Irving Berlin

Posted on April 14, 2015 by Chloe Elzey

As the composer of such quintessentially American songs such as “God Bless America” “White Christmas” and “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”, Irving Berlin’s music can be quickly defined as American music. In spite of his exceptional ability to capture the spirit of America, he was born in Belarus formerly the Soviet Union (although his family emigrated to the United States when he was five).

Irving Berlin composed ballads, dance numbers, novelty tunes and love songs that defined American popular song. Later in life, Berlin was credited to being a songwriter who reflected the feeling of the crowd. In saying this, Berlin could capture that common American talk and made those words and feelings into poetry and music that was simple and graceful and easy to understand and connect to.

Berlin wrote his first song “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” in 1911 later receiving great acclaim and eventually selling over one million copies of sheet music.

Not only acclaimed for his brilliant compositional style, Berlin was also attributed to his skillful ability to write his own text. In each piece his words could relate to any listener and earned a generally high approval of any work that he did. Over five decades Irving Berlin was able to keep up with the trending styles and wrote music and lyrics for close to 1,000 songs during his lifetime.

Through the myriad of genres and audiences to which he contributed, Irving Berlin assimilated into the American culture for which he was one of the primary providers. In 1988 at Carnegie Hall, famous musicians speakers and fans gathered to commemorate Berlin’s works on his 100th birthday. Irving Berlin lived to be 101.

______

“Irving Berlin’s Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” Irving Berlin’s Alexander’s Ragtime Band. :: Frances G. Spencer Collection of American Popular Sheet Music. Frances G. Spencer Collection of American Popular Sheet Music. Web. 13 Apr. 2015. <http://contentdm.baylor.edu/cdm/ref/collection/fa-spnc/id/18342>.

“IRVING BERLIN’S 100TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION .28.” YouTube. YouTube. Web. 13 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uV4frZIkIQ&feature=player_embedded>.

They all got Rhythm

Quote

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Chloe Elzey

When Gershwin wrote “I Got Rhythm” for the 1930’s musical Girl Crazy, he couldn’t have known what effect he had on the direction of jazz for years to come. The chord progressions and simple rhythm changes presented in “I Got Rhythm” have become second nature in the most common harmonic structure of jazz.

It was 1930, and the Gershwin brothers were working on the score of Girl Crazy, their next Broadway show. The chorus of the song, based on a syncopated four-note figure, was cast in standard 32-bar AABA form with a two-bar tag. Of the seventeen lines in the lyrics of its chorus, thirteen are set to the same four-note figure, a rhythmic cell that hits only one of the four strong beats in the two bars it covers.

For Ira (George’s brother and lyricist), “rhythm” in this song was tied up with aggressive, accented, syncopated groupings of beats. Together the music and lyrics would create a catchy tune that would become something so great in very little time.

Within ten days of the opening of Girl Crazy on the 14th, three significant recordings of “I Got Rhythm” were made.

“On the 20th, Freddie Rich, conductor of the CBS Radio Orchestra, recorded it with a group under his own name. On the 23d, Red Nichols and His Five Pennies—all thirteen of them, and including Goodman, Krupa, Miller, and other members of the Girl Crazy pit band, plus vocalist Dick Robertson—made their own version. And on the 24th, one of New York’s best black bands, Luis Russell and His Orchestra, recorded another version. Each can be taken to represent the beginning of a different approach to Gershwin’s number: (1) “I Got Rhythm” as a song played and sung by popular performers; (2) “I Got Rhythm” as a jazz standard , a piece known and frequently played by musicians, black and white, in the jazz tradition; and (3) “I Got Rhythm” as a musical structure , a harmonic framework upon which jazz instrumentalists, especially blacks, have built new compositions.”

The endurance and progression of popularity in the jazz tradition expanded largely due to its extensive use by early bebop musicians. The chords were first used in 1930s and developed into a popular jazz standard. “I Got Rhythm” became extremely common in the ’40s and ’50s when composers listened to the song and wrote a new melody over its chord changes, thereby creating a contrafact- a new melody overlaid on a familiar harmonic structure. Gershwin’s influence in jazz music is now ubiquitous. In Robert Wyatt’s book The George Gershwin Reader,

Popular musicians like Sidney Bechet, Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker started to imitate Gershwin’s style.

1 Crawford, Richard. “George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm” (1930).” The American Musical Landscape. University of California Press. 1993. Web. 23 Mar. 2015. <http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft0z09n7gx&chunk.id=d0e6504&toc.id=d0e14086&brand=ucpress>.

2 Wyatt, Robert. “George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm” (1930).” The George Gershwin Reader. New York: Oxford UP, 2004. 156-172. Print.

Roberta Martin and her Singers

Posted on March 10, 2015 by Chloe Elzey

Roberta Martin proved that singing was not the only role open to women in gospel music. Her work has inspired many of the gospel genre and always instilled joy and encouragement to her listeners. Let this song play as you read!

In 1933, Roberta Martin and Theodore Frye organised a male quartet with Martin as the accompanist and occasional soloist. By 1936, the group was renamed The Roberta Martin Singers. The group was one of the first featuring male and female singers and soon developed a certain style that was called ‘The Roberta Martin Sound.’ The gospel songs are composed songs but within a clearly discernable gospel performance tradition. Generally, that tradition is more reflective of folk music stylistic traits than distinct compositional techniques, but Roberta Martin’s style of arranging and performing was unique and recognizable. “‘The Roberta Martin sound’ that boasted musical accompaniment of rich harmonies and fluid runs and arpeggios along with falling melodic lines and innovative use of dissonance.” 1

Thoughts from Theodore C. Stone’s “Personality Spotlight” on Roberta Martin’s work. (Citation 2)

(Citation 2)

During the 1940’s and 1950’s music, The Roberta Martin Singers were among the best in the country and the group toured the United States and Europe. By 1947, the Roberta Martin Singers had begun their recording career and received multiple Gold Record Awards. 3

One thing that followed through the entire process was Roberta’s drive to give meaning and joy to the music. Consequently, the music the Roberta Martin created influenced many and became a staple for the Afro-American Gospel genre.

