![]() The paper roll had been carefully punctured with thousands of small holes, each coinciding with a piano key. Although ragtime was a moderately difficult style of music to play, its popularity was due in great part to the widespread purchase of automated pianos called “pianolas” or “player pianos.” These instruments allowed the middle class consumer to pump two foot pedals below the keyboard which triggered a paper roll to be transferred from one cylinder to another in the pianola. The ragtime piano song was extremely popular from 1895 to approximately 1917. In its mature form, ragtime was primarily a piano song form although vocal versions did gain popularity in the early 1910s during the Tin Pan Alley era of pop music. In its early state, ragtime was not simply syncopated it was erratic, unpredictable and raw. By the 1880s it had acquired the name ragtime, but lacked the elegance and polish which were part of its mature nature. At that time, it was simply described as “jig music,” although it only vaguely resembled the English or Irish dance of the same name. Louis, Missouri and on the Mississippi riverboats between the cities. ![]() It first appeared in the brothels and dance halls of New Orleans, Louisiana St. Most likely the name “ragtime” is a contraction of the term “ragged time,” a common description of the music where uneven, syncopated melody was played against an even, steady pulse. The most artistic appearance of raw syncopation in 19 th century American popular music, however, was in the popular style called ragtime. The second measure (B) has a steady off-beat syncopation.įrom the dance rhythms of the Juba, to the minstrel songs and parlor songs of Foster, to the crudely grotesque caricatures of the “coon song” of the 1870s and ’80s, syncopation was being infused into popular American music. The first measure (A) has NO syncopation. In this example, each block or measure of music (A, B, and C) are repeated before moving on to the next measure. Regardless of whether the syncopation is created by a rest or an extended note, the displacement of the beat happens in contrast to a steady, predictable beat. The delay can be caused by the sudden appearance of a rest where the note would normally occur or by the extension of one note halfway into the next pulse value. In its most basic form, syncopation is creating a delay in the rhythm of the music from the anticipated pulse. This pattern of complex, irregular sounds against a constant beat was called “patting the Juba,” and was the starting point for the evolution of the syncopated rhythmic ideas used in the minstrel show songs. The dance, called the Juba, was accompanied by a variety of rhythmic patterns, each being played independent of on another and against a firm, steady repeated pulse. The element of syncopation, which found its way from minstrel show songs to the parlor songs of Stephen Foster, was found first in the Afro-Caribbean rhythms that were performed by black musicians in the South for Saturday night dances and Sunday afternoon gatherings.
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