Euro American Music Flashcards
What was the nature of the music brought to the USA by immigrants?
Sacred music brought to the USA wasn’t really “classical music.” Immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, the UK, and Europe was not “classical music,” but retained the importance of clear diction.
> The music was based on the bible, with texts from the book of psalms, or hymns. Most of the music as an oral tradition: melodies passed down through generations, and memorized by important members of the church and some people in the congregation.
What is Lining out? Why was it popular?
> White churches also used lined hymns for praise. In fact, the idea of “lining out” (having someone sing the beginning, or a full line of text, repeated by the congregation) is a long tradition from Scotland (and still practiced there).
Lining out was for inexpensive worship. A leader (called a Cantor in the church) would be the only person needing the text. As books became widespread in the 1600s and 1700s, most people had texts to sing (but still not any written melodies).
> Lined hymns were primarily used in the Baptist churches (and a reason why this practice was adopted by African American sacred music).
What was the relevance of singing schools?
> As part of the great awakening From 1740 to 1800, quickly implemented a church system across the nation. > Religion and education went hand-in-hand, starting the growth of the education system in the USA as well.
> Part of the school system was singing schools: a specific part of the school system for learning to read music, and sing—in a particular way with clear diction
What was the Easy Instructor?
Singing schools needed instruction books. Enter William Smith and William Little. In 1798, they published The Easy Instructor, which spread across all singing schools. Its purpose was to increase musical literacy across the USA. Children in the USA learned the same music in the same style of singing.
This style was based on the solfège system (designating do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do for each note of the major scale). When students learn that system, they can sing melodies according to the syllables: —they create a short melody.
What was the notation of the Easy Instructor?
The Easy Instructor included notation—written out musical parts for singers. This notation was a bit different—the notes look similar on a staff (notes on lines and spaces), but they had different shapes: for example, a square, triangle, or diamond shape. Each “shape” represented one of the solfège syllables.
> For example, a square could mean the word “do” and a triangle could mean the word “re.” So a singer could sing the syllables based on what shape they saw.
> The music was called “shape-note hymns
What was the impact of the Easy Instructor and Shape note hymns on euro american music?
> These examples show us the roots of sacred singing traditions in the USA. Music in protestant churches doesn’t sound like this anymore, but grew from this tradition of clear diction, clear singing, notes according to scales from Europe (like the major scale), and harmonies produced in 4-part singing.
> These cultural values of singing implemented a specific “ideal sound” for white musicality, which we also hear in secular music and later transferred into popular music practices.
How were ballads traditionally passed?
Ballads were transmitted in written form through broadsides, but mostly through an oral tradition (passed down by generations).
Ballads mostly come from Irish, Scottish, and British singing traditions. They are an oral tradition—typically learned by ear (whether the lyrics were published on a broadside or not).
What were Broadsides?
> Broadsides were single sheets of paper printed on one side (thus the name broadside). They began in the 1500s in Ireland and the United Kingdom (UK) as advertisements, news, and for the text of folk music (but not the notation). They were treated as temporary publications, and generally thrown away once the “new” folk music was learned.
> Broadsides were important for immigrants to Canada and the USA. With some printed in North America, many of them were imported from Ireland or the UK for people to keep in touch with news, and the new ballads. The melodies, however, were not printed. Those would be learned by ear, or the new lyrics would be sung to existing melodies people already knew.
How did the nature of broadsides (no melodies) impact the features of ballads?
It leads to a number of interesting features about them. Memory is imperfect. What is transmitted orally changes over time, and over geographic areas. Many singers learn lyrics that are different than each other. Different verses can be sung, different names or places in the lyrics might change, or the pronunciation might be different.
What features are consistent in Ballads?
> When we listen to a lot of ballads, we can hear tune families: melodies of some ballads can be quite similar, with different people drawing on a shared pool of melodies.
> All have a chronological sequence of events: a general narrative that is always told the same from start to finish.
> There is also an emotional core: an intended universal emotional response to the story. That is usually with reference to a certain moral being conveyed, in which almost all ballads have some moral lesson.
> Musically, ballads have always been sung a capaella (without instrumental accompaniment). They also have a strophic form (repeated verses with the same melody).
What are the differences between the fiddle and the violin?
> The fiddle and the violin are the same instrument. The difference in terms comes from two related aspects:
1) the fiddle is sometimes played differently with the instrument pressed against the breastplate rather than under the chin, or with the instrument pointed downward (rather than a strict posture of classical music);
2) the repertoire of fiddle music is different than classical music (for violin). This repertoire has some techniques that are different.
> A classical violinist will use vibrato (a wavering sound on long notes), which isn’t heard as much in traditional fiddling.
> The instrument also doesn’t have frets. In classical music (the violin), performers are usually quite accurate in the notes they want to produce.
Some fiddlers slide their fingers along the fretless strings to create bends and other notes “in-between” the notes of a scale
What are the fiddle traditions?
The fiddle tradition originates from Scotland, Britain (together the UK), and Ireland with Celtic music. These have regional differences—repertoire and ways of playing—that were transferred to the USA, where new regional differences emerged.
> For example, playing styles of the northern Appalachia region (by New York State) would be quite different than those in Texas (a southern middle-state). These differences grew into (healthy) battles of fiddling, with many contents and arguments over what style was better than the other.
Where is early “hillbilly” music originate?
It is acknowledged that early “hillbilly” music—ballads and fiddle tunes—emerged and was fostered in the Appalachian region of the USA. This is the large rural area of the Appalachian mountains in the Eastern and middle-states, although the music flourished in both rural and urban centres.
What was WSM?
WSM radio was the primary station for the music. It started in 1925 and is based out of Nashville, Tennessee. It started as a regional station, but by the 1930s was broadcasting at 50,000 Watts to reach over 30 states. Since then, Nashville has been the main city for country music, and many mainstream popular music artists. It is a “hub” of singer-songwriters, publishers, performers, record producers, and anything else related to the music industry.
WSM did not originate for broadcasting music—it was interested in advertising. WSM was owned by the National Life and Accident Insurance Company (in fact, WSM stands for “We Shield Millions”). That company was looking to sell life insurance to the working class of America, and hillbilly music was their way of reaching them.
What was the Grand Ole Opry?
When WSM started in 1925, it began a radio show called the Barn Dance. It was held for “a few hours” on Saturday nights, and broadcast live performances of hillbilly music (in a concert hall with an audience). By the late 1920s, the name changed to the Grand Ole Opry, which was likely the most-listened-to radio program in the USA.
With millions of listeners, the Grand Ole Opry had a lot of power. Being a performer on the show was a good possibility at stardom. The result of this radio show had deep implications for the music, and the industry.
