黑人音乐与文学.doc

西安翻译学院本科论文1. IntroductionThe black music is an important part of American culture, which has contributed to the cultural development of the USA, even of the world. With the time passing by, the black American music can be divided into three different Styles: soul music, the blues and Jazz. The first one was established in the period of slavery, and it belongs to the religious music. The slave who lived with hardship dont have enough time for fun, so they have to use their limit time to pray for a better life, staying in church, wishing God can bring bright future for them. Therefore, it brings the Soul to the black religion music of America. The blues starts after the civil war, when the slavery abolished, a lot of black slaves were set free, they poured in cities from their home and countryside. Unexpectedly, they were treated with hard work and low Salary, so they sang some songs improvisational to show their bad situation. This is the original Blues music. The last one-Jazz, is the only one began from the USA. Within the last decade of the nineteenth century, jazz evolved, but it was not called Jazz, originally known as Jass, appeared in the southern U.S. city of black workers living area. The earliest of early New Orleans jazz is synonymous with the city, this argument is truthful, but a bit exaggerated. Blues gives a big impact on later American and Western popular music, ragtime, jazz, bluegrass, rhythm and blues, rock, country music and ordinary pop songs, and even modern classical music contains the blues style or develops from the blues. In the poem, the word is often used to describe depression. Blues is the term of Blue Devil (Blue devils), which means low-key mood, sadness, depression. George Coleman back in 1798 wrote a comic opera named Blue Devil, act farce. In 19th century the word was used to indicate the delirium tremens and the police. The application of the term in the black American music can be traced long time ago. The earliest written record of this word in music is William Kristol Fu Handis Memphis Blues in 1912. Music is the key form as folk art. Black Music is the essential way as releasing the pain of the misery. To be a main form of black music, Blues created under the oppression，becomes popular among crowd of the black, even all over of the world. Its the effective method that can turn sorrow into Happiness and the strong shout that the black American people try to survive from it. Not only the Blues contains plenty of cultural information of African Americans, also African Americans played an crucial role in its emergence, development and maturity. Besides, the Blues Crazy, during and after the Harlem Renaissance influenced the whole generation of black Americans, so many writers tried to use folk materials in their literary writing, such as Du. Bois, Ralph. Ellison, Langston. Hughes, Toni. Morrison, Alice. Walker all melts their works into black music. The black living situation becomes blues music theme, reflecting the blacks poverty, suffering, loneliness, despair, and the weakness of human nature under the racial oppression of black, So Blues, which is actually a sad expression of the bitter experience of black music, expresses the psychological state of the individual minimum extravagant, as a spiritual therapy, blues brings transcendental mind to black and makes the most painful life experience fade away.Their poems or articles are influenced by this general atmosphere. They turn the Blues of their heart into the Blues on the paper. 2. The view of bluesWhen and where did the Blues start? While So far, we can get the certain answer from the musicians. Most experts refer there is some relationship between Blues and black African music, they believe that Blues comes from the influence of black southern Africa slaves music. 19 century ago, when these slaves arrived in south of America, they created a unique music style full of blue and sad feelings. For southern Africans, they can express their full emotion by songs. While there are also some people hold the different opinion, for example, Josph Machlis (1906- ) has written that “Blues music belongs to one of the American music with the prosody form. As we known, there is no directed connection to the early period of European and African music.”(Han, 2002: 70)2. 1The ClassificationThe earliest record of Blues begins 1920s. Blues can be classified three forms from the black slaves music to one of the most diverse and complex music. It derives different types in the world, such as European Blues, African Blues. The Blues music develops until today that is already integrated to the mainstream music ranks, his many elements have been utilized into the rock and roll and the pop music. But traditional Blues music still has the formidable strength, this domain musicians are John Lee Hooker, Etta Baker, Junior Wells and Buddy Guy. Blues fans and critics identify three major types of blues: rural or country blues, city or classic blues, urban blues. 2.1.1 Country Blues The earliest period of Blues is called Country Blues or delta Blues. This is generally sung by a man, occasionally blind, who performs on street corners and travels between black community events playing an acoustic guitar. Sometimes the singer is accompanied by a band consist in crockery jugs, fiddles, banjos and harmonicas. This folk music probably develops from the field hollers and spirituals of slaves and from the work songs of black cotton pickers, railroad laborers, ship cargo loaders, road-builders, lumberjacks and chain gang convicts in the Deep South. It emerges in 19 century in the southern plantation，develops in the urban area of black district. Particular after the civil War, tours the singer, the guitar player, and the harmonica performer, start consciously development of this kind of music, integrate the love, the freedom, the nature and the