Music Theory
The arrangement of time durations in music
What is rhythm
Nonsense syllables used in various types of songs, such as Native American songs and doo-wop.
What are vocables
Narrative, strophic folk song usually sung by a solo voice with or without accompaniment, dealing with dramatic or tragic events
What is a ballad
Influential singer known as the Queen of Soul
Who is Aretha Franklin
Listening 1
What is Barbara Allen
The first and most important note of a scale, often indicated by the Roman numeral I
What is tonic
A practice in which a solo alternates with a chorus or ensemble; it is a feature of African and African American musics
What is call and response
A 19th-century African-American folk song with Biblical references, expressing sorrow and hope and combining African and European musical elements
What is the spiritual
A highly influential blues singer, known as the link between the early Mississippi blues and the modern Chicago blues; legend has it he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for guitar skills
Who is Robert Johnson
Listening 2
What is When Jesus Wept by William Billings
The way in which the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic elements of music are woven together
What is texture
Category used by the recording industry for its blues, jazz and gospel records; it was replaced in 1949 by Rhythm and Blues
What is race records
19th-century variety show featuring white (and later, black) performers in blackface makeup; in spite of their overt racism, these shows can be said to be the first nationwide popular culture phenomenon and provided professional opportunities for African American performers
What is the minstrel show
African American choral group founded at Fisk University in Tennessee in 1871, important for introducing, popularizing, and preserving spirituals
Who are the Fisk Jubilee Singers
Listening 3
What is Respect by Aretha Franklin
The way in which music is passed down from person to person
What is transmission
A social construct distinguishing one group of humans from another on the basis of shared cultural heritage, ancestry, language, history, and/or culture; it has largely replaced the now outdated concept of race
What is ethnicity
Detroit-based record company, founded in 1959 by Berry Gordy Jr., known for its roster of prominent African American performers and songwriters, polished production, and hundreds of hit songs that appealed across class, ethnic, and regional boundaries
What is Motown
19th-century composer of popular songs who sought to raise the status of minstrel songs; he was the first American composer to live solely from his compositions.
Who is Stephen Foster
Listening 4
What is In the Pines by Lead Belly
The system of harmony based on the major and minor scales, in which harmonies move away from and then return to the tonic
What is tonality
A membranophone unique to North America, used by several Native American groups
What is the water drum
Highly influential style of jazz developed in Harlem in the 1940s as a reaction against swing and symphonic jazz, featuring a small ensemble of virtuoso performers doing complex, often fast improvisations on the harmony rather than the melody of a known song
What is bebop
First England School composer, whose New England Psalm Singer was the first entirely American-composed tunebook to be published.
Who is William Billings
Listening 5
What is Take My Hand Precious Lord by Thomas Dorsey, performed by Mahalia Jackson