Unit 2 -- Colonial, Revolutionary and 19th Century Music

While much of the music which will concern us comes from the 20th century, we will benefit from understanding the roots of that music in the “streams of influence” that contributed to the changing landscape of American music in the period from earliest colonization in the 17^th century to the end of the 19th century. Of particular interest to us from these first 300 years will be the Native American, European American, and African American streams, with the Latin American influence becoming more apparent later on.

Native American Music

The first people in what is now in the United States were Native Americans. Theirs is the original American music. Although we don’t have surviving examples of Native American music from the time before Europeans arrived, we do have the example of contemporary performances by living Native Americans who are very committed to keeping these traditions alive.

Much Native American music includes chanted vocals over a steady, percussive beat. Some of the words convey the meaning of the song, while others are nonsense syllables, or vocables, meant to access the spirit world through their musical sounds rather than convey any kind of linguistic meaning.

Exactly what influence Native American music has had on later American music is difficult to say. Europeans encountering Native Americans for the first time clearly did not “get” their music. Early descriptions by Europeans characterize the sounds as “savage” an incomprehensible—assessments based on their inability to understand the musical language of a foreign culture. There is little evidence that European musicians adopted Native American musical practices in significant or authentic ways. On the other hand, there is evidence that African American folktales incorporated elements of Native folklore through a process of interaction between blacks and Native Americans. It is reasonable to speculate that Native American music has similarly influenced the course of American music, but the historical details are difficult to trace.

In any case, modern performances of Native American music and dance certainly constitute an ongoing part of music in the United States that is important to the cultural heritage of a particular community. We might wonder whether these modern performances, carried on at events such as tribal powwows and competitions, can be assumed to bear reliable resemblance to the music of Native Americans at the time that European settlers arrived 400 years ago. What’s important to Native American performers themselves, however, is that these performances allow them to carry on a cultural tradition that connects them with nature, their ancestors and their community through a shared practice. It is more important that this is an ongoing, living tradition of communal performance, and not so much whether songs or sounds are being transmitted in some “pure” form from centuries ago.

European American Music

The first successful English settlements were established at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607 and Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. The musical traditions the English setters brought with them included songs, dances and sacred music (music for church and worship) from Europe. During the colonial era,  they continued to cultivate these types of music, adapting them to their new environment and developing what is best described as a European-American music—not simply European music imported across the ocean, but a new American version of it.

A broadside ballad

One of the most important song types the English brought with them was the ballad. Ballads are popular songs that tell a story. They were often sold and distributed in the form of lyrics (words to the song) printed on large sheets of paper called broadsides (for this reason they are also called broadside ballads). The most popular ballads had lyrics that were familiar to people and were set to well-known melodies that were easy to sing. In addition to the standard lyrics, however, the ballads published on broadsides might have alternate lyrics satirizing or commenting on current events or politics.

Here’s a typical example of the traditional English ballad. Listen to the story it tells and notice the simple, singable melody.

The ballad tradition lives on in modern times in country music songs, which are well known for their narrative qualities.

The dances brought from Europe included stately, aristocratic ones like the minuet as well as more folk-like country dances, such as those resembling square dances. These popular and formal dances were an important part of secular (non-religious) life for English and European colonists (this is in contrast to Native and African Americans, for whom dance was also a religious activity). Dances for couples and dances for groups were both common.

Here’s a video about colonial dance reenactment. Instruments commonly used for these dances would have included the harpsichord (the common keyboard instrument of the time) and the fiddle (violin).

The early colonists found themselves in a wild and rugged country where they formed small communities mostly focused on the basics in life. It took some time for any kind of professional music community to develop, so in the early Colonial Era, home and amateur music-making were most important. This reality is reflected not only in the importance of popular songs and dances that could be performed in the family or community, but also in the fact that some of the most famous early American musicians were politicians and founders who happened also to be amateur instrumentalists and composers. Thomas Jefferson played the violin, and Francis Hopkinson of Philadelphia, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, is often credited as the first composer of the United States.

When professional music scenes did emerge, they were centered mainly in the largest cities in the new colonies—Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Charleston (at the time, the largest and most important city in the South). In these cities there were performances of opera, classical music, and musical plays, reflecting the European heritage of the colonies. There was also an important opera scene in New Orleans in French colonial Louisiana. In the beginning, professional musicians were mainly people who were trained in music in Europe before immigrating to the colonies.

