Tuesday March 20--Think about an settler, most likely from a rural area of England, coming to New England in 1625. What kinds of ideas about music, musical practices, and music-related objects might be part of this person's "baggage"? Read the Preface and Chapter 4 in Crawford. From the Preface, draw some major points about the themes of the text. Be prepared to discuss the types and characteristics of colonial song, dance, and home music making. Brouse through Playford's The English Dancing Master, on Reserve.
Wed. March 21--View the Film The High Lonesome Sound by John Cohen (DVD on Reserve). Write a one-page response to the segments that depict home and informal (not church) music making. How do the people look, and sound, when they are making music? What are the settings for music making? What are the musicians' thoughts about their songs? Other observations?
Thursday March 22--Read the chapter "The Cycle of Oral Transmission and Change" from Abrahams and Foss's Anglo American Folk Song Style, on Reserve. (several xerox copies as well as the original book.) How and why do words change through the process of oral transmission? What are the major categories of retention and change? What are some examples? Can you think of some examples that are not listed in this chapter?
Friday March 23--Skim the two volumes of Bronson's Traditional Tunes of The Child Ballads on Reserve. Do you find any other ballads you're familiar with in these volumes? Study the music and text of "The House Carpenter" (v. 3 in Bronson; performance streamed.) What makes it a Child ("Traditional") ballad? What is the musical style? How does it represent the qualities of oral transmission and change that Abrahams and Foss discuss? Prepare, for class discussion, a "song biography" of "House Carpenter."
SONG BIOGRAPHY: SEE THE ARCHIVE PAGE OF THE WEBSITE
Monday March 26: 3-page essay
Listen to the variants of “The Unfortunate Rake” (8 in all, The Unfortunate Rake through St. James Infirmary on your streamed listening--I've put the streamed listening list under syllabus, and it includes the titles of all the Unfortunate Rake variants). The xeroxed handout, on Reserve, contains commentary and the texts. Referring back to the Abrahams and Foss reading, what are the “core” elements of the original story? What changes in the story? What changes in the words? What doesn’t change, and why? Music: which of the songs are clearly related to each other musically, and how? Briefly describe the musical style of the two variants you find to be most different from each other. Be sure to cover all these questions in your essay, but answer in any coherent order, and feel free to go beyond the questions in observations or in drawing conclusions about the cultures these songs came from.
Tuesday M Read Chapter 2 and 3 (to top of p.36) in Crawford; study Billings and Read pieces. You should be keeping up with the listening as I assign the relevant topics in class; you might keep short song biographies of each, since you'll need to know this information for tests. Also, you can go to the study guide for Test #1 on the Archive and see the names, terms, and concepts that you will be responsible for as you go along.
Wednesday: Brouse Morley's Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musick and the introductions to Billings' Continental Harmony and Walker's Southern Harmony. What similarities in content and approach do you find?
Read Crawford Ch. 9. Study "Wondrous Love" (score and recording: how do they differ?)? Browse through the Southern Harmony on Reserve. How many different types (hymns, psalms, etc.) do you see?
Thursday : Read the article "Big Singing" on Reserve and be prepared to discuss it; Read Chapter 8 (to bottom of p. 98) in Crawford, focusing on the musical activities of Lowell Mason.
Friday View the film The Language You Cry In (ca.55 min.) and write a 1.5 to 2-page response, reflecting on the major themes of the film as they relate to music. As a documentation of musical retention within a particular culture, you mind find some interesting similarities and differences between this and The High Lonesome Sound. Note some. Study Chapter 6 of Crawford.
Monday April 2: Read Crawford Ch. 21 through p 260. Study the black spirituals (streamed: Reg'lar Rolling Under through Beulah Land) and read the accompanying introductory and accompanying notes (xeroxed, on Reserve) to the recording of Georgia Sea Island Songs.
Tuesday April 3: IV\'VE PUT THE GEORGIA SEA ISLAND SONGS READING, PLUS AFRICAN AMERICAN SONG TEXTS (IGNORE MOSES) IN THE RED FOLDER. A COPY FOR EACH OF YOU. Examine these collections (on Reserve): Allen: Slave Songs of the United States (1867)(yellow); Work: Folk Song of the American Negro (1907)(green), Burlin: Negro Folk Songs (1919), Parrish: Slave Songs of the Georgia Sea Islands (1942)(Grey). What kinds of transcriptions or arrangements does each contain? What kind of contextual information is provided by the editor/arranger in the score?
