Essay I Origin of Jazz Elements
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Essay I Origin of Jazz Elements - 1 Surinam - 24 The March, Brass/String & Jazz Bands - 37 Civil War Band - 37 Funeral Bands - 37 Instruments of Civil War - 38 Union Bands 41 Confederate bands - 41 Brass Bands Repertoire - 42 Forming a Confederate Band - 43 The Diffusion of African American Music & Culture - 48 Folk Song to Art Song - 57 Adding Counterpoint to Harmony - 66 Development of Classical/Jazz Opera - 68 History of Improvising - 76 How The Drum Was Used In Africa - 92 1 ORIGIN OF JAZZ ELEMENTS AFRICAN, EUROPEAN OR ISLAMIC, OR? For years jazz writers have been looking for the factual information that will be the proof needed to make a definite musical connection between the American Negro slave and his African ancestor. Some have said that the African influence is proven because many elements of African music are found in jazz. Let us look at a number of musical elements found in jazz and compare them with African music. First the form: It is written that both African music and jazz are in the Theme and Variation form. This is in error - African music is in a metamorphosis /development form and technique. Another jazz element that is said to have come from Africa is the use of syncopation. This is in error - there is no actual syncopation in African music. Syncopation is a Western European term that should not be applied to African musical rhythm. Early jazz was influenced by the Call and Response technique that came from Africa. This is in error - there are many types of music containing the call and response technique, especially in the music some say is the major influence of the Negro Spiritual - the New England Hymn and its technique of 'lining out' or 'deaconing'. Jazz improvisory technique is like the African technique of performance. Improvising is from Africa.” This statement is in error - the African concept of improvising is not the same as early jazz improvising technique and the technique of improvising has been around even before the New World was discovered. Because our type of music contains a number of elements found in another is not proof that one type has descended from or was influenced by another. All the elements found in jazz can be found in other types of music. If one is thinking about discovering the source of jazz by analyzing music that jazz elements are found in one need not look any further than to Africa - not black Africa but Islamic Africa - Northeast Africa. Dr. Lloyd Miller, a researcher from Utah and Editor of the publications of the 'Society for Preservation and Propagation of Eastern Arts;' states: “The area around Africa and including the near-east is a big place that includes Israel and Egypt - where various ancient cultures flourished. I surmise that the African roots of jazz are all in Northern Africa and from the Near East. Jazz roots seem to be from the Islamic influenced areas in North Africa. Islam was a fierce boister of cultural concepts that are practiced in their daily lives, even to those people who were not Moslem. Indian music is a branch of ancient Arzan and Persian cultures. Persian classical music preceded & heavily influenced present day Indian Music.” (Ed. From a 1990 personal letter of Feb. 4 to the Editor) To those people who use the similarity, however forced, of African music as a direct source I say: If we look at North African Islamic music, analyze it and compare it to early jazz, we will come to the conclusion that it is more like jazz than Black African music is. In jazz we have the use of a basic beat against which counter-rhythm and opposing metric patterns are played as we see in Islamic/Indian music. The techniques of jazz are very similar to the Indian technique of Gath: The theme of a piece of jazz corresponds to the Indian Astai, and the technique of Tan during a Gath is the equivalent to a 'break' in jazz. In Indian music the Astai (theme) alternates with the Tans (break) against a recurring pattern. In a jazz performance (both harmonic and metrical) this recurring pattern is called a riff. In Indian music this riff is called the 'Tala' or 'Tintal'. 2 The Astai (Sic: at home) is the main theme and the Tans are short sections of varied rhythmic and metric material which are always of a certain length and metric structure. The metric structure or tala upon which the Tan is built consists in the example below of four (4) beats arranged thus: 1-2-3-0 (not sounded). This metric structure is repeated four times during each statement of the Astai and five times during the particular Tan given in the example. The all important Sam or structural guide (the beat) falls on the second beat of the Tala, on the first important beat of the Astai and on the first beat of the Tan. In this passage the vina player must constantly keep this basic underlying organization in mind while playing meters of 3/8, 4/8, 5/8 and 4/4. In jazz the theme is first definitely established before any rhythmic elaboration occurs. This establishes a definite concrete structure in which a break can occur, making a clear deviation from the norm. The expected return from a break to regularity is understood as a technique of jazz organizational principle. This is similar to Indian music in which the Astai alternates with the Tan. In African music there is no concept of a break. There is really no need as the feeling of tension relived by a break is constant in African music within the on-going music there is no reason to create this feeling of tension as it is constantly present. Indian and African music also have similarities. Both Indian and African music have simultaneous improvisory technique in cross meters. This technique has not been common in Western European music since the Renaissance and once again surfaces in the Twentieth Century. The Renaissance saw tonal concepts crystallized - a technique that is a singularly element rather than interplay between independent co-existing elements. Tonal concepts have emphasis upon vertical simultaneity and a coincidence on main beats. Variation ‘Variation is a basic principle of musical organization; it changes some of the features of a unit, motif, phrase, segment, section or larger part, but preserves others. To change everything would prevent there being any repetition at all and thus might cause 3 incoherence.” (Myer, Emotions in Music) (Sic: A former professor of mine at Catholic University in Washington, D. C.) Features of melody and rhythm are continually subjected to variation. The principle of Variation implies two complimentary principles: repetition and contrast. The two principles (repetition and contrast) are alike, for every repeat is in some way a variation, and every contrast must preserve the context. It depends upon the quality and quantity of the changed features whether a passage is felt as a repetition or a contrast; or whether it is a variation in a narrower sense. Rhythm is the most conspicuous element in the connection between other heterogeneous features. But if the rhythm is altered, the outlook becomes very different. Thus the Indian use of improvising is melodic (theme and variation); the African use of improvising is rhythmic (metamorphic/development). Most writings of Oriental music stress the presence of variation. The opening theme is varied much like jazz's first chorus elaborating of the theme. Simultaneous variation is not common in most folk music, (which is essentially soloistic) but in jazz it is of the essence. In jazz we find the same use of a basic beat against which counter-rhythms and opposing metric patterns are played as we see in Indian music. This simultaneous variation is seen in the cross-rhythm of Indian and African music and the contrapuntal texture in early New Orleans jazz. Cross-rhythm drumming in India and Africa is often extremely complex. Its function: adding tension and interest by creating subtle counter-rhythms and meters to those of the melodic line. The Indian/Near East musical styles are largely improvisory. Even when written music is available only a skeleton of the actual piece is written down. The realization of the performance is left to the creative ability of the artist. What the artist plays, mostly improvised, falls in the realm of ornamentation. This ornamentation is played against the traditional melodic background. Both Indian music and jazz impose on the performer their special scales, intonations, accents, tempos and emotions but grant the musician full freedom for creative elaboration. The theme in Indian music is called the "Pallavi’ which means 'germ' or 'seed' (the same as the Arab Astai and the African theme - At times similar to the Schoenberg, Compositional Technique) At times the melody will remain constant, but the rhythm and meter which accompany each statement of the tune modify it, giving rise to a series of variations. Such crossing affords great delight to the Indian audience, particularly when it involves intricate 4 deviations from the standard pattern or the introduction of new ones. The Indian singer and drummer like to contest each other in creative play. This inter-play is described thusly: "It often happens among Indian musicians that a vina player and a drummer will engage in a friendly contest to see which can confuse the other into losing track of the Sam (the structural beat). The vina player will improvise a melody. The drummer, to whom the melody is of course unfamiliar, must first discover where the Sam is. Having discovered it he starts his drumming.