life sorrowfully in the Blues music. The early important musicians are Charlie Patton, Son House (has invented greasy pole) and Robert Johnson.2.1.2 Classical BluesThe second type is city or classical blues. Generally sung by a woman to piano or orchestral accompaniment, When USs blacks move to the metropolis such like Memphis and New Orlean to work, to a greater degree, Blues gradually transfers to the urbanized and more commercial and formal musical composition. It was first popularized in the black community in 1920. With the recording of black composer Perry Brad fords Crazy Blues by Mamie Smith, a black singer of popular songs of the time. The extraordinary sales of this record in black communities led to the introduction of segregated race records by white record companies and the fame of black vaudeville, minstrel and blues entertainer Gertrude Ma Rainey (1886-1939) as the Mother of the Blues, Bessie Smith (1894-1937), as the Empress of the Blues. Other celebrated black blues singers of the 1920s and 1930s included these women as Ida Cox, Sara Martin, Clara Smith, Trixie Smith, Victoria Spivey.2.1.3 Electronic Blues The third and most popular type is urban blues or electronic Blues. After the Second World War, the Blues center has already transferred to the cities like Chicago, where converged many renowned musicians Usually sung by a man accompanied by electric guitars and bass, drums and brass instruments, this music became popular in the 1940s and 1950sascountry blues singers migrated to Chicago and other cities.At that time, B.B King and Buddy Guy attempted to add the intensifier electric guitar as well as the magnetic drum to strengthen the sound effect, in the 50s, this kind of style is approved by many Caucasian musicians. After several years, Eric Clapton continues to make the Blues music carries forward. Simultaneously R&B also gradually emerges, which is accepted by the Caucasian musician. Elvis Presley and Bill Haley lead R&B to the rock and roll. English famous orchestra Rolling Stone, Led Zeppelin also builds up from the Blues music, but gradually turn to the heavy metal rock and roll. Chicago bluesmen like Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and Howlin Wolfhave hada have major influence on leading rock & roll bands since the 1960s.BB King is the most celebrated living bluesman. 2.2 Its musical characteristicsGenerally speaking, Blues musical characteristics are not extremely complex, the charm lies in which the musical form, and the sound, the scale, the rhythm and so on, which are its foundation characteristics. The key element lies in it when music transmits, including the instrumental music, the expressive force of sounds of peoples utilization, the states of the content and the power of the performance.2.2.1 The musical form, the sound, the scale and the rhythmNot considering that now Blues creation development in the structure, three- body pattern is a kind of typical musical form structure generally accepted by the most of musicians. This typical Blues musical form can be divided into three parts, every four sections are one part, they altogether are 12 sections (also have 16 sections type), therefore it is called “12 section Blues musical form”. Usually the first two source material is unified (for instance, the sentence before lyrics repetition), the third source material has some changes, therefore it is may expressed in the A-A1-B musical form. Based on the not complex structural style, its chord is also utilized mostly according to the chord with basic function primarily, that is the sound use, , Primarily, also has launches. In many years music practice, gradually the Blues music has formed one kind of pattern in its sound disposition aspect, namely it has the standard sound sequence, this pattern has a close relation with the traditional musical sound disposition in some Western countries.2.2.2The performance way and the indication content12- section Blues lyrics and its melody ( source material) are united in the first two phrase expression, usual second lyrics is the first lyrics complete repetition, but the third transfers to the acrostic, this phrase is that frequently the singer displays weeps and wails the groan the tune, thus many Blues singers are called as “Bruce to yell the hand (Blues Shouters)”, moreover its lyrics rhythm is not strictly requested, the contents extremely widespread, the theme is rich, such as narrative, lyricism, love and so on, but basically are very difficult to be separated from the melancholic, the moved sentiments. Blues performance or the way of singing comes from one kind of spontaneous music characteristics, has its strong extemporization, may gives proper scope to the singer or the musician creation based on the emotion advancement, in other words, the singer plays guitar, composes the melody lyrics ,sings the song at the same time, which is precisely common to see. However, this extemporization is closely correlated with 12- section Blues certain fixed formulas, for instance the chord sequence, the singer and the musician may act according to such “the thought sequence” to match the approximate outline song and poem. In general, the basic reason of the Blues extempore characteristic concerns on the blacks flaw in culture quality at that time.2.2.3The sounds of people performance and the instrumental music performance.Sounds of people performance at first relates altogether with the Work Songs of the black folks, the Soul music and afterwards “the field shouts”, develops from collective shouted sang or the collective chorus which is similar to the Chinese work song into individual singing. The majority of the Singers then are the masculine, the singing style are rough.20th century 20s, this periods blues is called by us as the classical Blues, when started to appear the female singers as representatives, who began milling