MUS 505 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: George Gershwin, Ethel Merman, African-American Music
17 Apr 2016
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Tinpanalley: a kind of song factory in which standard song forms were developed to maximize productivity and recognizability to the audience. Complete industry with distribution through song-pluggers , and connections to vaudiville and broadway. Famous composers: irving berlin 1888-1989, richard rogers 1902-1979, cole porter 1891-1964, george gershwin 1898-1937. Employed many jewish immigrants who fled anti- semitism in europe in the late 1800s; many worked in the entertainment business, as it provided opportunities for upward mobility. Songs became standards, remain in the repertoire of jazz musicians and pop singers. Set the template for popular music forms, conditioned listeners to hear music in a certain way. Aaba a sections repeated but with different lyrics the b section, or bridge presents new material( melody. Chorus, etc). challenge to work in this form while introducing just enough variety and novelty to keep the listener interested the best song balance predictability example: aaba:anything goes (cole porter) A1 (8 bars) - in olden days
