What kinds of African American music are there?

Black American music can be roughly divided into three categories: labor music, religious music and pop music. The main variety of labor music is labor songs; The most influential religious music is black soul songs and gospel music. There are different kinds of pop music, such as blues, jazz and disco. Among these varieties, labor music first appeared, while blues and jazz were the most influential.

The most important variety of labor music is the chant named "Tian Ye Huo Le". This chant is improvised, mostly with function words as lyrics, only a few with content words as lyrics, mostly with pentatonic scale, and many voices are "curved pitch or soft tone", which later became the unique blues notes in blues. Most songs adopt the style of "one leader leads many people", and the rhythm is more complicated.

Lingge is a religious song sung by black people who believe in Christianity in the church. Its content mostly shows painful feelings, such as "Are you there?" The lyrics of ""are:

Were you there when my Lord was crucified?

Were you there when my Lord was crucified?

Lord! This scene makes me tremble.

Were you there when my Lord was crucified?

Were you there when he was nailed to the tree?

Were you there when he was nailed to the tree?

Lord! This scene makes me tremble.

Were you there when he was nailed to the tree?

Soul songs are originally improvised, and often sung in the form of a group, which is easier to learn. Although its content is Christian, its singing form and creative way retain the tradition of West Africa.

Blues is a kind of solo with folk song style. It was originally a song for black people to entertain themselves, but later it became very popular and had a far-reaching influence on almost all kinds of American music, including jazz.

Bruce was formed after the American Civil War. At that time, many freed slaves left their farms and hometowns to do unfamiliar jobs, such as building railways and digging ditches. Hard work and low salary made them feel pain, so they improvised some songs to express their misfortune. This is the original Bruce. In the evening, black people amuse themselves by singing blues where they live together. This kind of blues is called "rural blues". Later, black singers went to bars and salons in the city to sing country blues, accompanied by guitar, harmonica or piano. These blues sung by professional singers are called "urban blues".

The theme of blues lyrics is about love and work life. The original rhyme of the lyrics is one sentence per paragraph, repeated three times. Later, it evolved into two sentences per paragraph, and the first sentence was repeated, forming the AAB form, such as:

How many years are you going to keep me as a dog?

How many years are you going to keep me as a dog?

I'd rather die quickly and sleep underground.

The scales of the blue call are basically the same as those of the big call, but there are often three, seven or even five semitones, and sometimes vibrato is used on these scales. These sounds with cavities are called "blues".

The melody of the blues is generally 12 bar, each lyric sings 4 bars, and three sentences are exactly 12 bar. This form is called "12 bar blues". A paragraph 12 obviously inherits the tradition of West African music 12 as a unit beat. Blues are accompanied by dominant chords, main chords and subordinate chords. Harmonic progression's general rule is that the first sentence uses the dominant chord, the first two bars of the second sentence use the dominant chord, the last two bars use the dominant chord, and the first two bars of the third sentence use the dominant chord. Chord progression is the basis of impromptu singing and performance. Singers can sing countless beautiful tunes based on this simple harmonic progression improvisation. It is precisely because of this 12 bar harmonic progression that singers and instrumentalists can cooperate with each other and improvise.

Blues country blues singers are mostly male, while urban blues singers are mostly female. Blues singers and performers often work with jazz musicians, and they are closely related. Because both blues and jazz are music created by blacks, the rhythm is complex and changeable, the melody is blues, and both emphasize improvisation and performance.

When it comes to jazz, you can't help mentioning ragtime music. In English, the word "ragtime" means to play a melody in syncopated rhythm. Ragtime appeared at the end of 19, which was a piano solo created by the composer at that time. Although the harmony of European classical music was adopted, it was influenced by black music and full of syncopated rhythm.

After the American Civil War, black musicians could get or buy the instruments used by military bands during the Civil War at a cheaper price, and black musicians in New Orleans began to play these instruments in their own way. They played not only in celebration parades and concerts, but also at funerals. After the funeral, on the way back to the city from the cemetery, they often play pop songs in ragtime music with syncopated rhythm, and freely add flowers and show off their playing skills. After the Black Wind band gradually evolved from an outdoor ritual band to an indoor band focusing on dancing and entertaining people, musicians used Gotham music and syncopated rhythm to play European marches, dance music and even opera excerpts, and added impromptu passages. In this way, black musicians in New Orleans gradually created a new way of playing-jazz.

Jazz was born in the early 20th century. Originally written as "jass", "jasz" or "jazz", later written as "JAZZ". As to why this kind of music is called "Jazz", there are different opinions, but most researchers believe that this name has something to do with the red light district of Storey Ville in New Orleans, because many black musicians used to play in brothels and casinos in this area. (Ferris 199 1: 233) Some people think that the word "jazz" comes from "jasmine" because most prostitutes in Storey use jasmine perfume; Some people think that jazz originated from jezebel (shameless slut), and at the end of 19, this word is almost synonymous with prostitutes in the United States.