Wednesday April 4: The Minstrel Show: Read Crawford Chapter 11.
Thursday April 5: Stephen Foster and American Parlor Song. Brouse through one of the three boxes of Foster Songs in the Foster Hall Collection (ask Librarian). Study Crawford Ch. 13 to...
Friday Test #1
Monday April 9--There is a list of scholarly articles on American Music topics on the Archive Page (recently revised, so don't refer to an older copy.) Scan the subjects of the articles and choose three that are of interest to you. As soon as you've decided, email me (mdupree@uidaho.edu) with your prioritized list, numbered 1(first choice) through three. In class on Monday, I'll let you know which one each of you gets (only one person per article.) A summary of the article will be due a week from Monday. I'll have more detailed guidelines for the assignment on this page early next week. All three of the journals containing the articles are in the UI Library; some of the more recent articles may also be online.(As of Monday AM, the Yurchenko, Spitzer, Tyler, Panetta, McNight, McCracken, and Dougan articles are claimed.
Tuesday--Read Chapter 23, study streamed band music
Wednesday--Read Chapter 24. You should have a good understanding of the economics and the themes of early Tin Pan Alley
Thursday--Chapter 26
Friday--Film Viewing and 1.5 page response (The Land Where the Blues Began). Response assignment is on the Archive page.
Monday April 16--2-3 pp. summary of your article. Please cite the article in full at the top (Hacker p.198)--Report on what you consider the most important ideas/facts in the article as they relate to the content of our course. In addition to this summary, be sure to reflect on the thesis, or purpose of the article. (Most scholarly articles present either totally new material, or new perspectives on a familiar topic, or question the conventional wisdom on a familiar subject. What is your author's reason for writing this article?) In class: reports on Abbott and Abbott/Seroff articles.
Tuesday--Blues, beginnings of jazz. Crawford Ch. 27 to the top of p.350. View the film Jazz Parades from the American Patchwork series. Response assignment on Archive page. In class: reports on McNight, Yurchenko, and Panetta articles.
Wednesday--Gershwin. Crawford Ch. 27.
Thursday--Tyler and McCracken article summaries. We'll continue with Gershwin.[Guidelines for the Oklahoma assignment are on the Archive page.]
Friday--Chapter 32: The Golden Age of the Musical. Be sure that you are up to date in your song biographies and can discuss the music--Gershwin and Kern--on the listening list. I am modifying the listening list, taking some things off it and adding a few things, including these from Oklahoma: Oh What a Beautiful Morning, Kansas City, Oklahoma.
Monday April 23--Return to folk/ country music. Read Crawford Ch.29 through p. 376. Be prepared to discuss Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers songs on syllabus.
Tuesday--We will continue to study country music. Read from the bottom of p. 449 to bottom of 453 (Hank Williams, Kitty Wells, Bill Monroe) and study their songs on the syllabus.
Wednesday--Read about Woody Guthrie (pp.376-381)View the film "Roll on Columbia" and write a one-page response, focusing on the social-political context of Guthrie's music. Report on Jackson article.
Thursday--no assignment. In class: Guthrie, Leadbelly, Broonzey and the Lomaxes.
Friday--Complete your study of Chapter 35. Black gospel and spirituals. Sweet Honey in the Rock (Koni). By today, the streamed listening will have been revised in its final form. You might want to print out this final version.
Monday April 30--(Oklahoma paper due) "Rock Around the Clock." Read Crawford pp.436-440. Be prepared to discuss in depth the Louis Jordan and Big Mama Thornton songs on your syllabus. You'll need to go to sources other than Crawford for background info. on Thornton.
Tuesday May 1--Finish Crawford Chapter 24. Elvis Presley and Pat Boone.
Wednesday--Chapter 37. Read all, be prepared to discuss major ideas. Oye como va through Respect.
Thursday--Read Chapter 38 and be prepared to discuss. In particular, what was the impact of American pop and roots music on groups like the Beattles and the Rolling Stones?
Friday--if you like, "bring something to share" :)