Facilitator:
Harlem Renaissance is one of the most prominent artistic trends of 20th century American history that affected music, art and literature to an extent of changing the American cultural setting. This period describes a revolution in 1920s in which African American musicians, artists, writers and philosophers attempted to promote the black culture and heritage within the American community. A trend that inclined towards a more political aggressiveness and self-confident perspective of identity and racial delight prompted the establishment of the idea of the ‘new negro’, essentially popularized by Alain Locke. The 1920s witnessed a progressive migration of the African Americans from the American South to North. These individuals carried along their cultural and experiences often navigating through unfair society that was affected by explicit social norms, which they were not willing to abandon. Accordingly, African Americans in the South established sophisticated strategies for coping with their secondary status, swaying from cautious compliance to pronounced defiance. The genre of the Jazz music, the pioneer of America’s authentic arts developed from such cultural navigation. Jazz developed from the Harlem Renaissance’s ragtime music with its influence stretching behold the music arena by mid 1930s. Besides advanced cultural changes, the Harlem Renaissance period was characterized with the music that defined it. Chauvinism in American society often presented a serious challenge to the establishment of the Jazz culture; however, this type of music offered Americans a unique opportunity of interacting with each other irrespective of race. With its diverse and inclusive taste, the spread of the Jazz music culture was irresistible. Accordingly, white patrons constantly frequented Jazz clubs to listen to African American musicians like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington among others. Analyzing Jazz music in the Harlem Renaissance period is essential in understanding the developing of this genre of the music.
The ragtime that was essentially a combination of blues and the syncopation of the slave music is the precursor of the Jazz music. Henry and Evelyn argue that the foot stomping, and the hand clapping, the popular off beats of slave melodies was integrated into the left hand of the pianist while the right hand played the syncopation part. The popularity of ragtime increased considerably during this era because a single piano could assume roles of nearly the whole band. The incorporation of syncopation introduced the call and response and other rhythms in the jazz music. The initial development of jazz is linked with New Orleans, the land of Dixieland or the traditional jazz. The small music combos (combinations) became homogenized as a typical scheme of three melody instruments; the clarinet, cornet and trombone with a rhythm element of banjo and piano and a string bass and drums. In tone development, the cornet assumed the leading role, the clarinet provided descants while trombone filled in the breaks. The whole scheme entailed collective improvisation and the players needed to be highly skilled to ensure that their music integrated smoothly with the chord patterns.
In terms of the form, Jazz comprised of variations on renowned theme or tune that was often based on the 12 bar blues chord scheme. The utilization of the jazz standard that occasionally appeared in the form of lead sheet of melody and chord symbols acted as the culture for extended jazz inventions. Jazz artists mainly released numerous versions of music using the same standard. Peretti asserts that by the 1930s, there was a high demand for larger scale jazz for recreation because the United States was recovering from the Great Depression. This promoted the establishment of Swing and Big Band that incorporated more than 12 players. In this structure, the entire instrumental sections replaced the solo part of the Trad jazz combos. Accordingly, the dominant musical texture was homophonic that is characteristic of a tune and accompaniment. Besides, the jazz music mainly assumes diverse textures. In the monophonic structure, that is a prominent sound in Swing and Big Band, solo parts present constantly as improvised solos. This is in contrast with the case in the Trad Jazz, Bop and Cool Jazz with dominant polyphonic sound where several players improvised the song’s structure time after time.
Structurally, the 12 bar blues that presented a standardized model of 32 bar song format (AABA) was common in most Jazz music. The pattern comprised of four similar phrases of eight bars. The artist repeated the first phrase as the second one with deviations as the fourth phrase. The third phrase essentially acts as a bride and it aids in creating a contrast to the theme. In this context, the third phrase is regarded as the middle eight although it does not precisely fall at the middle of the structure. With the Jazz Standard as the theme for the array of variations, the theme with its 12 bar model progression unchanged acted as the head while the variations were the choruses. Melodies in Swing and Big Band music were often phrased in four or eight bars elements to match the arrangement of the original song. However, melodies in bop are more disorganized and occasionally long appearing seamless and endless. Moreover, the bass line marked the walking bass that ascended and descended in a fragmented arpeggio of the chord.
In terms of harmony, the prominent structure in the jazz music included the 12 bar blues. Furthermore, harmonies became more developed with the extension of the 12 bar blues pattern to include secondary 7ths, 9ths, 6ths, 13ths, 11ths chords, half-diminished 7ths and minor 9ths. Following these adjustments, the Jazz music assumed a rhythmic style of undisturbed freely dotted feel of the swung triplet. The artists integrated the additional chords for color and they often failed to resolve them in a conventional manner. Another identifiable trait that accompanied the Jazz music included the use of modes. Furthermore, the composers often varied the repetitive composition of the 12 bar blues by integrating substitution chords in the music structure. These may be diverse chords often chromatic or adopted from various key.
A picture showing Jazz Big Band Source
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In terms of instrumentation, the jazz music incorporated numerous instruments. The instruments incorporated in the music varied considerably as the genre developed with time from the small Jazz combo of the Trad Jazz period to comprehensive swing band components of the 1930s. Particularly, the Trad jazz combo simply involved the use of three melody instruments with a rhythm scheme of piano and banjo and string bass and drum. However, a typical Swing or Big Band setup comprised of a horn part of trombones and three trumpets, a reed section of clarinet and four saxophones and a rhythm part of guitar, drums, piano and string bass. Furthermore, a typical bop model comprised of saxophone, electric guitar, trumpets, drums and string bass. Conclusively, the Jazz music witnessed extensive development and relevance in the period of Harlem renaissance. Essentially, the humanistic interest in the presentation of the music created a close association people’s culture and music during the time.
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