首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Joseph Machlis says that the blues is a native American musical and verse form, with no direct European and African antecedents
Joseph Machlis says that the blues is a native American musical and verse form, with no direct European and African antecedents
admin
2010-05-14
51
问题
Joseph Machlis says that the blues is a native American musical and verse form, with no direct European and African antecedents of which we know. In other words, it is a blending of both traditions. Something special and entirely different from either of its parent traditions. (Although Alan Lomax cites some examples of very, similar songs having been found in Northwest Africa, particularly among the Wolof and Watusi)
The word ’ blue’ has been associated with the idea of melancholia or depression since the Elizabethan era. The American writer, Washington Irving is credited with coining the term’ the blues.’ as it is now defined, in 1807. The earlier (almost entirely Negro) history of the blues musical tradition is traced through oral tradition as far back as the 1860s.
When African and European music first began to merge to create what eventually became the blues, the slaves sang songs filled with words telling of their extreme suffering and privation. One of the many responses to their oppressive environment resulted in the field holler. The field holler gave rise to the spiritual, and the blues, "notable among all human works of art for their profound despair... They gave voice to the mood of alienation and anomie that prevailed in the construction camps of the South," for it was in the Mississippi Delta that blacks were often forcibly conscripted to work on the levee and land-clearing crews, where they were often abused and then tossed aside or worked to death.
Alan Lomax states that the blues tradition was considered to be a masculine discipline (although some of the first blues songs heard by whites were sung by ’ lady’ blues singers like Mamie Smith and Bessie Smith) and not many black women were to be found singing the blues in the juke-joints. The Southern prisons also contributed considerably to the blues tradition through work songs and the songs of death row and murder, prostitutes, the warden, the hot sun, and a hundred other privations. The prison road crews and work gangs where were many bluesmen found their songs, and where many other blacks simply became familiar with the same songs.
Following the Civil War (according to Rolling Stone), the blues arose as "a distillate of the African music brought over by slaves. Field hollers, ballads, church music and rhythmic dance tunes called jump-ups evolved into a music for a singer who would engage in call-and-response with his guitar. He would sing a line, and the guitar would answer it." By the 1890s the blues were sung in many of the rural areas of the South. And by 1910, the word ’ blues’ as applied to the musical tradition was in fairly common use.
Some ’bluesologists’ claim (rather dubiously) that the first blues song that was ever written down was ’Dallas Blues,’ published in 1912 by Hart Wand, a white violinist from Oklahoma City. The blues form was first popularized about 1911-14 by the black composer W.C. Handy (1873- 1958). However, the poetic and musical form of the blues first crystallized around 1910 and gained popularity through the publication of Handy’s "Memphis Blues" (1912) and "St. Louis Blues" (1914). Instrumental blues had been recorded as early as 1913. Mamie Smith recorded the first vocal blues song, ’ Crazy Blues’ in 1920. Priestly claims that while the widespread popularity of the blues had a vital influence on subsequent jazz, it was the "initial popularity of jazz which had made possible the recording of blues in the first place, and thus made possible the absorption of blues into both jazz as well as the mainstream of pop music."
American troops brought the blues home with them following the First World War. They did not, of course, learn them from Europeans, but from Southern whites who had been exposed to the blues. At this time, the U.S. Army was still segregated. During the twenties, the blues became a national craze. Records by leading blues singers like Bessie Smith and later, in the thirties, Billie Holiday, sold in the millions. The twenties also saw the blues become a musical form more widely used by jazz instrumentalists as well as blues singers.
In the early time of 20th century,______
选项
A、American blacks wrote the first blues song
B、Handy composed the song "Dallas Blues"
C、the blues became popular in U.S.
D、Instrumental blues appeared
答案
C
解析
第六段第一句就讲到,第一首布鲁斯歌曲是一个白人小提琴家写的,所以A错误,同样,Handy不是写第一首布鲁斯歌曲的人:D的错误在于,从文中可知,乐曲演奏的布鲁斯在20世纪初被首次录制(be recorded)下来,这不是说乐曲演奏的布鲁斯在此时出现,所以D也错误。C则可从该段整体推论出。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/ZqqO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
A、Thoughtheweatherisnice,thespeakerdoesn’tlikeitB、It’sabitcold,buttheweatherisstillnice.C、It’saniceday,b
AsPhiladelphiagrewfromasmalltownintoacityinthefirsthalfoftheeighteenthcentury,itbecameanincreasinglyimport
Theterm"Americandream"wasfirstusedin【B1】______inanovelwrittenbyHoratioAlger:RaggedDick.Themessagewas:Nomatte
Whyshouldmankindexplorespace?Perhapsthebestreasonforexploringspaceisourbuilt-in【B1】______predispositiontoexpand
Whyshouldmankindexplorespace?Perhapsthebestreasonforexploringspaceisourbuilt-in【B1】______predispositiontoexpand
RecreationalcyclingappearstohavepeakedintheUS,itspopularitycrestingsometimeduringLanceArmstrong’srecordrunsat
Thesearethequestionsyoumightbeinterestedin.First,【B1】______.Ifyou’rean【B2】______inanyfieldor【B3】______,you
Thesearethequestionsyoumightbeinterestedin.First,【B1】______.Ifyou’rean【B2】______inanyfieldor【B3】______,you
Weallhaveproblemsandbarriersthatblockourprogressorpreventusfrommovingintonewareas.Whenthathappens,consider
A、AwaveoftoxicmudtravelsdowntheRioDoceRiverinBrazil.B、Manyspeciesofmarinelifesuchasthedolphinsandwhalesf
随机试题
金融风险管理的基本原则包括()。
阴道毛滴虫最适宜生长繁殖的pH值为()
市长和市政府在办理中央事务方面,不受市议会监督的国家是【】
苯海拉明和异丙嗪的共同作用有:
A.电离室B.闪烁探测器C.半导体探测器D.CaSO4热释光剂量元件E.a径迹(片)在辐射测量中,常用的气体探测器是
A.5个工作日B.10个工作日C.15个工作日D.20个工作日E.30个工作日医疗机构要变更《医疗机构制剂许可证》许可事项,原审核、批准机关应当自收到申请之日起作出决定的期限为()
()是指安全生产法等有关法律、行政法规和规章规定的从事矿山和危险物品生产经营活动的生产经营单位及其主要负责人和其他主管人员。
在员工素质测评量化中,()可以被看作二次量化。
李老师发现一些学生卫生习惯不好,经常在教室里面乱扔废纸。面对这种情况,李老师恰当的做法是()。
历史证明,中国的民族民主革命要取得彻底的胜利,必须()。
最新回复
(
0
)