Origins of the Blues

  1. General definitions
    1. State of mind
      1. The term "blue" has described a condition of depression or melancholy since at least the 16th century (New Grove); it apparently entered the American vocabulary after the Civil War. In the 20th century can to describe music that portrays such a state of mind. Performance or interaction with the music can also be seen as a means of ridding oneself of "the blues."
      2. This aspect of the blues has traditionally been seen as an important part of the performance of the blues - "many maintain one cannot play the music unless one has ‘a blue feeling’ or ‘feels blue’."
    2. Performance Style
      1. "Many jazz players of all schools have held that a musician’s ability to play blues expressively is a measure of his quality. Within blues as folk music this ability is the essence of the art; a singer or performer who does not express ‘blues’ feeling is not a ‘bluesman’."
      2. Particular performance techniques include:
        1. "rough" or "unrefined" timbres
        2. "blue" notes such as the b3 or b5, or deviations from "standard" pitch
        3. improvisation, including variations of the melody and solos
    3. Form
      1. Although not all songs with "Blues" in the title follow this form, a "standard" blues form evolved in the early 20th century.
        1. The lyrics follow an AAB form in which the the first 2 lines are the same (or very similar) and the third line contrasts in some way. The New Grove offers the follwing example:

          I’m troubled in mind, baby, feelin’ blue and sad.
          I’m troubled in mind, baby, feelin’ blue and sad.
          The blues ain’t nothin’ but a good man feelin’ bad.

        2. Although subject to variation, the melody follows the lyric form and is supported by a fixed harmonic progression. Phrases are typically four measures long, making the entire "chorus" 12 bars.
          3. C Major Scale (2 octaves)
          7th Chords built on scale tones
          Basic blues chord progression
        3. Common variations include:
          1. IV chord in measure 10.
          2. a ii chord in measure 9 and a V chord in measure 10.
          3. a IV chord in measure 2.
          4. turnarounds or walking bass figures at the ends of choruses.
  2. Origins of the Blues
    1. Work songs & field hollers - [listening example "Berta, Berta"]
      1. "Work songs" in a call-and-response form can be traced to African sources. They were common in the plantation culture; after the breakup of plantations they diminished in importance except for the southern penitentiary farms, were they persisted until the 1950s.
      2. Work songs gradually became "field hollers" – solo calls that were comparatively free in form but close to blues in feeling. The vocal style of the blues probably derived from the holler.
    2. An African American consciousness
      1. The earliest African American folk music was vocal; slaves were not permitted to bring instruments with them, and drumming was forbidden on slave plantations. The playing of string instruments was permitted, however. The banjo, later replaced by the guitar, is probably a direct descendant of the xalam.
      2. The tradition of musicians as tribal historians and social commentators continued, at least to a degree, in America; later, blues singers performed a similar function.
      3. In the last decade of the 19th century, the post-Reconstruction bitterness of southern whites and the resulting "Jim Crow" laws contributed to the recognition of an African American identity and a flowering of black sacred and secular music. Some songs resembled the four-line form of ballads in the British tradition (i.e., John Henry), but many show the three-line blues form.
      4. The blues was only one of many possible song forms for a time, but by the 1920s singers emerged whose sole repertory was the blues. Unlike the ballads, which featured narrative accounts of famous or legendary figures, blues singers focused on more personal or basic topics such as love, death, sexuality, life conditions, etc. "Some blues described disasters or personal accidents; themes of crime, prostitution, gambling, alcohol and imprisonment are prominent in early examples and have persisted ever since. Some blues are tender but few reveal a response to nature; far more express a desire to move or escape by train or road to an imagined better land. Many are aggressively sexual, and there is much that is consciously and subconsciously symbolic of frustration and oppression" (from New Grove).
  3. Some general characteristics of early blues:
    1. Appeals to senses rather than intellect.
    2. Blue notes and personal inflection.
    3. Free from traditional rhythmic restrictions.
    4. “Country Blues” vs. “City Blues”
      1. Guitar accompaniment vs. piano or multiple instruments.
      2. “Free” form & rhythm vs. 12-bar structure.
      3. “Earthy” lyrics vs. more sophistication in content & melody.
      4. Expressive but “undeveloped” vocals vs. refined & predetermined.
      5. Roots in work songs vs. minstrelsy & vaudeville shows.
      6. Male performers vs. female.
      7. Informal atmosphere vs. formal (performer/audience clearly defined).
  4. Some early blues singers
    1. Ma Rainey (Gertrude Pridgett) (b Columbus, GA, 4/26/1886; d Rome, GA, 12/22/1939).
    2. Bessie Smith (b Chattanooga, TN, 4/15/1894; d Clarksdale, MS, 9/26/1937).
    3. Charley Patton (b Kansas City, KS , 8/29/1920 ; d New York , 3/12/1955).
    4. Blind Lemon Jefferson (b Couchman, TX , 9/1897 ; d Chicago , 12/18 or 19/1929).
    5. Blind Willie Johnson (b Marlin, TX c1902 ; d Beaumont, TX c1950).
    6. Robert Johnson (b Hazlehurst, MS 5/8/1911 ; d Greenwood, MS 8/16/1938).

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