Today in Music History
Chapter 79: Ragtime, Blues, and Early Jazz
Study Plan
And all blues are sad,
And I'm only mentioning
Some blues I've had.
Key Points
- Jazz arose in the early twentieth century and drew elements from African traditions and from Western popular and art music.
- Its roots are in West African music (including call-and- response singing) and in nineteenth-century African-American ceremonial and work songs (CP 19).
- Ragtime developed from an African-American piano style characterized by syncopated rhythms and sectional forms.
- Scott Joplin, often considered the "king of ragtime," is the first African-American composer to win international fame; he is remembered for his piano rags, especially Maple Leaf Rag.
- Louis Armstrong is one of the great early jazz performers (on trumpet); he also introduced scat singing (singing on syllables without meaning).
- Armstrong was first associated with New Orleans–style jazz, which is characterized by a small ensemble of players improvising simultaneously.
- Blues is an American genre of folk music based on a simple, repetitive, poetic-musical form with three-line strophes set to a repeating harmonic pattern of twelve bars.
- Billie Holiday is one of the leading female jazz singers, and was a composer as well.
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