Download American Music

American Music
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=pin_musmisc&fileName=pin/pin0601/pin0601page.db&recNum=0
Special thanks to the library of congress for the images used in this presentation
American folk music evolved
from English ballads, to field
hollers, gospel songs and
bluegrass.
It has also evolved and given
rise to other popular styles
such as:
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jazz
blues
country & western
Folk Music
Folk music was the beginning
of the development of
American music and the
instruments most often used
were:
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accordion
banjo
guitar and violin
harmonica
mandolin
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wwghtml/images/porch.jpg
Woody Guthrie
and Arthur Booth
were some of the
musical founders
of early folk
music.
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/es/ar/es_ar_festival_1_e.html
Jazz Music
Jazz Music is a uniquely American music form.
The music called Jazz was born sometime around 1895 in New
Orleans. It combined elements of Ragtime, marching band music
and Blues.
Jazz represented a break from Western musical traditions, where
the composer wrote a piece of music on paper and the musicians
then tried their best to play exactly what was in the score.
Buddy Bolden is generally considered to
be the first bandleader to play the
improvised music which later became
know as Jazz.
He was the first "King" of cornet in New
Orleans, and is remembered by the
musicians of that time period as one of
the finest horn players they had ever
heard.
His band starting playing around 1895, in
New Orleans parades and dances, and
eventually rose to become one of the most
popular bands in the city.
The second wave of New Orleans
Jazz musicians like Joe "King"
Oliver, Kid Ory and Jelly Roll
Morton formed small bands that
took jazz music and created a
greater commercial success.
This music became well known as
"Hot Jazz,” because of the often
breakneck speeds and amazing
improvised polyphony that these
bands produced.
Joe “King” Oliver
http://memory.loc.gov
A young virtuoso cornet player named Louis Armstrong was
discovered in New Orleans by King Oliver.
Armstrong soon grew to become the
greatest Jazz musician of his era and
eventually one of the biggest stars in the
world.
The impact of Armstrong and other Jazz
musicians altered the course of both
popular and classical music.
African-American musical styles became
the dominant force in 20th century music.
Other well known Jazz composers and performers included:
Charlie Parker
Billie Holiday
Frank Sinatra
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Blues
The blues is a native American musical and verse form, with no
direct European and African antecedents of which we know.
The earlier history of the blues musical tradition is traced through
oral tradition as far back as the 1860s.
When African and European music first began to merge to create
what eventually became the blues, the slaves sang songs filled with
words telling of their extreme suffering and privation.
Some famous American blues musicians are:
Bessie Smith
Buster and Pearl Brown
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ftvhtml/ftvimgcp.html
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/vc005129.jpg
Country & Western Music
To better understand country music, it is helpful to understand the
most commonly used musical instruments in the genre.
The fiddle (or violin) was the most common instrument since it was
easy and inexpensive to make and not a major burden to carry
around.
The banjo, brought to the American South by slaves, became
popular in the mid-1800s.
Contemporary country music often uses the electric guitar, which
became popular in the '50s.
Other stringed instruments
include:
dobro
 dulcimer
 steel guitar and mandolin
 zither
 bass and autoharp
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http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/hrhtml/images/14r.jpg
Some of Country Music's most well known musicians include:
Hank Wiliams
Chet Atkins
Faith Hill
http://www.wbr.com/faithhill/
http://www.archives.state.al.us/hank/guitar.html
http://www.mnsutton.com/chet_atkins.htm
American
Music is…
…constantly evolving
…varied and distinct
…a part of our american heritage
and something to be treasured.