Constance Valis Hill
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195390827
- eISBN:
- 9780199863563
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390827.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American, Dance
A jigging competition between two young men near the village of Frogmore, South Carolina, in 1951, asks how the jig, an Irish folk dance, became associated with a “Negro” style of dancing, and was ...
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A jigging competition between two young men near the village of Frogmore, South Carolina, in 1951, asks how the jig, an Irish folk dance, became associated with a “Negro” style of dancing, and was even used as an offensive epithet for Negro This chapter investigates the origins of tap dance in America and its complex intercultural fusions, which occurred through the interaction of Irish servants and enslaved West Africans in the Caribbean during the 1600s, African American folk and Irish American laborers in the South during the 1700s, and African American freemen and Irish Americans in northern cities in the 1800s. It was through this musical and social exchange, with its steady pattern of imitation, assimilation, and the transformation of such percussive step dances as the jig, gioube, buck-and-wing, and juba, that tap dance evolved in America. Afro-Irish oral traditions—verbal swordplay of satire, wit, one-upsmanship—also motivated tap’s fusionsLess
A jigging competition between two young men near the village of Frogmore, South Carolina, in 1951, asks how the jig, an Irish folk dance, became associated with a “Negro” style of dancing, and was even used as an offensive epithet for Negro This chapter investigates the origins of tap dance in America and its complex intercultural fusions, which occurred through the interaction of Irish servants and enslaved West Africans in the Caribbean during the 1600s, African American folk and Irish American laborers in the South during the 1700s, and African American freemen and Irish Americans in northern cities in the 1800s. It was through this musical and social exchange, with its steady pattern of imitation, assimilation, and the transformation of such percussive step dances as the jig, gioube, buck-and-wing, and juba, that tap dance evolved in America. Afro-Irish oral traditions—verbal swordplay of satire, wit, one-upsmanship—also motivated tap’s fusions
William T. Dargan
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520234482
- eISBN:
- 9780520928923
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520234482.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
Not only in Dr. Watts hymns, but also in spirituals, blues, gospel, rhythm and blues, and jazz, African–European encounters have shaped a persisting core of relationships between language and music. ...
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Not only in Dr. Watts hymns, but also in spirituals, blues, gospel, rhythm and blues, and jazz, African–European encounters have shaped a persisting core of relationships between language and music. From about 1800 to 1970, this sequence of genres emerged out of the cauldron of wars and disenfranchisement that marked the African American trek from autonomous existence to crossover with or assimilation into the American cultural mainstream. These observable continuities include a field of non-semantic, psycho-emotional expression in African American music that is analogous to language surrogates (or drum languages), speech-like song, and other synergies between speech and song in African ritual expression. This chapter examines the interrelationship between speech and song in the sound of Dr. Watts, while positing a conceptual model that places musical performances on a continuum of rhythmic styles, and looks at the book African Rhythm: A Northern Ewe Perspective (1995) by Kofi Agawu.Less
Not only in Dr. Watts hymns, but also in spirituals, blues, gospel, rhythm and blues, and jazz, African–European encounters have shaped a persisting core of relationships between language and music. From about 1800 to 1970, this sequence of genres emerged out of the cauldron of wars and disenfranchisement that marked the African American trek from autonomous existence to crossover with or assimilation into the American cultural mainstream. These observable continuities include a field of non-semantic, psycho-emotional expression in African American music that is analogous to language surrogates (or drum languages), speech-like song, and other synergies between speech and song in African ritual expression. This chapter examines the interrelationship between speech and song in the sound of Dr. Watts, while positing a conceptual model that places musical performances on a continuum of rhythmic styles, and looks at the book African Rhythm: A Northern Ewe Perspective (1995) by Kofi Agawu.
Sheryl Kaskowitz
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199919772
- eISBN:
- 9780199345595
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199919772.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American, Popular
This book tells the surprising story of “God Bless America.” It begins with the song’s early history, from its composition in 1918 by Irving Berlin and its premiere performance by Kate Smith in 1938, ...
