

LATIN – CATHOLICS (French and Spanish)

• More tolerant of African traditions. Slaves were allowed to continue as long as their duties were done.

• Slaves were taken to church. Music was taught by a practice called LINING OUT – a line at a time. Blacks and whites learned hymns together.

• STROPHIC - music is the same for each verse, ie. hymns

BRITISH-PROTESTANTS

• Felt responsible for slaves body and soul.

• African traditions were thought of as heathen and savage.

• Drums were forbidden so the slaves improvised using anything they could find, including stomping, and bearing their thighs and chest

THE DIVIDE

• When the sentiment turned against slavery, the south wanted to keep it in place. Blacks were cast out of churches. So they formed their own!

• African musical practices flowered. – Black spirituals– Highly rhythmic, repetitive and chant-like

music that involved dance or movement. Call and response and the gruffness of the “dirtied” voice remained as in the origins.

• African took scales, melodies, harmonies, rhythms, and sounds of European musical practice and later altered them to fall in line with their own musical traditions.

• From musical theater to rock and roll, stylistic traits of African-American music have shown an influence.

SYNCOPATION

• Emphasizes notes that don’t align with the pulse; accenting the weak beats (2and4) instead of the stong beats (1and3)

• MOTOR RHTHYM –presentation of a steday rhythmic pulseat a consistent tempo, provides the base for syncopation and swing

• How music works https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZJPnAer7EM

• Stomp – brooms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ7aYQtIldg

IMPROVISATION

• Spontaneous creation of a performer by reacting to the musical environment situation of the moment.

• Paraphrasing – taking an existing meoldy and changing it

• Mid 1920s – on = creating new melodies based on the chords in the background

• Mid 1950s – on = creating new melodies NOT based on the chords. Not required to fit the chords.

Marsalis on Music

• #1 - http://youtu.be/O4RDCPW9ixc?list=PL-i01QrDf5Cvv-HAmyF1MTyZ2wN_1r0mY

• #2 - http://youtu.be/wRNH1JC7vv4?list=PL-i01QrDf5Cvv-HAmyF1MTyZ2wN_1r0mY

Improv., continued

• Improvisation existed in European music such as Bach and Mozart.

• African-American music gave a high priority to improv skills. The musician became the performer and composer at the same time.

• One improviation is performed, it’s gone, done. It can never be re-created the same so it’s fragile and elusive.

COLORING A SOUND

• As in the growl of the voice, instrument sounds can be “dirtied” by making them have a rattle or a buzz.

• MBIRA – handheld box with meatl tines, playd with the thumbs and forefingers. It is usually a clean, clear sound. http://youtu.be/tIPORpN27CY

• http://youtu.be/9r3rCUg3L98 • Can be “dirtied” by adding bottlecaps to produce

a buzzing sound.

BLUE NOTES

• In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of a major scale for expressive purposes.

• Country blues, in particular, features wide variations from the pitches with emotive blue-notes. Blue notes are often found in traditional African work songs.

• Blue notes (in blue): b3, (♯4)/b5, b7

• Like the blues in general, the blue notes can mean many things. One quality that they all have in common, however, is that they are flatter than one would expect.

• African Blues http://youtu.be/aZTai3DxMXM• Bending Guitar Notes

http://youtu.be/UOnzDKvn7YI

TIMBRE

• Tone production

• Europeans expected pure, clear, and consistent notes

• African-Americans expected individuality. Nasal sounds, growls, and horseness were encouraged.

SWING

• Relaxed rhythmic feeling imposed over a rhythmic drive.

• Softer entrances, instead of Ta, use Da

• Felt in a subdivision of the beat of 3 instead of 2.

• Soon and Very Soon http://youtu.be/QxTDCSDYSpA