American Vernacular-1

This week began with nine very different musical selections to reflect on for the introduction of this course. Since my book has not yet arrived, I have had  to listen to the selected pieces on youtube and have read the uploaded pdf,  Popular Music in School: Remixing the Issues by R. H. Woody. There are both differences and similarities between the nine musical examples.  The music selections for week one are include the following:


The first two clear categories one could create after listening to this week's music examples are instrumental music and vocal music.  "Barbara Allen", "Long John", "Stack o'Lee", "Son De La Negra", and "Jeanie with the light brown hair" all have vocals, while "Soldier's Joy" and "Coo Coo" are entirely instrumental.  Unfortunaltely, " Enigue Nigue" could not be located on Youtube.  Even with in these categories there were audible differences that contributed to the uniqueness of the piece.  "Barbara Allen" was the only piece that was a capella. Another interesting element to this piece is that the melody line does not resolve back to the tonic, which effects the implied cadence on the end of certain phrases.  "Long John" was a chain gang type of song and was filled with of good deal of vocal 'grit' which you would expect with this type of song.  The rhythm played throughout imitated the sound of the hammer hitting the nails while working in a chain gang.  "Stack O' Lee" began with an upbeat rhythmic guitar introduction.  The voice of the singer was heavy and typical of traditional blues.  "Son De La Negra" began with trumpets and the classic mariachi band sound.  The vocalists were typical of this sound as well.  "Jeanie with the light brown hair" had a different emotion overall, which is probably due to the rubato sections of the piece.  Thomas Hampson sang with a very pure tone and performed with plenty of emotion.

Despite these differences, there were notable similarities among the pieces.  All the pieces that have lyrics told a story that was easy to follow.  The lyrics were detailed and illustrated the story well.  The music supported the lyrics in each piece.  In all the pieces the music had a detectable steady beat.  This point is significant because it makes it more singable and danceable.  Both are important points in popular music.

Woody raised several salient points on incorporating popular music in the music classroom.  One of which was to use cultural aspects to connect to the pieces.  For example, it might be interesting to explore "Stack O' Lee" and the story that inspired the song.  "Long John" would be a great piece to introduce the significance of the chain gang to American history. Another suggestion was to encourage the students to create popular music.  "Jeanie with the light brown hair" and "Barbara Allen" would be good listening examples as preparation for this sort of activity.