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This book tells the surprising story of “God Bless America.” It begins with the song’s early history, from its composition in 1918 by Irving Berlin and its premiere performance by Kate Smith in 1938, then traces its reception, uses, and shifting meanings from the years preceding the United States’ entry into World War II, to its sudden popularity in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Moving to the present day, it explores the song’s recent use within professional baseball as a case study to understand the song’s varied functions and meanings in contemporary American life. The song’s history reveals fascinating stories about American culture—shifting ideas about the role of composer and performer in popular music, about intervention and war, assimilation and acceptance of outsiders, the rise of the ideological Right, rifts between generations, and in definitions of Americanness itself. At the same time, tracing the song’s uses illuminates the role of secular communal singing in American public life. Such singing represents unique moments when music is interwoven into everyday life—not as a performance to be appreciated, but as a mode of civic participation, a vehicle for the forging and contesting of community ties.Less
This book tells the surprising story of “God Bless America.” It begins with the song’s early history, from its composition in 1918 by Irving Berlin and its premiere performance by Kate Smith in 1938, then traces its reception, uses, and shifting meanings from the years preceding the United States’ entry into World War II, to its sudden popularity in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Moving to the present day, it explores the song’s recent use within professional baseball as a case study to understand the song’s varied functions and meanings in contemporary American life. The song’s history reveals fascinating stories about American culture—shifting ideas about the role of composer and performer in popular music, about intervention and war, assimilation and acceptance of outsiders, the rise of the ideological Right, rifts between generations, and in definitions of Americanness itself. At the same time, tracing the song’s uses illuminates the role of secular communal singing in American public life. Such singing represents unique moments when music is interwoven into everyday life—not as a performance to be appreciated, but as a mode of civic participation, a vehicle for the forging and contesting of community ties.
Heather K. Pinson
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604734942
- eISBN:
- 9781621034438
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604734942.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
Typically, a photograph of a jazz musician has several formal prerequisites: black and white film, an urban setting in the mid-twentieth century, and a black man standing, playing, or sitting next to ...
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Typically, a photograph of a jazz musician has several formal prerequisites: black and white film, an urban setting in the mid-twentieth century, and a black man standing, playing, or sitting next to his instrument. That’s the jazz archetype that photography created. This book reveals how such a steadfast script developed visually and what this convention meant for the music. Album covers, magazines, books, documentaries, art photographs, posters, and various other visual extensions of popular culture formed the commonly held image of the jazz player. Through assimilation, there emerged a generalized composite of how mainstream jazz looked and sounded. The book evaluates representations of jazz musicians from 1945 to 1959, concentrating on the seminal role played by Herman Leonard (b. 1923). Leonard’s photographic depictions of African American jazz musicians in New York not only created a visual template of a black musician of the 1950s, but also became the standard configuration of the music’s neoclassical sound today. To discover how the image of the musician affected mainstream jazz, the book examines readings from critics, musicians, and educators, as well as interviews, musical scores, recordings, transcriptions, liner notes, and oral narratives.Less
Typically, a photograph of a jazz musician has several formal prerequisites: black and white film, an urban setting in the mid-twentieth century, and a black man standing, playing, or sitting next to his instrument. That’s the jazz archetype that photography created. This book reveals how such a steadfast script developed visually and what this convention meant for the music. Album covers, magazines, books, documentaries, art photographs, posters, and various other visual extensions of popular culture formed the commonly held image of the jazz player. Through assimilation, there emerged a generalized composite of how mainstream jazz looked and sounded. The book evaluates representations of jazz musicians from 1945 to 1959, concentrating on the seminal role played by Herman Leonard (b. 1923). Leonard’s photographic depictions of African American jazz musicians in New York not only created a visual template of a black musician of the 1950s, but also became the standard configuration of the music’s neoclassical sound today. To discover how the image of the musician affected mainstream jazz, the book examines readings from critics, musicians, and educators, as well as interviews, musical scores, recordings, transcriptions, liner notes, and oral narratives.
Rashida K. Braggs
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520279346
- eISBN:
- 9780520963412
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520279346.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This chapter focuses on bebop cofounder Kenny Clarke, who resided in Paris from 1956 until his death in 1985. Clarke became the cornerstone of the Parisian jazz scene. He was the house drummer for ...
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This chapter focuses on bebop cofounder Kenny Clarke, who resided in Paris from 1956 until his death in 1985. Clarke became the cornerstone of the Parisian jazz scene. He was the house drummer for the Blue Note club, the most represented drummer on the Vogue record label, and the go-to guy for such groundbreaking projects as L'ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Elevator to the gallows) soundtrack. As a highly regarded elder of jazz, he mentored many French drummers, and American musicians flew over to play with him. Through his mentoring, musical collaborations, rhetoric, and travels Clarke helped transform jazz from “black music” to a “universal” music accessible to, and playable by, those in France and beyond. Clarke represents an unresolved and shifting tension between black pride and authenticity and a desire for universal humanity irrespective of race, which potentially threatens racial erasure. The chapter deconstructs multiple performances of the term universal in Clarke's and jazz's journey to assimilation in Europe.Less
This chapter focuses on bebop cofounder Kenny Clarke, who resided in Paris from 1956 until his death in 1985. Clarke became the cornerstone of the Parisian jazz scene. He was the house drummer for the Blue Note club, the most represented drummer on the Vogue record label, and the go-to guy for such groundbreaking projects as L'ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Elevator to the gallows) soundtrack. As a highly regarded elder of jazz, he mentored many French drummers, and American musicians flew over to play with him. Through his mentoring, musical collaborations, rhetoric, and travels Clarke helped transform jazz from “black music” to a “universal” music accessible to, and playable by, those in France and beyond. Clarke represents an unresolved and shifting tension between black pride and authenticity and a desire for universal humanity irrespective of race, which potentially threatens racial erasure. The chapter deconstructs multiple performances of the term universal in Clarke's and jazz's journey to assimilation in Europe.
