Overview of Jazz
In less than a century, this kind of music named Jazz, which has obvious American characteristics, has developed from an unknown folk music to the most important art type produced in the United States. Nowadays, it is listened to and played in almost every corner of the world. Jazz shows a prosperous scene in various forms, from root blues and Ragtime, through New Orleans jazz to Dixieland jazz, swing music, mainstream jazz, Bibop, modern jazz to free jazz and electronic jazz. What is amazing is not that jazz appears in so many forms, but that each of its forms is very important and has maintained its own characteristics and unique charm. If you want to appreciate all kinds of jazz and experience all kinds of fun, you have to have an open attitude, be tolerant and listen.
Tracing back to the source
Jazz has developed from folk songs, and there are many sources, so it is not easy to make a careful textual research. During the 19th century, music was an important means for black slaves to express their life and feelings on plantations in the southern United States. Since the end of the 19th century, jazz has been based on traditional British and American music, mixed with blues, ragtime and other music types, and it is a product of "mixed blood". Black music in America has preserved a lot of African characteristics, with obvious rhythm characteristics, and retained the characteristics of collective improvisation. The combination of this tradition and the music of the new residence-mostly vocal music-resulted in not only a new sound but a brand-new musical expression.
The most famous African-American music is religious. These beautiful and moving songs are also listened to by white people, but they are more fashionable than those sung in rural black churches. Gospel music, as people know it today, more accurately reflects the emotional strength and sense of melody of early African-Americans, rather than the religious inheritance of Fisk Jubilee Singers' music in the first decade of the 2th century.
Other early musical forms, including work songs, nursery rhymes and dance music, which can be traced back to the slavery era, have become important musical heritages, especially considering that under the system at that time, musical activities were severely restricted.
History of Development
Birth of Blues
After slavery was abolished and slaves were liberated, African-American music developed rapidly. The abandoned instruments of the military band and the newly acquired freedom of migration form the foundation of jazz: brass music, dance music and blues.
As a musical form, blues seems simple, but it can actually have almost endless changes. It has always been an important part of any kind of jazz, and it has successfully maintained its own independent existence. It can be said that today's rock music would not be possible without Bruce. Briefly explain the characteristics of the general blues: it is composed of music with eight or twelve bars as a section, and the lyrics are tight. The reason for its "melancholy (blue)" feature is that the "mi" sound and "si" sound in the scale are lowered by a semitone. In fact, blues is a secular music form corresponding to religious music.
brass bands and ragtime
By the late 198s, black brass bands, dance bands and concert bands had appeared in most southern cities in the United States. At the same time, black music in the northern United States tends to be European. During this period, Ragtime began to take shape. Although ragtime played mainly on the piano, some bands began to play it. The golden age of Ragtime was from 1898 to 198, but its time span was actually very large and its influence was endless. Recently, it has been discovered again. The new "ragtime" is characterized by charming melody and extensive use of syncopation, but its blues factor is almost gone. Ragtime is closely related to early jazz, but it is certain that the rhythm of Ragtime is relatively stable.
Scott Joplin(1868-1917) is the most famous composer of Ragtime. Other famous ragtime masters include James Scott, Louis Chauvink EubieBlake (1883-1983), Joseph Lamb, etc. Although the latter is white, he fully absorbed the connotation of this music form.
Entering the Jazz Age
Ragtime, especially the popular style that downplays jazz, is aimed at the middle class and disliked by orthodox musicians. Jazz first appeared in the late 19th century, but it was not called "Jazz" at that time. It was originally called Jass, and it first appeared in the black workers' residential areas in southern American cities. Like ragtime, jazz first appeared as dance music. The first city to become synonymous with early jazz was New Orleans, which is somewhat true, but also somewhat exaggerated.
New Orleans: the cradle of jazz
New Orleans played a key role in the birth and development of jazz. Here, the early history of jazz is studied and recorded more deeply than in other places. During the period from 1895 to 1917, jazz in New Orleans may be more and better than other places, but this does not mean that New Orleans is the only place where jazz was produced. The music produced in every southern American city with a considerable number of blacks should be regarded as a kind of early jazz. For example, W.C. Handy (1873-1958), a blues composer and collector, appeared in Memphis. Other cities include Atlanta and Baltimore.
