Lecture Jazz (Tenth edition) - Chapter 3: The blues. In this chapter, the following content will be discussed: The blues, the origin, blue notes, field and prison hollers, blues lyrics, country and urban blues, two blues periods, blues singers, contemporary blues. | Jazz Tenth Edition Chapter 3 PowerPoint by Sharon Ann Toman, 2004 The Blues The blues has been played and sung in every era of jazz The blues can be performed with many interpretations Chapter 3 - The Blues The Origin Early “blues” was a result of the slaves singing very sad songs about their suffering It was in unison and no chords were used Chapter 3 - The Blues The Origin After the Civil War, it took on a special musical form - AAB (2-part form) The chords or harmonies that supported the vocal line became standardized These harmonies supported the three sung phrases Chapter 3 - The Blues The Origin Many titles of music have the word “blues” in the title but are often not the blues because they lack the blues harmonic construction Chapter 3 - The Blues Blue Notes One characteristic associated with the blues is the blues tonalities Blue tonalities are midway between the tone E-flat and E-natural and between B-flat and B-natural Blues notes are heard in work songs, . | Jazz Tenth Edition Chapter 3 PowerPoint by Sharon Ann Toman, 2004 The Blues The blues has been played and sung in every era of jazz The blues can be performed with many interpretations Chapter 3 - The Blues The Origin Early “blues” was a result of the slaves singing very sad songs about their suffering It was in unison and no chords were used Chapter 3 - The Blues The Origin After the Civil War, it took on a special musical form - AAB (2-part form) The chords or harmonies that supported the vocal line became standardized These harmonies supported the three sung phrases Chapter 3 - The Blues The Origin Many titles of music have the word “blues” in the title but are often not the blues because they lack the blues harmonic construction Chapter 3 - The Blues Blue Notes One characteristic associated with the blues is the blues tonalities Blue tonalities are midway between the tone E-flat and E-natural and between B-flat and B-natural Blues notes are heard in work songs, spirituals, and all styles of Jazz Chapter 3 - The Blues Field and Prison Hollers The work song sung collectively by plantation workers evolved into solo “hollers” or “cries” Work songs were sung across the open field (plantation) Very free in form Chapter 3 - The Blues Field and Prison Hollers Prison Hollers were songs sung by prison inmates Contributed to the type of vocalizations now associated with blues singing Chapter 3 - The Blues Blues Lyrics The meter of the blues lyrics is generally written in iambic pentameter. Three lines of lyrics, the first 2 being similar - AAB Each line of the lyrics has 5(penta) accented syllables which alternate with unaccented syllables (iambic) Example of lyrics written in “iambic pentameter”: “I hate to see the ev’nin sun go down” Chapter 3 - The Blues Blues Lyrics Blues Lyrics are usually 4 measures long and consists of 3 lines (AAB) Each line of the lyrics consists of 2 measures of music and the remainder of the 2 measure is .