Hannah Kosstrin
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- August 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199396924
- eISBN:
- 9780199396979
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199396924.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Dance, History, American
The Introduction establishes Anna Sokolow’s choreography among revolutionary spectatorial currents of the 1930s international Left as it aligned with Jewish peoplehood and shows how these values ...
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The Introduction establishes Anna Sokolow’s choreography among revolutionary spectatorial currents of the 1930s international Left as it aligned with Jewish peoplehood and shows how these values remained present through Sokolow’s career. It positions Sokolow’s choreography within leftist transnationalism; it methodologically renders her dancing body from archival evidence through discourse analysis to ground the book’s discussion; and it defines Jewish cultural and aesthetic elements in Sokolow’s work to explain how her dances’ Jewish signifiers engendered their meaning-making processes. Arguing that Ashkenazi Jewishness undergirds Sokolow’s choreography, the Introduction shows how communism, revolutionary modernism, gender presentation, and social action in Sokolow’s dances were part of Sokolow’s milieu as a member of the “second generation” of American Ashkenazi Jews. Sokolow’s professional arc from Martha Graham dancer and proletarian choreographer to established midcentury modernist dancemaker reflects the assimilation of her generation from the marginalized working class to the American mainstream.Less
The Introduction establishes Anna Sokolow’s choreography among revolutionary spectatorial currents of the 1930s international Left as it aligned with Jewish peoplehood and shows how these values remained present through Sokolow’s career. It positions Sokolow’s choreography within leftist transnationalism; it methodologically renders her dancing body from archival evidence through discourse analysis to ground the book’s discussion; and it defines Jewish cultural and aesthetic elements in Sokolow’s work to explain how her dances’ Jewish signifiers engendered their meaning-making processes. Arguing that Ashkenazi Jewishness undergirds Sokolow’s choreography, the Introduction shows how communism, revolutionary modernism, gender presentation, and social action in Sokolow’s dances were part of Sokolow’s milieu as a member of the “second generation” of American Ashkenazi Jews. Sokolow’s professional arc from Martha Graham dancer and proletarian choreographer to established midcentury modernist dancemaker reflects the assimilation of her generation from the marginalized working class to the American mainstream.
E. Douglas Bomberger
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190872311
- eISBN:
- 9780190872342
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190872311.003.0014
- Subject:
- Music, History, American, History, Western
Examining the aftermath of 1917, this section traces the impact of the year’s events on future US musical directions. Recording technology advances made the spread of jazz possible, led to heightened ...
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Examining the aftermath of 1917, this section traces the impact of the year’s events on future US musical directions. Recording technology advances made the spread of jazz possible, led to heightened fidelity of sound reproduction in classical music, and eventually altered the entire culture of live performance. Classical music did not disappear, but the advent of jazz presaged the coming dominance of popular music. World War I’s aftermath spawned a culture war between rural and urban Americans, and gains made by African American servicemen encountered a backlash of racial violence and discrimination in the 1920s. The negative stereotypes of the war years hastened German American assimilation. World War II saw different cultural and musical responses, and American classical composers benefited from World War II patriotism in ways their predecessors had not. Finally, the ability of “The Star-Spangled Banner” to unite and divide Americans is an ongoing legacy of World War I.Less
Examining the aftermath of 1917, this section traces the impact of the year’s events on future US musical directions. Recording technology advances made the spread of jazz possible, led to heightened fidelity of sound reproduction in classical music, and eventually altered the entire culture of live performance. Classical music did not disappear, but the advent of jazz presaged the coming dominance of popular music. World War I’s aftermath spawned a culture war between rural and urban Americans, and gains made by African American servicemen encountered a backlash of racial violence and discrimination in the 1920s. The negative stereotypes of the war years hastened German American assimilation. World War II saw different cultural and musical responses, and American classical composers benefited from World War II patriotism in ways their predecessors had not. Finally, the ability of “The Star-Spangled Banner” to unite and divide Americans is an ongoing legacy of World War I.