At that time, New Orleans stood out from the crowd because of its very open and free social atmosphere. People of different faiths and races can communicate with each other, so there are rich musical traditions in this easy-to-communicate environment, including French, Spanish, Irish and African. In this way, it is not surprising that New Orleans has become a fertile ground for jazz.
If the statement that New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz is exaggerated, but it is still true, it is totally nonsense to say that jazz was born in the red light district. Although New Orleans did legalize prostitution and thus produced several of the most exquisite and tasteful "sports houses" in the United States, the music played in these places, if any, was only piano solos. In fact, people first heard jazz in a quite different place.
At that time, it was striking that there were many societies and fraternity organizations in New Orleans. Most of them sponsored or hired a band to play in different occasions, such as indoor or outdoor dances, picnics, store opening ceremonies, birthdays or anniversary parties. Of course, playing jazz is also a feature of the funeral procession, which is still the case today. According to tradition, the band gathered at the church gate, playing solemn marches and sad hymns, and led the funeral procession to the cemetery slowly. On the way back, people's pace accelerated, and brisk marches and ragtime replaced elegies. This parade always attracts many people to watch, which is of great significance in the development of jazz. It was at this time that the trumpeters and clarinet players showed their creative talents, and the drummers also played rhythmic beats, which became the basis for making the beat "swing". Generally speaking, jazz is in two beats, two or four beats per bar. This double-beat rhythm background always exists in the bass, which makes jazz have a stable and regular rhythm foundation. Above the rhythmic bass, there are melody, harmony and counterpoint parts with irregular stress positions, and their syncopation effect is in sharp contrast with the regular bass parts.
artistic features
apart from the elements absorbed from European traditional music, white folk songs and popular songs, the blues scale is the most distinctive one in jazz tunes (about the structure of this scale, we will introduce it specifically in the part about blues), and jazz harmony can be said to be completely based on traditional harmony, but it is more free to use various change chords, among which the main differences are also
Jazz is very distinctive in the instruments used and playing methods, which is completely different from traditional bands. Since the "Jazz Age", saxophone has become one of the most sold instruments. Trombone can play funny or grotesque glide that other brass instruments can't, so it makes a splash in jazz bands; Trumpet is also a favorite instrument for jazz musicians. The novel timbre produced by this instrument combined with different mutes and several notes in the highest range have almost become the unique timbre characteristics of jazz. Piano, banjo, guitar and later electric guitar occupy an important position with their powerful percussion sound and the ability to play chords. On the contrary, the most important stringed instruments (violin, viola, cello) in traditional bands play a relatively minor role; The rich timbre of the French horn is very charming in the orchestra, but for the jazz band, its temperament is so tame that almost no one uses it. In an orchestra, each instrument tries to blend into the overall sound in tone and volume control, but in a jazz band, on the contrary, musicians try their best to make each instrument "stand up".
The band organization is very flexible, and the most basic part is two parts-rhythm group and melody group. In the early jazz band, the rhythm group consisted of bass, banjo and drum. Later, bass and banjo were gradually replaced by bass and guitar, and the piano was also added. In 193s, a dance band emerged, which was called "Big Band" at that time. It consisted of three parts: rhythm group, brass group and woodwind group. The instruments used in the rhythm group are still bass, guitar, piano and drum; The common compilation of copper tube group is three trumpets and two trombones, but this number is not fixed; The woodwind group usually consists of four or five saxophones, and everyone plays clarinet or other woodwind instruments. If the arrangement is five saxophones, it is usually two alto, two tenors and one alto. There is also a commercial band (sometimes called "sweet" and "hotel", etc.), which is similar to the "big band", but the saxophone is often all alto, and the woodwind group will use other instruments (such as flute and oboe) more often, sometimes with three or four violins. The sound of this kind of band can often be heard in commercial tapes.
