Reviewer in Music

Lesson 1: AFRICAN MUSIC

Dancing in Africa is linked with both sacred and secular occasions.
Diverse
 Composed of distinct elements or qualities
FEATURES OF THE TRADITIONAL AFRICAN MUSIC
Yodelling
 Vocal technique commonly used by Africans
Uses of different sounds
 Africans use different kinds of sounds in their music such as; hum, shout or
whisper
 They can also imitate animal sounds
Call and Response
 Also known as leader-chorus style
Participative Music-making
 Africans are not mere spectators but active participants
 They do not just listen; they also perform
Polyrhythm – two or more contrasting melodies
Other forms of Expression
 They don’t just sing
 Their musical expression is accompanied by other forms of expression such
as; props, crafts, costumes, and dancing

PURPOSE OF AFRICAN MUSIC

Music in Africa plays an important role in the lives of its people.
 To offer something to their gods
 To communicate important sentiments and messages
 To mark occasions such as birth, marriage, puberty, and death
 To protest against a ruler, relative, or tax collector
 To educate their young
 To provide entertainment
 To cure the sick
 To lighten the load of hard work
MUSICAL ELEMENTS IN AFRICAN MUSIC
Rhythm
 Various rhythmic patterns are heard simultaneously and repeated over and
over in African music
Polyrhythm – use of two or more independent and contrasting rhythms
simultaneously
Timbre
 Africans commonly use rattles, bells, xylophones, scrapers, and log drums
 They use the “talking drums” for their dance rituals
 Flutes, whistles, horns, and trumpets are their common wind instruments
Falsetto – false voice
Texture
 African music is either homophonic or polyphonic
MUSICAL GENRES WITH AFRICAN INFLUENCE
Blues
 A musical form that started from the African-American people in the Southern
part of the United States
 Work songs
 Spirituals
 Field hollers
 Simple rhymed ballads
 Yell and chant
Spirituals
 Refers to a religious folk that existed outside an established church
 Also known as Negro Spirituals
Fisk Jubilee Singers – a group of former slaves
Soul
 Emphasizes the emotionality of the music
 A genre originated from the styles of gospel music, jazz, and rhythm and
blues of the African-Americans
Maracatu
 Characterized by intensely emotional uproars

Lesson 2: LATIN-AMERICAN MUSIC

 Latin-American music is highly syncretic. It is a fusion of different music
cultures from Spanish, Portuguese, and French-speaking countries encompassing a
wide diversity of styles. The music styles of Latin America are the result of
combined elements from a forecited music culture.
Cumbia
 A dance-oriented musical style that came from the coastal region of Colombia
and Panama
 Started as a courtship dance among Africans, but later was combined with
the steps of Native Americans
Pasodoble
 A Spanish term that means double step
 A couple dance traditionally performed in Spain
 A lively dance performed to the music used during the entrance of the
bullfighter in the ring
Tango
 Originated in the lower-class districts of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Cha-cha-cha
 Also known as cha-cha
 A Cuban origin
 Introduced by Cuban composer and violinist Enrique Jorrin
Bossa Nova
 means “new trend”
 also means that something is performed in a natural, skillful way
 a Brazilian musical genre formed from the fusion of samba rhythm and the
complex harmonies and improvised passages of jazz
 Popularized in the 1950s and 1960s
 Usually played on a guitar with nylon strings
Reggae
 A musical style that developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s
Robert Nesta “Bob” Marley – an internationally acclaimed Jamaican reggae
singer
Samba
 A musical and dance genre from Brazil with West African Origin

Rumba
 Refer to the sensual ballroom dance performed in social occasions and
international contest
OTHER AFRICAN-INFLUENCED LATIN-AMERICAN MUSICAL FORMES
Calypso
 A form of music and dance of the Caribbean that drew influences from France
Merengue
 A vocal and dance genre originating from the Dominican Republic
Foxtrot
 A smooth, gliding dance performed as one of the standard ballroom dances
that were popular in the 1930s

Lesson 3: JAZZ MUSIC

A musical style that involves lively syncopated rhythm and improvisation
THREE CULTURES THAT INFLUENCES JAZZ MUSIC
West African influences
 Rhythmic sounds of percussions
 Improvisation
 Complicated rhythmic pattern
 Call and response technique
American influences
 Work songs
 Cakewalk dance
 Gospel hymns
 Spirituals
 Marching band instruments