Many of the colonists came to North America in search of religious freedom. Some of the most important music composed during the Colonial Era is sacred music—music for church and worship. William Penn’s liberal policies about religious freedom allowed the Moravians of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to develop a unique tradition of sacred music. The first book published in the colonies was the Bay Psalm Book (1640), a collection of Protestant Hymns. Perhaps the most famous composer of the Colonial Era was William Billings, a New Englander who cultivated a style of religious music similar in many respects to European sacred choral traditions, but with a uniquely rugged and rustic American flavor. Here’s a sample:

Another important tradition inherited from England was that of military and marching bands. During the Revolutionary war, the fife and drum combination was typical (a fife is a kind of flute). In addition to providing conventional music for patriotic purposes, drums were also used to sound military signals—rhythmic patterns that coded military commands. The familiar tune “Yankee Doodle” was a popular song during the Revolution.

African American Music

Most of the slaves who were brought to the new world came from countries on the west coast of Africa. The music they brought with them was the music of West Africa, which they continued to practice and adapt to their new cultural environment over the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

West African music is based on a foundation of percussion. In a typical instrumental ensemble, the various drums, rattles, cowbells and other percussive instruments combine in complex layers of polyrhythm (the practice of performing more than one meter or rhythm simultaneously). Each instrument has its own independent rhythm which combines with the patterns of the other instruments to create a large-scale composite rhythm that might be heard by the listener, even though it is not played by any single musician. Out of this polyrhythmic texture, there arise rhythmic accents that are off the beat, or on the weak beats, creating the feeling known as syncopation.

Over this foundation of polyrhythmic percussion, there is often singing. West African vocal style includes not only sung pitches as would be recognized in European singing, but also shouting, hollering, grunting, use of the falsetto (high register of the voice), and any number of other effects the human voice is capable of creating. A common practice on West African music that is inherited by African American music is call and response, in which a soloist sings or shouts a musical phrase which is followed by a group response.

aAfrican music takes place within a communal context. There is always music during community and ritual observances, and everyone participates. Some play instruments, some dance, some sing. There is no separation of performers and audience as in much modern and Western music. A common practice is the circle dance, in which participants stand in a circle and take turns dancing in the center. Dance itself forms part of the music, as rattles and other noise makers attached to the body sound in rhythm to the performance. These performances are improvised, based on tradition and learned by example.

Here's a baby-naming ceremony from Mali, which includes many typical traits of traditional West African performance.

       

At first, African slaves in the new world retained their African religious, spiritual and ritual traditions. Over time, they adopted Christianity, but tended to combine it with African beliefs and practices. In African religion, dancing, shouting, and "getting the spirit" were indispensable parts of the religious experience. White European-American society, however, strongly disapproved of this type of behavior in the church. In order to worship in their own fashion, African Americans would sneak off into the woods or to someone's house after the regular church service and participate in a ring shout. In a ring shout, the worshipers would firm a circle (reminiscent of the circle dances of Africa). Moving in the same direction through circle, they would sing, shout, stomp and clap while performing religious songs of their own choosing in praise of the Christian God.

The religious songs they were likely to sing in these observances were spirituals -- African American folk songs on sacred themes. These songs were hybrids of Christian hymns with African American musical practices, including expressive, flexible singing, syncopated melodies, and call-and-response forms. Many of these songs seem to have served a dual function, with the words expressing in code what could not be expressed explicitly--the desire of slaves to escape slavery. Spirituals with references to "salvation" and "escape" from a world of troubles would only be hear by white masters as songs about going to heaven when one dies, but the slaves may also have understood the message as a dream of escaping from slavery--a dream that became more and more  intensely felt as the time of the Civil War approached. Some spiritual lyrics may even have encoded directions for following the Underground Railroad.

Here's a recording of a performance of an African American spiritual in the traditional folk style. It is probably very similar to the style in which slaves and free blacks would have sung in the nineteenth century.

Another important type of African American folk music was the work song. The purpose of a work song is to help with physically demanding types of work, such as the type  black slaves wer forced to do in the fields of Southern plantations. The beat of the song established a rhythm to help the workers keep moving in time and keep working. The following is an example of a work song. It's a recording of prison inmates from the 1940s, but as with the previous example, the style of the singing and rhythm are probably pretty close to the sound of work songs during the era of slavery. Notice that, just as in West African performance, this song has a foundation of percussion (supplied by the work the men are doing) with vocals in call-and-response laid over the steady rhythm.

IThese African American folk songs constitute a new and vital musical practice in the United States. However, some black slaves also performed music fully in the European tradition for the entertainment of their masters. Often, slaves that worked in the house (as opposed to the field) were well trained on European instruments such as the violin. They might provide the music for dancing at a party hosted by the master. Like property, a black musicians might be lent by his master to a neighboring plantation owner for an evening. These talented slaves must have been highly prized. When such a slave escaped, the master might put out on ad seeking his return. In addition to a physical description, the ad would state that the runaway slave was likely to be travelling with a fiddle or a guitar and that he could be seen to play it exceptionally well.
 