The earliest jazz bands included clarinet, cornet, trombone, drums and other instruments. They are made up of three to eight players. Later, the trumpet replaced the cornet, and saxophone, guitar and cello were added to form a relatively complete jazz band.

After choosing a piece of music, the jazz musician decided what kind of harmony to match and how to repeat it, and then began to improvise. The music they chose at that time might be ragtime, blues, marches or pop songs. In improvisation, the trumpet plays the melody, the clarinet plays the counterpoint melody around the main theme, the trombone plays the harmony foundation, and the drum plays various rhythms. In addition to accompaniment, each instrument usually has to improvise a passage. Therefore, jazz is not so much a unique music as a unique way of playing combining improvisational solo and collective ensemble. This method can be practiced by musicians because it absorbs the essence of European music-harmony, and improvises under the restriction of harmony background, so that collective ensemble and individual performance have a basis. This way is welcomed and loved by listeners all over the world because its principle is different from western classical music, which can better reflect modern people's views on life and modern people's spiritual requirements.

In the1920s, many outstanding jazz musicians moved from New Orleans to Chicago, replacing New Orleans as the center of jazz. White musicians in Chicago also like jazz, so they adapt some popular and classical tunes into jazz, but white musicians don't improvise. This kind of jazz played according to the pre-written music score is called "sweet jazz". 1924, in order to perform in Carnegie Hall, the advocates of "Sweet Jazz" included. Paul whiteman asked composer george gershwin to compose rhapsody in blue in jazz style for the symphony orchestra. After the performance, it was warmly welcomed by the public and was called "Symphony Jazz". Because "Sweet Jazz" and "Symphony Jazz" were not improvised but played by the score, many critics didn't think they were "jazz" at that time.

The influence of American black music

Jazz led to the emergence of "sweet jazz" and "symphonic jazz", but the influence of African-American music goes far beyond this. Some critics think that jazz is one of the three most important contributions of Americans to world civilization, and I appreciate this view very much. Because black American music, including jazz, turned a new page in the history of world music at the beginning of the 20th century.

European classical music, which gradually developed from the Renaissance, reached its peak at the end of 19. From the perspective of ethnomusicology, it is not difficult to find that it has the following characteristics:

1) There is a detailed division of labor among musicians. Generally, composers are responsible for creating and writing music scores, while performers and singers are responsible for performing, singing and playing according to music scores, and there are few improvisations. Performance artists should express the composer's local feelings at that time, not his own feelings here and now.

This kind of music is usually played in concert halls. The responsibility of the audience is to sit there quietly and listen with their ears. Generally, the audience is not allowed to participate in the performance. In the process of music, the audience must listen attentively and don't make any noise.

3) Although this kind of music reflects life, it is not played in daily life and is generally not combined with activities such as labor, rituals, games and love. At the same time, classical music is highly technical and cannot be mastered without long-term special study and training; I can't understand it without long-term edification.

If this music culture is compared with other music cultures in the world, such as those in India, China, Africa and the Middle East, it is not difficult to find that other music cultures attach importance to improvisation, allow the audience to participate to a certain extent, have various practical functions, and are more * * * between them, so western classical music is very special compared with them. European classical music culture is indeed an excellent music culture in human history, but it is also a special music culture.

According to Andrew Clark, European classical music culture has become "passive water and soilless wood" in the 20th century, "the creative side of classical music began to disappear along the dead end of modernization in the 1920s" and "only the most enthusiastic fans persisted".

The United States is the most economically and culturally developed country in the world. Early immigrants mainly came from Europe. Teaching European classical music is the main task of music teaching in American universities, primary and secondary schools. However, according to the statistics of 2000, only 65,438+00% to 65,438+05% people in the United States have been exposed to European classical music, and only half of these people are really interested in classical music, and the other half only listen to it occasionally. That is to say, only 5% to 7% people in this country are interested in European classical music, and among these people, the people who listen to radio are the most, followed by records, and the people who go to concerts are the least. Facts have proved that Clark's point of view is right, and the public is no longer interested in classical music.

On the other hand, African-American music follows completely different principles to create music. Mainly improvisation. Players and singers are composers. When they perform, they pour out their feelings, not others'. Can perform in various occasions, encourage people to participate, and will not refuse the audience with low cultivation. Besides the auditory effect, it also emphasizes the visual effect of the performance. Because they want music to be as close to life as possible, and it is best to integrate it with life. So their performances meet the needs of the public and are very popular.

The above principles of American black music are so different from those of European classical music, so they can point out a new development direction for the whole world in the process of classical music gradually becoming a cultural dinosaur. Many people of different nationalities are working hard in this direction, opening a new era of multiculturalism and emerging leisure culture. This is the influence of African-American music on the world music culture and the great contribution of African-American music to the world music history.