European influences
 Hymns
 Folk tunes
 Piano pieces
 Popular songs
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF JAZZ
Instruments
 Can be performed by a small group or by big band
Big band
 Woodwinds
  Brass
 Rhythm section
Improvisations
 Making music spontaneously
Rhythm
 Syncopation – displacement of accented beats by accenting weak beats
 Swing – a manner of performing jazz music
Melody
 Blues scale – not a typical scale, it does not have a second or sixth degree
 Bebop scale – sometimes referred as the bebop dominant scale; is a scale of
nine notes
ORIGINS OF JAZZ
Popular Songs
 Cakewalk – strutting dance of the blacks in the South
Blues
 Not a jazz, contains features that are common in jazz music
 Twelve-bar blues – a standardized form found in all styles of jazz
Ragtime
 Popular music for solo piano
 Developed in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas
 Peaked during 1890s and 1900s
 Known as rags, they are not improvised
 AABBACCDD – standard form
 Maple leaf rag by Scott Joplin – a classic example of ragtime
Scott Joplin
 Most popular creator and performer of ragtime
 Dubbed as the “King of Ragtime Writers
Bands
 Brass bands and wind bands of the 19 th century provided opportunities for
musicians to be trained
Dixieland Jazz
 Also called New Orleans style or hot jazz, an instrumental music
 Consists of five to eight performers
Louis Armstrong (1901-1971)
 Developed the hot jazz style and the scat-singing
 Scat-singing
 An improvised style characterized by singing nontexted vocalizations or
nonsense syllables
Swing
 Developed in 1920s
 Reached its peaked during the “swing era” (1935-1946)
 Performed by big bands with fifteen musicians
JAZZ DURING THE SWING ERA
Sweet swing – for dancing, entertainment, and easy listening only
Hot swing – also known as big band jazz
 concert jazz
Benny Goodman’s Jazz – created by Benjamin “Benny” Goodman,
hailed as the “King of Swing”
 hot jazz, gentle swing, and combo jazz

Bebop
 also known as rebop or simply bop
 important jazz style in the 1940s
 aggressive and fast and is not intended for dancing but for listening
only
 combos – emphasizes individualistic performance
 Charlie “Bird” Parker – important figure in the bebop style
Bloomdido – illustrates the bebop style and is performed by himself in
alto saxophone
Cool Jazz
 Emerged in 1940s in reaction to the swing band style
 Related to bebop but without aggressive interpretation
Free Jazz
 Also called as avant-garde jazz
 The musician has complete freedom to improvise
 Shouts, cries, outbursts, and other nontraditional sounds may be produced by
the performer
Fusion
 Also called jazz rock
 The merging of rock sounds and rhythm with jazz improvisation

Lesson 4: POPULAR MUSIC

 Popular music is music for the people because in Latin populus, from which
the word “popular” is derived, means “the people.”
ORIGIN OF POP MUSIC
Folk Songs
 These are narrative songs passed from one generation to another through
oral tradition
Broadside Ballads
 These songs have the following features: simple and appealing to the
audience; with melody as the main feature; with meaningful lyric; can be
performed by an amateur; and made to earn a profit
Eighteenth-century English Songs
 These songs are created by composers from England are similar to the
broadside ballads
 Its topic and lyrics are intended more on entertainment rather than politics
Scottish and Irish Songs
 These are songs with pentatonic melodies and Romantic lyrics during the
nineteenth century
GENRES OF POP MUSIC
Rhythm and Blues
 Also called R&B, rhythm and blues is a form of American popular music
influenced by the blues of the African Americans
Country music
 Also called hillbilly music and western, is a form of popular music that is
practiced and enjoyed by the European Americans, generally of the working
classes of the South
Rock and Roll
 A form of popular music that is said to be an extension of the rhythm and
blues
 Bill Haley was the first star of this kind of popular music
 Elvis Presley, on the other hand, brought rock and roll to national attention
Soul
 A popular music style among African-American performers that got its
musical instrumentation from Motown and the style of intense and
spontaneous passion of singing from the black gospel music tradition
Heavy Metal
  A genre of rock that gained popularity in the early 1970s
 Its lyrics usually deal with rebellion, sex, and violence
Punk Rock
 An English music from the working class of south London
 A loud, fast style of rock music characterized by nihilistic lyrics that refers to
the rejection of values, religion, and morality
 Performers of punk rock were dressed in wildly unconventional ways and
behaved in a violent manner
Disco
 A kind of a popular dance music with elements of soul music-simple and
repetitive lyrics and a strong Latin-American rhythm
 Encourages freestyle dancing
Rap
 A kind of African-American popular music in which rhymed verses are
improvised and chanted to a highly rhythmic, dance-based accompaniment
Song Casting – used to analyze the song and look for the right performer of the
song
Cover Records – to persuade other artists to record the song
Digital Promotion – for the music publisher to promote and sell CDs or allow the
downloading of music on the internet
Synchronization – something to do with promoting the music by synchronizing it
with visual images on film or tape