Early Ragtime History

The abolition of slavery led to new opportunities for the education of freed African-Americans. Although strict segregation limited employment opportunities for most blacks, many were able to find work in entertainment. Black musicians were able to provide low-class entertainment in dances, minstrel shows, and in vaudeville, where many marching bands formed. Colored pianists played in bars, clubs, and brothels, as ragtime developed. Ragtime appeared as sheet music, popularized by African American musicians such as the entertainer Ernest Hogan, whose hit songs happened in 1895. Two years later Vess Ossman recorded a medley of these songs as a banjo solo "Rag Time Medley". Also in 1897, the white composer William H. Krell published his Mississippi Rag as the first written piano instrumental ragtime piece, and Tom Turpin published his Harlem Rag, which was the first rag published by an African-American. The classically trained pianist Scott Joplin produced his Original Rags the following year, then in 1899 had an international hit with "Maple Leaf Rag". He wrote numerous popular rags, including, "The Entertainer", combining techniques like sycnopation, banjo figurations, and call and response, which led to the concept of ragtime being taken up by classical composers like Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky. Blues music was published and popularized by artists such as W.C. Handy, whose Memphis Blues of 1912 and St. Louis Blues of 1914 both became standards in the jazz world.

	Heftone Banjo Orchestra - Maple Leaf Rag .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Ragtime and Jazz itself is somewhat derived from Blues. Blues music is an american form and genre of music that originated in the deep southern United States in african-american communities. Its development can be traced as far back as tribal music in Africa. Slaves on plantations would sing spirituals, work songs, chants, field hollers, shouts, and simple ballads while working. Instruments that were popular were perccusive instruments, which could be a drum or a couple of sticks, and scarce string instruments such as guitar and banjo, which is actually an instrument of african origin. Early blues songs that are recorded are Robert Johnson's "Me and the Devil Blues", Son House's "grinnin' in your face", and "Sittin' on top of the World" by Howlin' Wolf.

	Son House - Grinnin in your face .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Early 20th century Music

During the early 20th century there was a drastic change in music. There were changes in the style of music, method of music, the way it was taught, and so on. At the turn of the century, music was characterized in late Romantic in style. Composers such as Gustav Mahler and Jean Sibelius were pushing the bounds of Post-Romantic Symphonic writing. At the same time, the Impressionist movement, led by Claude Debussy, was happening in France. Many composers reacted to the Post romantisism and impressionists and began to move in a different direction. In Vienna, Arnold Schoenberg developed atoneality out of the rsing expressionism. He also developed the Twelve tone technique, which was continued by many disciples, including Stravinsky. Scott Bradley even used this techinque in Tom and Jerry.After the First World War, many composers started returning to previous centuries for their inspiration and wrote works that draw elements (form, harmony, melody, structure) from this music. This type of music thus became known as neoclassicism

Nationalism in Music

The romantic era was a time in the second half of the 18th century in Europe that was complex, artistic, literary, and intelectuall. One of Romanticism's key ideas and most enduring legacies is the use of nationalism, which became central in the Romantic art and political philosophy. Early Romantic nationalism was heavily influenced by Rousseau, and by the ideas of Johann Gottfried von Herder, who in 1784 argued that the geography formed the natural economy of a people, and shaped their customs and society. Romanticism played an essential role in the national awakening of many Central European peoples lacking their own national states. Revival and reinterpretation of myths, customs and traditions by Romantic poets and painters helped to distinguish their cultures from those of the dominant nations and make transparent the legends of Romantic nationalism. Patriotism, nationalism, revolution and armed struggle for independence also became popular themes in the arts of this period. It is debated who the most distinguished Romantic poet of this time was, but in Europe was Adam Mickiewicz, who developed an idea that Poland was the Messiah of Nations, predestined to suffer just as Jesus had suffered to save all the people. From this period many nations, including, Europe, Russia, and even Japan derived a national anthem.

Amadeus: Mozart vs. Salieri

Many accounts of Mozarts life have been created, and no one trul knows what was true and what is false. In the film Amadeus, Mozarts life is portrayed in the 18th century, in Vienna, Italy. This much is true. The film portrays a composer named Antonio Salieri, whom in the movie plots to kill Mozart. Before Salieri meets Mozart, he highly respects Mozart and his music, however, when he meets Mozart in person, he is highly disappointed to find that Mozart's personality does not match the grace and beauty of his music. Salieri cannot believe that God would bestow such a gift upon such a imbecile, and he renounces God completely and vows to do everything he can to destroy Mozart. Throughout the movie, Salieri pretends to befriend Mozart and help him while he tries to tear him down from Behind. The film ends with Salieri attempting suicide to be remembered and leaving a false confession that he murdered Mozart with Arsenic. However this fails, and his confession is disbelieved, which leaves him to live out the remainder of his life in Mediocrity. In reality, evidence suggests that ther may have been antipathy between the two men, but the idea that Salieri was the cause of Mozart's death was not given credence. Some documents show that there may have been rivalry between the two, but a relationship marked by mutual respect existed. In fact, Salieri taught music to Mozart's son, Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart. Some reject the romantic notion that Mozart wrote out perfect manuscripts of the works already completed in his head. Personally, I think that Mozart was a prodigy that comes along once in a millenia,if that, and was genuinely that kind of musician that no one will ever completely understand.

The Baroque Period Defined

The title word Baroque is italian for bizare, though exuberant is more appropriate, as music in the baroque period is characterized with energy and livelyhood. The term baroque originated in the 1860's to decribe the highly decorative style of the public and religous buildings in the 17th and 18th century. A major theme underlying music at the time was exploration of form. At the time, there was still much to be dicscovered: New harmonic lines and harmonic progressions, combinations of instruments, and new forms in music such as fugue,canon, and variations in a bassline, popular tunes, and chorales. As the 1600's progreesed, these musical forms took definite shape, and the period from 1700 to 1750's can be viewed as highly "Baroque". Also important was the circumstances under which a composer worked. Take Vivaldi, for example.Though he wrote many fine, complex concertos, many of his pieces were meant merely as a five finger exercise for his students. Vivaldi spent most of his working life employed by Ospedale della Pieta.Often called an orphange, the Osepedale, was actually ahome for the female offspring of noblemen.The Osepedale was thus endowed by Numerous "anonymous" fathers. the young chicks were well looked after, their musical standards the highest. Indeed, many of Vivaldi's finest pieces were excerises he would play with his talented women.In the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, the different styles and forms of the baroque period were combined to perfection. Johann Sebastian Bach came from a musical family stretching back through many generations, and the Bachs were well-known throughout their "home ground" of Thuringia in what is now southeast Germany. Many of them were church and court musicians, and one or two were instrument makers. During Bach's life time, his son would recall " No musician of any consequence visiting Lepzip would ever fail to visit my father." Lepzig was a important, universal musical city. Musicians from all over the world would come to stay at his apartments in the Thomas school building, where they would make music togeher. In his death he left a tremendous legacy.