Popular Music in the 19th Century
 

During the 19th century, the African and European musical roots of the United States had more and more influence on each other. A number of types of music emerged during the 19th century that combined these cultures in new ways. Some of the types of music that were popular with white Americans incorporated at least the idea of a cultural link with African Americans. Some of these musical fusions were more authentic that others. At least one, the minstrel show, is downright offensive and exploitative by today's standards in its cartoonish portrayal of black Americans. However, we must give it some consideration, because its historical influence, however unfortunate, is too large to ignore.

The Minstrel Show

By the middle of the 19th century, the United States was becoming increasingly diverse. That diversity was being explored--though not very accurately--on the American stage in the form of the minstrel show.

A minstrel show consisted of a variety of musical and dramatic acts. There were songs, skits, and parodies of well-known plays or European operas. It was in many ways the first uniquely American style of musical theater--the predecessor to the kinds of shows that would appear on Broadway in the 20th century.



A white actor in and out of blackface makeup.
 

But the minstrel show was something else besides. The characters portrayed in these entertainments reflected the diverse types of people that were making up the new nation, but far from realistic, these portrayals were crude stereotypes. There were caricatured representations of city slickers, country bumpkins, woman suffragists (played by men in these all-male productions), and various kinds of ethnic immigrants (Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans, etc.). But most of all, minstrel shows always included a variety of stereotyped African American characters. 



The minstrel character Jim Crow.

These characters were performed by white male actors in blackface. The actors would apply makeup made out of burnt cork (this was called "blacking up" or "corking up") to create an outlandish effect that was a completely non-realistic representation of African Americans. These characters would sing songs and tell stereotyped jokes in phony black dialect. One of the most popular characters that appeared in many shows was called Jim Crow, created by the songwriter and performer Thomas Dartmouth Rice. His signature song was "Jump Jim Crow." The segregationist laws that were established in most parts of the country after the Civil War were named for this character (Jim Crow laws, the Jim Crow era).



Stephen Foster

The songs these characters sang were often of idealized nostalgia for Southern plantation life, constituting an idealized fantasy to be enjoyed by (mostly Northern) whites. The South was portrayed as an exotic, romantic location, to which black former slaves longed to return! Many of the most popular songs of the 19th century originated in the minstrel shows. The songwriter Stephen Foster composed many of the better quality ones. With some updating, they continue to be performed today, some of the most famous titles being "Oh, Susannah," "Swanee River," "Beautiful Dreamer," and "Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair." Here is a performance of his song, "Old Folks at Home." The singer is accompanying himself on the guitar, in a style much like that of the time. Notice that at one point the song uses the word "darkie," a rather sentimentalizing (and patronizing) term for black people at the time. In many modern performances the words are changed from "Oh, darkies . . . " to "Oh, Lordy, how my heart grows weary . . . "

The first widely successful minstrel troupe was the Virginia Minstrels (they were based in New York City, but the "Virginia" in the name was meant to evoke the Southern flavor of the entertainment). Minstrelsy was an immensely popular form of entertainment from around the 1840s until the Civil War, and continued to be influential well into the early 20th century. After the Civil War and emancipation, there were black minstrel troupes, too. This fact may seem surprising, but it demonstrates how pervasive this form of entertainment was--that black actors and musicians looking for work often had no choice but to participate in the minstrel show.

 

Patriotic Marches and Dance Bands

 

The minstrel show demonstrates an attempt by white Americans to acknowledge the presence of African Americans in their popular entertainment, but minstrel show songs are really still the music of white Americans with a European heritage who were more fascinated by black people than actually knowledgeable about their culture and experiences.

 

A another type of European American music that continued to be popular in the late 19th century was the tradition of band music and patriotic marches (we saw an earlier manifestation of this in the Yankee Doodle example above). Many towns and communities in the United States had amateur and professional  bands that were usually composed of mostly wind and percussion instruments and played dance music and marches for entertainment. (There were versions of these bands in black communities as well--their music developed into ragtime and jazz.)

 

A famous composer of patriotic marches was John Philip Sousa. His marches were written for large, professional concert bands or military bands and continue to be well-known. They are often performed for patriotic or nationalistic events. Perhaps his most famous march is "Stars and Stripes Forever." Notice the prominence of large numbers of wind and percussion instruments in the following recording of "Stars and Stripes Forever." Like most marches, it has a strong, steady beat in duple meter.



