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Musical Styles

 Baroque (1600-1750)

                 * left hand was more independent than later

                 * arpeggios were used for flair

                 * music was written mostly for organ and harpsichord

                 * stirring but not emotional, sometimes dry although ornate

                 * used modulation (multiple keys within a piece) for color

                 * harmonies were often contrapunctal

                 * fugues were a common format

                 * Bach is most famous example, but Handel and Scarlotti also notable

Classical (1750-1850)

                 * left hand supports right, many times with broken chords

                 * more structured and melodic

                 * famous example is Mozart (known for his sonatas) and (later) Beethoven, who wrote even more complex pieces

                 * others of this period include Haydn, Shubert, and Rachmaninoff

Romantic (late 1800s)

                 * more extravagant broken chords over a much wider range

                 * even more melodious than classical period

                 * often used chords in accompaniment

                 * examples are Chopin, Brahms, Liszt, Schumann

                 * Chopin was famous for his mazurkas, nocturnes and etudes

                 * Liszt was a very flashy performer

Impressionists (early 1900s)

                 * some pieces written solely for left hand; example is Maurice Ravel

                 * some styles were more flowy and watery, complex but seemed simple on surface; example is Debussy

                 * other examples were Satie (known for his Gymnopedies), Gounod, and Faure

Modern

                 * Rubinstein is known for pieces from the Romantic period, especially Chopin

                 * Horowitz is mostly known for pieces from the Romantic period, especially Liszt, Rachmaninoff, but also plays some

   Scarlotti and Mozart (avoid his Chopin)

* Gould is known for his Bach (avoid his others)

Other Classical  

                 * Tchaikovski, Debussy, Prokoviev

Blues (late 1800s to now)

* could actually say it has roots back to 1619 when slaves were first imported

* has its origins in black folk, dixieland, and gospel music

* the first black-influenced music to gain wide popularity was ragtime (e.g. Scott Joplin)

* vaudeville, minstrel shows [e.g. Ida Cox, Ma Rainey – CountingThe Blues, and Bessie Smith], medicine

   shows [Walter ‘Furry’ Lewis – John Henry] -- and even the circus -- helped to spread the blues in the

   1930s

                            -- Bessie Smith [Down Hearted Blues], was Ma’s heir, and forged a style known as classic blues – a hybrid

       jazz-blues that brought blues elements to ballads, ragtime and traditional songs

   -- other classic blues singers also used the name ‘Smith’, including Mamie [Crazy Blues],

       Trixie [Railroad Blues], Laura, and Clara

* jug bands were also popular, with their guitars, banjos, harmonicas, jugs, washboards, upright bass – you

   name it

                           -- the Memphis Jug Band recorded Bottle Up And Go

                           -- The Cannon Jug Stompers became famous for Walk Right In

                           -- The Mississippi Sheiks, who played mostly for white square dances, produced a huge hit with Sittin’ On Top

       Of The World

* the Theatre Owners Booking Agency (which became known as Toby Time) was eventually formed,

   providing hundreds of young singers with a proving ground

* an entire circuit, including over 40 cities, was quite active until the Great Depression practically closed

   the whole scene down

* the Okeh Record Company was the first to produce ‘race’ records in the twenties, and traveling Victrola

   salesmen became commonplace, as jukeboxes popped up – so the performer who could translate onto vinyl

   was heard in every nook and cranny where people met

* John and Alan Lomax traveled the south making recordings for the Library of Congress, visiting prisons,

   lumber camps, and backwoods towns along the way

* WDIA Memphis was the first black-owned and operated radio station, hiring Riley King as DJ between

   ’48 and ’52…earning him the nickname ‘Blues Boy’, which was later shortened to B.B.

* various areas of the south each held their own permutations of the blues style, as outlined below

Memphis

* the urban centers here embraced the ensemble format, as opposed to the solo guitar acts of the delta

* W.C. Handy began a ‘play it loose’ format -- ad lib solos (or ‘breaks’) added to a ‘down home over and

    over’ style and wrote The Memphis Blues, St. Louis Blues, Yellow Dog Blues, Beale Street

    Blues, and Hesitating Blues

* much later (in 1952, about the same time as Chess Records [see Chicago notes below] was recording Chuck

   Berry), Sam Phillips – a white former radio engineer – started the Sun record label after helping many

   struggling artists such as Bobby Bland, Little Junior Parker, and Walter Horton get a start

