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Popular music might be described as a mirror to the world as it quickly reflects the changes in society while it often serves as the catalyst for these changes. Ragtime music appeared shortly after the end of slavery and was usually composed for piano. Jazz music emerged in New Orleans, Louisiana, due to a diverse influence of ragtime, African-American, Caribbean, and Mexican music, as well as French and Italian opera traditions (Starr & Waterman, 2008). The original American genre immediately became the symbol of freedom and sensuality for the college-age youth who wanted to break free from discrimination, segregation, and prudish morality. The following work will compare and contrast the compositions of Louis Armstrong and Scott Joplin and examine the impact of racism on popular music.
Scott Joplin was a classically trained pianist whose works crossed the boundaries of race and social class. The great composer was a first-generation African-American who was born after the abolition of slavery (Bankston, 2019). Joplin’s “The Easy Winners” is a ragtime solo piano composition with a classical balance of strains and moods. The distinct melody of the piece is characterized by the harmony of a progression from the calm strain at the beginning to the turbulent final strain. The compositional technique has a steady and robust ragtime rhythm influenced by the African-American tradition of dance music. There are several repeated sections with a definite pitch creating the harmony of the melody. The musical work of Joplin is a ragged, syncopated melody that emphasizes the weak beats, and demonstrates the use of an off-beat pattern in contrast to the traditional on-beat. Overall, “The Easy Winners” creates a musical impression of a typical cheerful ragtime piece referring to the upbeat mood of sports events, which served as an inspiration for Joplin.
Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans and might be considered as one of the greatest trumpet players in the history of jazz music. Armstrong established key components of jazz music, such as rhythmic drive or swing with its instrumentally elaborate solo parts (Starr & Waterman, 2008). “Hotter Than That” is an original 1920s jazz piece based on a popular AA song form (Campbell, 2019). Similar to the upbeat character of “The Easy Winners”, it features a four-beat rhythm, fast tempo, and a prominent performance style of Louis Armstrong with his scat vocal improvisation. Moreover, like the ragtime composition of Joplin, “Hotter Than That” uses syncopation to create an off-beat pattern as a homage to the traditional African-American dance music. In contrast to Joplin’s solo composition, the instrumentation is provided by a clarinet, trumpet, and trombone in the front line while the rhythm section includes piano, banjo, and guitar. The harmony is the result of collective improvisation with Armstrong’s trumpet performance in the front, while the clarinet provides the background. The composition makes the impression of a powerful and creatively improvised piece of music.
All in all, the differences in the instrumentation by Joplin and Armstrong might stem from the progress in music as the bands became popular during the jazz era. However, the similarities of ragtime and jazz music such as syncopation and a cheerful sound are more prominent and can be explained by the desire of African-Americans to transform the predominantly White classical music scene. African-American musicians wanted to contrast their music to the Western tradition and create an outstanding genre, so improvisation and innovative scat singing in Armstrong’s works was a way to achieve originality. According to Campbell (2019), “jazz became a truly national music” in the 1920s, and many White musicians were inspired by the new genre (p. 54). However, the new music was also met with hostility as “anti-ragtime” and “anti-jazz” movements appeared (Horne, 2019, p. 13). Such challenging conditions encouraged musicians to use innovative techniques and experiment with instruments and sound. Thus, the introduction of the new musical genres developed by African-Americans might be viewed as the response to social oppression and segregation that was widespread in American society for almost a century.
References
Bankston, J. (2019). The life and times of Scott Joplin: Masters of music. Mitchell Lane.
Campbell, M. (2019). Popular music in America: The beat goes on (5th ed.). Cengage.
Horne, G. (2019). Jazz and justice: Racism and the political economy of the music. Monthly Review Press.
Starr, L., & Waterman, C. (2008). American popular music. U. S. Department of State, Bureau of International Information Programs.
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