What is undoubtedly true is that Roberta and her Singers made a huge contribution to gospel music history. The Gospel sound that Roberta Martin began is everywhere. In the Anthony Heilbut book, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times, he gives Roberta the credit to the feel of the rock genre. 4

After her death on January 18, 1989, the huge turnout for her funeral was just a small sign of gospel’s hold on its followers. 6 On 15th July 1998 the United States Postal Service issued four 32 cent commemorative stamps honoring four of the queens of gospel music – Mahalia Jackson, Clara Ward, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Roberta Martin. 7 The Smithsonian was recognizing a woman who was majorly influential as a singer, pianist, composer, choral organizer, arranger, music publisher, and overall advocate for the Gospel tradition.

(Citation 8)

1 McNeil, William K., ed. Encyclopedia of American gospel music. Routledge, 2013. p. 242.

2 Stone, T. C. (1960, Jan 23). Personality spotlight. The Chicago Defender (National Edition) (1921-1967) Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/492935100?accountid=351.

3 McNeil, William K., ed. Encyclopedia of American gospel music. Routledge, 2013. p. 242.

4 Heilbut, Anthony. The gospel sound: Good news and bad times. Hal Leonard Corporation, 1975. p, x.

5 Ibid, p, x.

6 Ibid, p, x.

7 McNeil, William K., ed. Encyclopedia of American gospel music. Routledge, 2013. p. 242.

8 Stone, T. C. (1960, Jan 23). Personality spotlight. The Chicago Defender (National Edition) (1921-1967) Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/492935100?accountid=35.

So Long, It’s Been Good to Know Yuh

Posted on March 2, 2015 by Chloe Elzey

Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) was an American singer-songwriter whose folk music gave voice to people’s struggles and considered his songs as his weapon in the fight against injustice and hardship among many other things.

Woody Guthrie experienced enough tragedy and hard times to inspire thousands of songs. Alongside his passion to voice his own trials, Woody became a voice for more than just himself.

Wilson, Charles Banks. [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.oksenate.gov/senate_artwork/images/artwork/woody_guthrie.jpg

He crisscrossed across America and made ends meet playing guitar and singing in saloons and work camps during the Great Depression. As he would follow his insatiable wanderlust, Guthrie would absorb certain ballads and styles of the folk style he heard on the road and would write song after song that reflected the struggles and good times of the ordinary people he would meet. Listeners responded immediately to Guthrie’s heartfelt, down-to-earth style.

In the mid-1930s, The Great Depression had already swept across the nation, and a drought had hit the plains of the United States. The prairie grasses had been over-plowed and the dust that collected would sometimes blot out the sun. From his experiences in the “Dust Bowl”, Woody had realized the power that music had to capture the core of individuals and the events and places he understood.

eli.com [Photograph] Retrieved from http://eil.com/images/main/Woody-Guthrie-Dust-Bowl-Ballads-495806.jpg

“In thinking back about this time, he wrote, ‘there on the Texas plains right in the dead center of the dust bowl, with the oil boom over and the wheat blowed out and the hard-working people just stumbling about, bothered with mortgages, debts, bills, sickness, worries of every blowing kind, I seen there was plenty to make up songs about.’” 1

Behind the simple song, a rich and complex personality that Guthrie instilled, still exudes. One of his first songs to reflect what he saw happening around him became one of his most famous songs. “So Long, It’s Been Good to Know You”

1 Jackson, Mark. “Rambling Round: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie — Woody Guthrie and the Archive of American Folk Song: Correspondence, 1940-1950 | Collections | Library of Congress.” Rambling Round: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie — Woody Guthrie and the Archive of American Folk Song: Correspondence, 1940-1950. Library of Congress. Web. 2 Mar. 2015. <http://www.loc.gov/collections/woody-guthrie-correspondence-from-1940-to-1950/articles-and-essays/rambling-round-the-life-and-times-of-woody-guthrie/>.

The Gospel Truth

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Chloe Elzey

The men and women who stepped in chains from the slave ships were musical people who were used to expressing intense emotions, beliefs, and ideas into song. Sold into hard work, poverty and oppression in America, they turned to songs for solace, singing of hardship and with passion, a tradition that had been long familiar to their race.

Their songs summarized their beliefs of salvation, expressing in broken words the genuine spiritual realities of a world unseen, the world of Christian virtues: forgiveness, hope, faith, love, endurance, eternal life, holiness. Although, how deeply the religious spirit permeated these songs is not always forthcoming. The same is to be said about a feeling of triumph heard through the songs.

The lyrics from the song “I couldn’t hear nobody pray” are a good example of the text turning from mourning trials to an ultimate triumph.

Figure 1.

Hear “I couldn’t hear nobody pray”: http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/recordings/detail/id/1798/

In spite of trials, the underlying moral and strength can be seen. King speaks of the emotion that the text in spirituals conveys saying that “however mournful and depressing the opening lines are, there is almost always a note of triumph before the song is done.”

Figure 2.

Spirituals became a solvent for a race’s healing from bitterness and pain, but also fed them with joy and determination.

Figure 1, 2: King, W. J. (1931, 05). The negro spirituals and the hebrew psalms. The Methodist Review (1885-1931), 47, 318. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/136470904?accountid=351

Music 345: Race, Identity, and Representation in American Music

Student Blogs and Library Exhibit Companion

Author Archives: Chloe Elzey