 

 

The Popular Spiritual

 

If the minstrel show was mainly a white fantasy about black music and culture, the spiritual continued to be one of the most authentic expressions of black musical and cultural life.
After the Civil War and emancipation, many colleges and instititions of learning were founded for African Americans. Many of these colleges had music schools, where students were trained primarily in European classical music. However, they also brought their own traditions with them, and black music was naturally combined with European forms. Many of these colleges had choirs that specialized in singing versions of the traditional spirituals. These performances combined the tunes and lyrics of the folk spiritual (like "Been in the Storm So Long," discussed above) with European four-part choral harmony (rather like William Billings's sacred choral music, also discussed above).

The Fisk Jubilee Singers

The most famous of these choirs was the Fisk Jubilee Singers, a group of students from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. At a time when the college was in financial trouble and seemed doomed to close its doors, the director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers had the ambitious idea of taking the choir on tour around the country and using the money they raised to save the school. It might sound like a crazy movie plot, but it worked! The Fisk Jubilee Singers were were a hit in the United States--people flocked to hear these beutiful "negro" melodies sung in rich harmonies by the choir. They eventually toured in Europe as well. The proceeds from these performances allowed the college to thrive, and Fisk University continues to be an important traditionally black college today.

The Fisk Jubilee Singers continue to perform. Here's a recording of the group from the 20th century--it's obviously not the original group, but the style of singing is similar.



 

 The Fisk Jubilee Singers were the most popular, but not the only, black choir singing spirituals in the late 19th century. The height of popularity of this style of spiritual singing was around the 1890s. The interest in sprituals among white Americans of the time was the first instance of something that will happen again and again in American music. For the first time an authentic black music (unlike minstrelsy) took hold and became widely popular among people of all races in the United States. This will happen again with ragtime, jazz, blues, rock and roll, and rap, but it all began the spiritual.

 

 

Ragtime

 

Ragtime was the next type of music to come out of the African American community and achieve wide popularity across the country and the world. Ragtime is a style of piano music cultivated by African American musicians, in which syncopated rythms are combined with European musical forms. Like the spiritual, it as a synthesis of African and European musical traits.

 

Ragtime seems to have been most thouroughly developed in the late 19th century in the Midwest, especially in the region around the state of Missouri. After emancipation, a new genereation of free blacks, including Scott Joplin (1867/8-1917), were able to find work as professional musicians. Many, like Joplin, were highly trained in European classical music, but spent much of their time playing in bars, nightclubs, and houses of prostitution, since these were the primary venues in which black musicians could get work at the time.

 

Scott Joplin
 

In these environments, these musicians would play tunes on the piano--often familiar ones, but they would improvise on them in a highly syncopated style, incorporating the rhythmic complexity of the the African roots of black music. This was called "ragging" a tune. The left hand would play a steady duple or quadruple beat much like the steady beat of a European march--in fact, this aspect of ragtime may come directly out of the community marching band tradition discussed above. Over this steady beat in the left hand, the right hand plays a melody with a syncopated rhythm--this is the African aspect.

 

In the following example of someone playing Joplin's "The Entertainer," listen and watch for the steady beat on the left hand (lower notes) and the syncopated rhythm, with accents on the offbeat, in the right hand.

 

The version of ragtime played in bars and nightclubs was improvised music, and probably much more spirited and "ragged" around the edges than this. What Joplin and others did was to take the ragtime style and use it as the basis of written music compositions--pieces of music that were intended to be small works of art, like the sonatas composed and published by European composers for others to read and play from sheet music. Joplin always insisted that his rags were intended to be played in a slow and dignified manner, though few others have actually played them that way. In this way, the ragtime pieces published by Joplin are not only a synthesis of black and European American influences, but also stradle the line between popular and classical music--the style is inspired by popular music, but the artistic intentions behind these composed pieces are closer to the concept of European classical music.

 

Joplin's most famous rag (an individual piece of ragtime music is called a rag) was the "Maple Leaf Rag," named for one of the night clubs where he played in Missouri. Joplin published this piece in 1899, and it took the country by storm. It set records for the sale of sheet music up to that time in history and was played by amateur musicians in the both the United States and Europe. This piece and other ragtime music became so popular on both sides of the Atlantic, that for the first decade of the 20th century, all of popular music began to be influenced, starting a ragtime craze not only in instrumental and dance music, but even in ragtime-style songs. Joplin is considered by many to be the first African American composer to achieve international fame. (While we're at it, we might as well mention that this African American was one of the fist American composers of any race to achieve international fame.) You can read more about the life and work of Scott Joplin here.

 

Listen to this recording of the "Maple Leaf Rag." (Try not ot be distracted by the bouncing balls!) This piece is a bit more complex than "The Entertainer," but notice agian the steady beat established by the left hand bass notes and chords set against the intricate syncopated right hand melody.

 

 

 

This is the end of Unit 2!