-- he soon recorded 19-year-old Elvis Presley doing a cover of Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup’s That’s

     All Right

Mississippi Delta

                 * this area lies between Vicksburg and Memphis, the Mississippi and Yahoo rivers

                 * folks here enjoyed the “one man, one guitar” country-style blues more -- made a more personal, direct statement

                 * this style featured a drone tonic low E string, flatted third, sliding and slurring of voice over broken rhythms, quick

   vocal asides, and a dark brooding mood with insistent percussive techniques

                 * Charlie Patton was the father and one of the best known delta blues guitarists by the turn of the century

-- he wrote Pony Blues, and was known for aggressive vocals – having developed the “field

    holler” – and percussive guitar work

-- he was influenced by Henry Sloan, played with Tommy Johnson, Willie Brown, Nehemiah

    'Skip’ James [I’m So Glad], and numerous others)

                 * Charlie was instrumental in starting the career of Son House, who wrote My Black Mama and Preaching The Blues,

    but only recorded twice – once with Charlie Patton and once with Alan Lomax

                 * Son House inspired Robert Johnson, who carried the blues torch into the ‘30s with his slashing bottleneck slide

-- his only recordings were from two Texas sessions in ’38 and ’39

                         -- he was originally an awesome harmonica player, but became frustrated in attempting the guitar – so he

     disappeared for about six months, came back, and astounded Son House wth his new talent

                 * Elmore James [covers of Crossroads and Dust My Broom] toured with Johnson, thus getting his guitar training

                 * B.B. King had his first hit [Three O’clock Blue] here in 1951

New Orleans

                 * Jelly Roll Morton (keyboards)

                 * Brown Brothers

                 * Original Dixieland Jazz Band

Texas

                 * the feeling from Texas guitarists was a little more open and swinging than in the delta

                 * Walter Boyd, better know as Leadbelly, got thirty years in prison for shooting a man in an argument involving a

   friends girl, but was paroled after singing/playing for the governor

-- was famous for the ‘songster’ tradition, mixing old west ballads, ox and driver songs, cowboy

    tunes and western hard-time blues

* Blind Lemon Jefferson, who had an arpeggio guitar style, was the biggest influence on Leadbelly – it is

   rumored that they traveled the south together living the life

-- his technique included repeated hammer, slurring, and choking the string at the fret, and he

    was known to suspend the rhythm - just stop playing - when he went to sing

-- his trademark recording was Black Snake Moan

-- he died mysteriously in a 1930 Chicago snowstorm

                 * in the ‘froggy bottom’ section of Dallas, a barrel-house piano player named Alexander Moore was putting down the

   full tilt scattered type of blues that developed into Texas boogie-woogie, and eventually into rhythm & 

   blues

                 * T-Bone Walker (who used to play with Ida Cox), originally hailed from Texas until he packed up and headed to the

    west coast to record Atlanta

                 * Peg Leg Howell [Broke And Hungry Blues]

                 * Barbeque Bob helped establish a regional sound with his percussive twelve string playing

                 * Tampa Red, ‘the guitar wizard’, worked with hokum bands combining humor and good times with kazoos, guitars and

    mandolins (he later went up to Chicago to record)

St. Louis

                 * this was a big piano town in the ‘30s

                 * Peetie Wheatstraw had a widely-copied trademark of using a delicate falsetto for the last measure of the vocals

                 * Roosevelt Sykes came out with a big piano hit, 44 Blues

Chicago

                 * known for a more jazz-oriented sound

                 * ‘Big Bill’ Thompsom was mayor, the south side was the stomping ground of Al Capone, prohibition was on, and music

    was an integral part of the fast-paced, smokey atmosphere of the speakeasy

                 * King Oliver was known for playing a fine jazz trumpet, and sent for Louis Armstrong (from New Orleans) to join his

    band

                 * when prohibition ended, the clubs opened once more to the likes of Big Bill Broonzy and Sonny Boy Williamson

                 * Lonnie Johnson and Tampa Red became huge recording stars here by the end of the ‘30s

                 * when word came out on tube amps, cutting slide guitar with backbeat drumming, crossed harp, and screaming vocals

   came into popularity – bringing folks like Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Little Walter, and Willie Dixon

   to the forefront

-- the Chess brothers (Aristocrat Records, later Chess Records) was formed to record the