Compared with traditional music, another major feature of jazz is its pronunciation and timbre, which are enough to make people never confuse them with the timbre of any traditional music, whether it is an instrument or a human voice. Most of these special features come from the imitation of African-American folk songs with musical instruments or voices. If we have a chance to listen to real black field songs and soul songs, we will find that the great changes from rough to smooth, from stuffy to loud, from harsh to soft, from savage to lyrical are so distinctive and touching. In jazz, there are even more non-singing roars, shouts and moans, which highlight this feeling. In addition, special playing and singing skills are also important means to produce special effects. Among these skills, vibrato, which is different from the traditional concept, is the most commonly used. As we know, the so-called vibrato is caused by the regular change of pitch (sometimes it may also be strength); For example, the kneading of strings on a violin makes use of this change to produce a vibrant sound effect. In jazz, vibrato changes, the direction of change is generally from narrow to wide, and the speed is from slow to fast, and the amplitude and speed of vibrato are often increased near the end of a note, which further strengthens the expressive force of this technique. At the same time, at the beginning of a note, jazz musicians will slide from bottom to top to a predetermined pitch, and at the end, they will slide down from the original pitch. All these changes can't be recorded in detail by music. Experienced jazz musicians have mastered this kind of method, especially this concept, and they can "create" these effects according to different melodies or accompaniment patterns. Therefore, it can be said that jazz was created by both composers and musicians because of the improvisational tradition and the individual exertion of skills. It is difficult for musicians with traditional education to perform jazz because they have not cultivated such a special musical concept. If we carefully compare the differences between real folk singers and formally trained singers singing the same folk song, we will have a more intuitive concept of the meaning.
Since its birth, jazz has attracted many demobilized composers. In 192, American conductor Paul Whiteman organized a famous band and brought the adapted jazz works into the concert hall. This new trend has aroused fierce opposition from many "serious" jazz lovers. However, since then, jazz has become a household name in the United States and Europe and has been widely welcomed. Gershwin's "rhapsody in blue" was born at this time, and the composer Grofi of Whiteman Band was the composer who arranged the instrument for this work. According to the records in the manuscript, it took only three weeks to write this work, and it caused a sensation almost immediately after the performance. European composers also have many works based on or influenced by jazz, such as Debussy's piano music "Ugly and Black Gait Dance" (198), "bard" (191) and "Weird General lavina" (191); Slow movement in Ravel's violin sonata (Bruce); Stravinsky's Regetam for 11 Solo Instruments (1919), The Story of Soldiers (1918) and The Concerto of Ebony; Hindemith's Chamber Music No.1 (Op.24, atonality) and Piano Suite (1922).
Three Steps to Introduction
In contemporary China, the vast number of musicians have great freedom to enjoy the music they are interested in, and jazz has undoubtedly become a major category of music that more and more musicians pay attention to, love and even be obsessed with. Compared with classical music, jazz's innate civilian pedigree makes it closer to the general public, even people who drive cars and sell pulp can get close to it, and its sound can be heard everywhere in bars and restaurants. Compared with contemporary pop music such as rock music, jazz seems to have deeper emotions and deeper and more profound expressions, and it has its own intoxicating beauty. "Vulgar" than classical music and "elegant" than pop music —— Jazz's "intermediate" feature of combining elegance with vulgarity and seeing elegance with vulgarity makes it easy to reach a wide audience including many classical and pop music fans. In contemporary China, jazz appreciation is in the ascendant.
to be honest, the more I listen to jazz, the more I feel that I am ignorant and have little knowledge-jazz has lived for a hundred years, with many genres, countless famous artists and brilliant works, and I can't finish listening to it for the rest of my life for decades! Jazz is an out-and-out treasure house of music, and the richness of its content and the prosperity of its genres are really countless.
Because jazz is vast as the ocean, readers who are new to jazz and have yet to get started must find appropriate methods and start with the important points, so that they can finally enter the room and get a glimpse of its secrets.
the first step, extensive listening
all friends who have studied foreign languages know it.