extension in the metropolis with the male singers. When Blues came to the metropolis, its usually accompanied under philharmonic orchestra and sang by the male and female singers in the piano or perhaps Jazz music groups, mostly the singers range of the throat are quite broad, and this can manifest the theme by emphasized repeatedly so that enhances the music power and bring high tide to audience.At the Beginning, no musical instrument joined, Blues is mainly performed by the sounds of people narration, which is inherited from the historical perspective. Blues starts from USs village sings to the city biography sings that is also the erroneous course of the blacks destiny, then the musicians started to use the violin and Ban Zhuo Qin to divulge their emotions. In the middle of 20s, small orchestral accompaniment Blues appeared. The common musical instrument also develops into many kinds, such as the guitar, Ban Zhuo Qin, the mandolin, the violin, the accordion, the bamboo flute, the harmonica, the bass of shell department, as well as percussion instrument which is replaced with the ordinary washboard. Afterwards, traditional Blues representative B.B.King and Buddy Guy attempted to add the intensifier to electric guitar as well as the magnetic drum to strengthen the sound effect. In the 50s, this style worked for many Caucasians to creatively join the sound of knife blew scratches and greasy pole as well as the imitation inheritance of hums to the Blues. After the second world war, the electronics has especially integrated Blues, the Blues musicians, the musicians has joined the electric guitar, the drum and the keyboard in the foundation of the Delta Blues. From now on, Chicago Blues begins to take shape.2.3 Representative musicians and their representative tracksWilliam Christopher Handy(1873-1958), is an outstanding black trumpet player, and his outstanding achievements is to create a precedent specializing in blues music, he has made great contributions to blues music in the early creation and development , known as the Father of Blues, the representative works are Memphis Blues ,St. Louis BluesMaRainy(1886-1939), most early black blues singer, nicknamed Leni mother, is a representative of urban blues, and her charm lies in her singing tone but not husky and sentimental, her representatives are Barrelhouse Blues, Moonshine Blues. In addition, the early representatives also known as the mother of Blues, Mamie Smith(1883-1946), her representatives is Crazy Blues; known as the Blues Queen create impressive sales performance for the Columbia Records, Bessie Smith (1894-1937), Downhearted Blues. They worked together and laid a solid foundation for the further development of blues. The representatives of the modern blues are Eric Clapton Crossroads, From the Cradle; Jimmy Rushing, (1918 -), Listen to the Blues; Joe Williams (1918 -)Everyday I Have the Blues, Bluesmen team is very large and very bright, there are many pioneers such as Buddy Guy, B B King.字典3 The association with Black literatureOriginating from the center of southern America, Blues gives people a feeling of sadness and freshness, it has reposed the black Americans complete hope to the life and the future and represented the courage and the optimistic upward state of mind. Blues not only has become a symbol of the black American culture, representing one kind of social being, also has manifested the cultural existence of black nationality. Acting as black Americans typical culture, Blues seeps the creation of blacks literature, enables the literary works to have the sincere historical feeling and intense shocks.James Baldwin believed that, the blacks life was trapped in the inescapable difficulty, it was impossible not to hum Blues simply, regardless of being heard or not. The black American writer, relying on Blues music, this localized language, comes to discuss black Americans survival difficulty and cultural pursuit thoroughly. This enables their works not only have profound thought, also have one kind of sad Blues style and rhythm.3.1 The similarity between Blues music and literatureThe Famous black American literature critic Houston A. Baker Jr, in 1984, has published Blues, the ideology and the Africa American black literature: One kind of native words theory! .In this book, young Baker believed that, the Blues music is the typical one of the black native words, is the primitive basis and the cultural fountainhead of the black literature text research. Baker thought the literature and Blues music, all are rich for metaphorical, the mystique, hypothesized and so on. The literature is also same with the Blues music. Only discover the complex consistent technique of the lives of the black, then may catch the blacks lives attentively. The black writer, all can obtain the spirit feeling from the Blues music.（Baker，1984）Hughes is a reformer in US poetry history, he has found his own sound from the Blues music, it has helped him to form a new poem style. With the most approached music form Blues, has he expressed the blacks misery, loneliness and disappointment, so the readers can understand easily. His representative work is The Weary Blues. He is the first poet to imitate the forms of the blues in African American Literature.The similarity show in three aspects, take Hughes works for example.The three common blues lyric forms, namely the AAB form, the ABB form and the AAA form. Hughes blues poems are deeply influenced by blues lyric forms and blues themes. Many of his blues poems are written in them, the AAB form is his favorite and most frequently used by him. An essential element in all music is repetitionIn fact，we might say that all art consists of giving structure to two elements: repetition and variation. In Hughess PoBoy Blues, he writes When I was home De sunshine seemed like goldWhen I was home De sunshine seemed like goldI was a good bo