Roots Back To Birth Of The Blues: Ragtime's Golden Age

During the 19th century, music was an important means for black slaves to express their lives and feelings on plantations in the southern United States. From the end of the 19th century, jazz was based on the Anglo-American tradition of music, with a mixture of blues, ragtime and other music are as a ‘hybrid”. Black music in America has preserved a lot of African characteristics, the rhythm characteristic is obvious, and retains the characteristic of group improvisation. This tradition was combined with the music of the new residence — mostly vocal — and the result was not just a new sound but an entirely new form of musical expression.

The most famous African American music is religious. White people listened to these beautiful songs, but they were more genteel than those sung in the black country churches. Gospel music, as it is known today, more accurately reflects the emotional power and melody of early African Americans than it does the religious inheritance of the famous Fisk Jubilee Singers’ music from the early 1900s. Other early music forms, including songs, nursery rhymes and dance music dating back to slavery, have become important music legacies, especially considering that music activities were quite strictly restricted under the system of the time.

The birth of the Blues

After the abolition of slavery and the emancipation of slaves, the development of African – American music was rapid. The instruments abandoned by military bands and the newfound freedom of movement formed the roots of jazz: brass, dance, blues. As a form of jazz music, blues seems simple, but actually can have almost infinite variations. It has always been an important part of any kind of jazz music, and it has successfully maintained its independent existence. It can be said that without Bruce, there would be no rock music today. A brief explanation of the characteristics of the general blues is as follows: it consists of music with every eight or twelve bars as one section, the lyrics are tight, and its ‘blue’ characteristic is caused by the ‘mi’ and ‘is’ notes in the scale are reduced by half. In fact, Bruce is a secular music form corresponding to religious music.

The brass bands

By the late eighteen-eighties, Negro brass bands, dance bands, and concert bands had appeared in most southern cities. At the same time, the black BBBS in the north tended to be continental. It was around this time that Ragtime began to take shape. Although ragtime mainly played on the piano, some bands began to play it. Ragtime’s golden age was around 1898 to 1908, but its time span was actually quite large and its influence was continuous. IN 2000, it was discovered that the new ‘ragtime’ feature was the melodic charm and heavy use of syncopation, but it had almost no blues element. Ragtime is closely associated with early jazz, but it is certain that the rhythm of ragtime is relatively stable.

Ragtime’s most famous composer is Scott Joplin (1868-1917). Other famous ragtime masters include James Scott, Louis Chauvin Rubie Blake (1883-1983), Joseph Lamb, etc. Although the latter was white, he completely absorbed the connotation of the music form.

The jazz ages

Ragtime, especially its jazz-free pop style, was aimed at the middle class and disliked by the establishment. Jazz first appeared in the late 19th century, before it was called Jazz. Originally known as Jazz, Jazz first appeared in the urban areas of the southern United States inhabited by black workers. Like ragtime, jazz first emerged as dance music. The first city to become synonymous with early jazz was New Orleans.

Cradle of jazz

New Orleans played a key role in its birth and development. The early history of jazz is studied and recorded here more thoroughly than anywhere else. Jazz in New Orleans may have been more varied and better than anywhere else between 1895 and 1917.In every southern American city with a significant black population, the music produced should be regarded as a form of early jazz. IN Memphis, for example, Chand (1873-1958) was a blues composer and collector. Other cities include Atlanta and Baltimore.

New Orleans at the time stood out because of its very open and liberal atmosphere. People of different faiths and RACES can communicate with each other, so music traditions are very rich in this easy environment, including French, Spanish, Irish and African. Not surprisingly, New Orleans became fertile ground for jazz. If the claim that New Orleans was the birthplace of jazz is an exaggeration with some truth, the claim that jazz was born in the red-light district is nonsense. Although New Orleans did once legalize prostitution and produced some of the finest and most tasteful ‘sports houses’ in the United States, the music, if any, was played only as a piano solo. IN fact, jazz was first heard in a rather different setting.

At the time, New Orleans was notable for its many community and fraternal-style organizations, most of which sponsored or hired a band to play at various events — indoor or outdoor balls, picnics, store openings, birthday or anniversary parties. Of course, playing jazz was also a feature of the funeral procession, and still is today. According to tradition, bands gather at the church gate to play solemn marches and mournful hymns and lead the funeral procession to the cemetery. On the way back, the pace quickens, and the elegy is replaced by a brisk march and ragtime. This parade always attracts a lot of people and is important in the development of jazz. It was at this time that the trumpeters and clarinettists showed their creative talents, and the drummers played a rhythmic beat that became the basis for the ‘swing’ of the beat. Generally speaking, jazz is in duple meter, with two or four beats per measure. This duple rhythm background is always present in the bass, giving jazz a stable, regular rhythmic basis. Above the rhythmic bass, there are irregular melodies, harmonies, and contra punts with irregular stress positions, and their habitual syncopation is in sharp contrast to the regular basis.