MUSIC 26AC Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Parlour Music, Thirty-Two-Bar Form, World War I
Ti Pa Alley September , 7
• Song forms
o 150 years of a shift in earlier song forms to what is recognized now as the contemporary song
form (verse and chorus)
• Tin Pan Alley: music that was sold and mass produced in New York City to make money = invention of
pop. music
o Mass produced sheet music meant for people to enjoy at home
• Economic, cultural, political dynamics of early popular music industry
o Parlor song: sentimental ballads that speak of life, home, and family; prevalent in 19th century
American popular music; AABA form for the full song
▪ Distiuted as sheet usi to play o the piao i oe’s hoe
▪ Piao’s ee uitessetial i a iddle lass hoe
o Stephen Foster was one of the first professional songwriters to make a sole living writing
songs
▪ Developed a unique style influenced by sentimental parlor song, European, European
American, and African American styles
o Influenced by the movement of people into urban areas
• Jeaie ith the Light Bo Hai – AABA form
o B has a different rhythm the othe 3 A’s
o B form: different melody, rhythms, voice dominates again
• Oe the Raio AABA- B: “oeday I’ll ish upo a sta ad Whee toules elt like leo
dops
• Political economic context for the growth of Tin Pan Alley – content of the song
o US begins to gain economic and political independence from England
o Fordism/Taylorism: mass production and consumer culture that leads to the rise of Tin Pan
Alley songs
▪ Construct a consumer culture was by financing it (ie: companies have to pay their
workers enough so that they could be consumers)
o Europe takes a blow due to WWI and WWII: a lot of European countries start to show signs of
a slowdown in their economy
o City becomes dominant cultural center of the US
• All the pianos together sounded like pots and pans clinging together
• Afte the Ball – AABA form
• Anglo American popular song form evolution
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