    Chicago sound, and struck pay dirt with Muddy Waters [Rolling Stone], with the others

    above following thereafter

                         -- this recording company took an unexpected turn when Muddy brought Chuck Berry [Maybelline] onto the label

    (Leonard Chess took the single to Allen Freed at WABC, who coined the term ‘rock and roll’)

Other Blues

                 * in Indianapolis, the piano-guitar team of Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell recorded over 100 sides – the latter

    had a Dobro technique, combining a delicate vibrato with the sound of the finger being snapped off the

    string

                 * boogie-woogie piano (in the same vein as the barrelhouse piano coming out of Dallas) was big in the thirties, and its

   greatest exponents were Bill Yancy and Pine Top Smith

-- this style was characterized by a non-stop repeating “walking bass” motif

                 * John Lee Hooker took the Mississippi tradition to Detroit

                 * other blues artists include Blind Willie McTell, Curley Weaver and Fred McMullen, Frank Stokes, Blind Blake,

   Memphis Minnie, Sleepy John Estes, Mississippi John Hurt

Big Bands and Swing (1930s)

* brass accompaniments were often used by white composers such as Irving Berlin and George Gershwin, 

   and whenthe 1930s rolled around, radio helped to bring the exhilarating pulse of ‘swing’ to the nation

                 * Duke Ellington wrote It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing, and the powerful sound of his big band

   proved he meant it

                 * two years later Benny Goodman put his band together and was crowned the ‘King Of Swing’ almost overnight

                 * Count Basie brought new heights to the art, booking his group as “The Band That Played The Blues”, and featuring a

   refined large ensemble sound with a lighter, less orchestrated touch

-- included guitar pioneer Eddie Durham in its ranks, with a knockout sax player named Lester

    Young

Jazz (mid-1900s to now)

                 * its origins may actually be noticed in earlier blues improvisations

                 * the statement of a theme, and subsequent variations, remained the basic outline for jazz performance, but what grew

   out of previous blues forms was a tighter, faster moving, more confident ensemble statement

                 * ‘heads’ were loose arrangements that the boys knew by heart, rather than played by improvisation, but were not

   always written into the score

                 * Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday were the most popular female singers to emerge in the jazz scene

-- Ella became known for her jive ‘nonsense syllable’ vocals

                 * one offshoot of jazz was the “Be Bop” movement

-- Dizzy Gillespie’s trumpet blew flurries of 16th notes, Charlie Parker’s sax found previously

    unheard phrasings, and Charlie Christian (who played with Benny Goodman) was adding

    altered passing chords on an electric guitar, as well as using it to play melody lines

    previously assigned to brass

                 * other early jazz musicians include Al Casey, Tiny Grimes, Barney Kessel, and the Belgian gypsy Django Reinhardt;

   with folks like Miles Davis, John Coltrain, and Chick Corea following soon after

                 * jazz incorporates many of the elements from earlier music:

-- may utilize “walking bass” style (e.g. Oscar Peterson)

-- some accompaniments use very complex chord arrangements (e.g. Bill Evans)

-- left hand may employ “stride” technique such as used by ragtime pioneer Scott Joplin (e.g.

    Dave McKenna)

Rock and Roll (1950s to now)

                 * its roots in blues is well known – see notes above regarding Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley

                 * just when Elvis gave up music for Uncle Sam (1958), Muddy Waters took the blues to England – which soon returned

   the favor with a ‘British Invasion’ that spawned rock ‘n roll over here in the ‘60s

                 * Alexis Korner and Cyril Davis embraced the styles of the U.S. bluesmen, forming Blues Incorporated with a young

   slide player named Brian Jones – who later joined Keith Richards and Mick Jagger as The Rolling Stones

                 * other early British rock groups with roots in the blues include The Yardbirds, John Mayall, and Cream

                 * over here, the blues tradition continued with Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, Duane Allman, Roy Buchanan, Johnny

   Winter, George Thorogood, Jimi Hendrix (although the latter was not so much known for his blues),

   Canned Heat (to this day) and (more recently) Stevie Ray Vaughn

                 * the history from here is well documented – and various forms emerging through the years include folk, bubble-gum,

   rhythm and blues, funk, psychedelic, garage rock, pop, heavy metal, disco, country rock, punk rock,

   grunge, and hip hop.  Many would include rap, but I refuse to include that as "music" as it does not meet

   the definition, having no melody  

Always remember to "Think Green" because good planets are hard to find!!  

 

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