MUS 206 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Quatrain
MUS 206 Lecture 10
MORE ON BLACK AMERICA
The Blues:
● Type of musical form
● State of mind/feeling
Musical Aspects of Blues:
● Blues scales
● Ornaments
● Syncopations
● Harmonic progressions
Feeling and Blues:
● Texts themselves show feeling
● How words are delivered musically
● How music responds to the feelings
‘Blues and the Truth’:
● Reaction to music and text
● Words are proverbial in nature
○ Think of “words of wisdom”
Structure of Blues:
● AAB
○ 3-line stanzas
○ Third line is like “answer” to the “call”
○ 12-bar form (12 measures)
Composing the Blues:
● Line: first composition unit
○ Spontaneous
○ Memorized
● Stanzas
○ Most blues stanzas follow AAB form
○ Some blues are quatrain form
■ ABCB
■ Rhymed 2-line refrain
Blues began in the Mississippi Delta
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