Early Twentieth Century

Originating from the deep south, blues and jazz music is rooted from the African American culture. Blues is a musical genre that has its own musical progressions. There are many types of blues, as times moved ahead it developed more sounds. For example, there is Country blues, Delta blues, Chicago blues, Jazz blues and more. The central idea of blues is that one is able to overcome sadness and personal adversity. Blues originated on southern plantations, creators were slaves in the nineteenth century. These slaves found that this music was not always about their self-pity, but about saying what you feel and “letting your hair down.” It was away to have fun and escape the everyday life that slaves had to endure. Blues originally came upon the Mississippi Delta near New Orleans, but spread to other urban areas. After a while, blues became one of the biggest elements of African Americans well known music. Blues evolved from performances on the streets and juke joints to entertainment in theaters. People like Etta James, B.B. King, Billie Holiday and John Mayer made blues popular among the world.

Big Band was performed in a group with ten or more musicians. Instruments included saxophone, trumpets, piano, drums, guitar and bass. The musicians of big band jazz collaborated to create swing music it was a success and jazz fans danced into the late 1940s.

Music has evolved too many different forms that we recognize today. We trace this development throughout time. Beginning in the middle ages, we have seen advancement from the Gregorian chant all the way to the Jazz of the 20th century. The current events, politics, religion, technology and composers can shape musical eras during time. Here I will look at the middle ages, renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic and twentieth century periods. I hope that a better understanding can be reached to why, when, where and who are the reasons for musical evolution.

For as long as mankind has walked on this earth, music has been an important part of our culture and lifestyles. Each walk of life beats to a different drum. Different cultures use music for many aspects of their lives; for religious purposes, for celebrations, for comfort, for sorrow, for relaxation, for sports, for dances, for energy, for learning, for sleeping, and for sexual experiences. Everyone uses music for something. Music connects with people and reaches them in ways that words simply cannot. Music is a representation of what feelings sound like. It expresses emotion and brings that characteristic out from within us; it tells us a story. Every generation has its’ own sound and different music styles have emerged and become

After this from 1935-1946 became known as the swing era as swing became extremely popular in America. With a wider acceptance of swing music, large mainstream bands began to incorporate the style into their repertoires. Musicians required more detailed and organised compositions and notation. Because of this bandleaders had to spend more time on their arrangements to avoid the chaos of multiple musicians improvising at

Blues is a genre of music that originated from Southern U.S.A. around the late 1800’s. There are many different types of of blues music such as Blues Rock, Punk Blues, Soul Blues, Country Blues, and many more. Blues music has many variations, especially by region. For example, four regional versions of blues would be New Orleans blues, Detroit blues, Kansas City blues, and Louisiana blues. Most of the lyrics in original blues usually talked about the negative part of life, as most composers were slaves at the time, but songs were humorous and raunchy. Blues music also made the way for jazz, rock and roll, hip-hop, and country music. Blues music typically uses a set of three different chords played over a 12-bar scheme.

The 1930s were a great time for music and new kinds of it. For example, “Though the jazz age had ended, during the 1930s jazz continued to mature as a musical form.[...] Big bands began transforming it into danceable swing music” (Cynthia, Baker 1). Jazz was transforming into something people liked more and more. It was exciting because people could now dance to the music. Music continued to transform and new forms came into existence, “Another style of music that developed during the decade was distinctly western in form”(Cynthia, Baker 2). A new style was invented that would grow into one of the more famous genres that continues to be popular today, Country Western. This shows growth because the Western United States was developing its own

Big Band Swing was innovated in jazz music from 1910 to 1940 when it declined. This was a highly influential time when mass compositions were produced and many bands sprung to the attention of North America. From the typical band set-up began the emergence of arrangers who became crucial in leading the band. The way each piece was played had to be worked through before it was ready to present to the band to begin practicing. Arrangers changed new compositions and old melodies alike as they pleased, through changing the basic elements like key, instrumentation and form.

Swing was the dominant idiom of the 1930s and much of the 1940s. Basically, it was a form of dance music played by a large band, and was the medium through which most white Americans first heard Jazz (Schuller,1989). Although the decade 1935-45 was called the Swing Era, swing arrangements had been played by large bands beginning in the 1920s. Bandleader-arrangers Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, and, later, Count Basie, worked out arrangements for their 10 to 12 piece bands, which, unlike traditional jazz bands, were divided into instrumental sections.

The music style known as the Blues emerged in the American South during the 1890s. It drew on a mix of many African-American music styles with others. Some of the styles it drew upon include African-American spirituals, traditional songs, European hymns, folk ballads, work songs and hollers, and contemporary dance music. By the 1910s, the time period when the first recorded blues were published as sheet music, the blues had taken the form that is recognized today; the 12 bar blues form.(Shmoop)

The blues is a musical genre that originated among African-Americans in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. From these humble and provincial origins it has come to be appreciated all over the country and the world, and has also spread its influence even more widely by way of its offspring, jazz and rock. While the word "genre" is certainly appropriate, the blues can be defined more specifically as a closely related set of melodies, harmonies, rhythmic patterns and bar structures. Unlike many musical genres, the blues is very tightly focused in fact it could be said without much fear of exaggeration that all blues songs are variations on one song. Nevertheless, as time went on the blues lost some of its stereotyped or formulaic aspect and loosened up its structure to encompass a variety of forms of expression.

Professors Bergland’s main point about the 1880-1920’s was the fascination and exploration with nature and death. In the poems that Professor Bergland showed us, Emily Dickson wrote about nature and her thoughts on how nature affected the world and science. My understand of the period from 1880 to1920 was that education was not mandatory for females. When females attended college, they were taught science and math because it did not have a role in society. Males on the other hand learned literature and politics because they would go on to graduate and have an active and high role in society. At the college Dickson attended, Mount Holyoke, religion was heavily stressed. Not many females finished college, majority dropped out before entering

The blues, a uniquely American art form, was born on the dusty street corners of the Deep South in the late 1800s. An evolution of West African music brought to the United States by slaves, created the blues which was a way for black people in the south

Other developments led to the ``trumpet-piano'' style of Earl Hines and Teddy Weatherford and to the swing style of Duke Ellington. Some Historians consider ragtime to be the very first jazz style. Although it cannot actually be classified as jazz, ragtime is definitely a very influential part of jazz. In Louisiana at this time there was music everywhere. Ragtime bands and marching bands were joining together. Mexican bands were also and influence especially in the way the trumpets and horns were played. All this merging of different band sounds was important in the creation of jazz. Eventually the instruments used in marching bands crossed over into jazz instruments. The drums and clarinet filled in for the marching band instruments. New Orleans was such a melting pot for music and culture but it was also a party town. This party scene was also a part of how jazz was molded. The demand for fresh new music was high, which caused musicians to alter and elongate their styles. All the new creations and variations on the music in the end fused into jazz.

The blues is a genre of jazz that developed in its earliest development. It evolved from early musical practices of African slaves in the form of Spirituals and Work songs when slaves were forbidden their traditional religious songs by slave owners. Over the next century of enslavement, their music began to be