Chapter Two: The Sociocultural Context In Which African-American Music Emerged

1. Chapter Two: The Sociocultural Context In Which African-American Music Emerged From Africa to Afrocentric Innovations Some Call “Jazz”

2. The Sociocultural Context in Which African-American Music Emerged • The Natives of America………………………..………………………X • Africans’ Limited Access to Musical Instruments and Performance Venues in America……………………………….…………………….X • Slave Era Music and Cultural Cross-Fertilization……………………3 • African-American Music Convergence Affected by Sex and Marriage………………………………………………………………….X • Sociocultural Influences on Seventeenth Century African-American Music……………………………………………………………………...X • Eighteenth-Century Sociocultural Changes…..………………………X • Witch Craze………………………………………………………………X

3. Think about conceptual, psychological, and social differences between the captives of war that became slaves in Africa, and the feudalism involved in the epoch of the European slaveholders. Is there a significant difference? What is the history of slavery in the countries surrounding the Mediterranean? How do Mediterranean cultures factor into the European slave trade? What history of slavery do we find in Asia? Africans involved in the slave trade involving European captives: Europeans involved in the slave trade involving African captives: 1. Egyptians 2. Nubian Sudan 3. The Moors in Spain 4. In Moslem societies 5. Carthage (Hannibal) 1. Portugal 2. Dutch 3. English 4. French 5. Spanish

4. The cross-fertilization of African & European music in Pan-America, and the historical connections that account for these mixtures: 1. Haiti ---- French ---- Dahomean 2. Cuba ---- Spanish ---- Yoruban 3. Brazil ---- Portuguese ---- Senegalese 4. Jamaica ---- British ---- Ashanti 5. Trinidad ---- British ---- Yoruba 6. America ---- West African ---- French ---- Spanish ---- Amerindian ---- Mexican ---- British {Note: New Orleans ---- Yoruba ---- Dahomean ---- French ---- Spanish ... etc.}

5. Modern-day cross-fertilization of Global African styles: Trinidadian dancer Wilfred Mark performing with Hesterian Musicism at the 2003 Global African Music & Arts Festival/Symposium at UC Santa Cruz. [Image: Photo by Sarah Blade]

6. Polyrhythms Pentatonic emphasis Pantonal, multi-melodic & rhythmic Socially functional/Artistic Improvisational Incidental Harmony Polytonal Wide range of timbre (solo) Largely oral tradition Individual in communal setting Emotion expressed freely Intuition a high priority Curves, circles Monorhythmical Diatonic Emphasis Contrapuntal, tonal & atonal Artistic/Academic Premeditadedly compositional Predetermined harmonies Tonal conception Uniformity of timbre (solo) Almost exclusively literate Individual in conformist setting Restrained emotion Analysis a high priority Straight lines, angles Musical Characteristics:AfrocentricEurocentric

7. 1850-1890 • Joseph W. Postlewaite, published his dances, marches, and piano music • Henry "Juba" Lane, "the greatest dancer known" (changing African American image abroad) • William Appo and Robert C. Johnson, Antebellum Sacred Music Concerts • Henry Brown, dramatic troupe at The African Grove (Bleeker & Mercer, NYC), Shakespeare, music

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