The Linguistic Culture-12 (American Science) (1157950), страница 5

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Jazz is a mixture of West African folklore with the work songs the slaves sang and religious gospel music originated in church. Jazz, initially a musical talk from downcast people to other downcast people, by the 1920-40s had become popular among all people irrespective of their class or job distinctions or political views. The first jazz bands were formed in the late 1800s.They played in bars and clubs in the South, especially in New Orleans.

The first American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869) enlivened his “serious” music with plantation melodies and Caribbean rhythms from his New Orleans jazz bands.. He was the first American pianist to achieve international recognition, but his early death contributed to his relative obscurity.

George Gershwin (1898-1937) was also one of the first to use Afro-American melodies in his music. Together with his brother he created world famous opera “Porgy and Bess” and two musical comedies “Rhapsody in Blue” and “An American in Paris” which included jazz rhythms and blues.

Aaron Copland (1900-90) indulged his interest in jazz as well. Besides writing symphonies, concertos, and an opera, he composed the scores for several films. He is best known, however, for his ballet scores, which draw on American folk songs; among them are “Billy the Kid”, “Rodeo”. Copland chose a traditional Quaker religious song as one of the main themes for “Appalachian Spring”, which celebrated life in the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern region of the United States.

The orchestras of Duke Ellington, Count William Basie, Frank Sinatra and Glemm Miller became the universal musical culture, which all Americans are proud of. Among the outstanding jazz musicians there are the names of Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman and Ella Fitzgerald.

Composers Arthur Schwartz and Richard Rodgers should also be mentioned. The songs “Yellow River”, “Night and Day”, “Tea for Two” crossed national boundaries and became popular in Europe. Scott Joplin (1868-1917) was born in freed slave musical family and managed to mix African beat with classical European music. His wonderful style became known to both black and white musicians as Ragtime in the early 1900s.

Thirty years after jazz another kind of popular music appeared – big beat (big rhythm). In 1954 the disc jockey Alan Freed started to broadcast the Black rhythm-and-blues records. He called this music Rock-and-roll after an old blues “My Baby Rocks Me in a Steady Roll”. The 50s were also marked in the USA by the enormous success of the most famous rock “n” roll superstar singer and guitar player Elvis Presley (1935-77). What was new in his performance was aggression, sexuality together with Black blues and white romantic crooning and sentiment. Having broken all the standards, he became particularly admired by the young people. His songs “Heartbreak Hotel”, “Hound Dog”, “Blue Suede Shoes” and many others were recorded in multimillion copies. To rock and roll enthusiasts Presley got to symbolize not only a rock and roll singer but also a new youth culture. Among other things, this culture developed its own vocabulary, ways of dressing, even hairstyle. It even began to reject socially approved ideas and ways of behaving.

Later rock-and-roll blended with the protest songs of the 1960s to become rock, the music that was harder and less escapist. Rock became both an American and international phenomenon. Millions of young people worldwide saw it as their natural cultural language, a symbol of opposition to officially approved ideas and standards. Rock composers have always tried to represent the authentic sound of spoken English, and have therefore written what they have heard, rather then used standard spellings. Hard rock became bigger and louder than any beat before it, simply because it was amplified and very noisy.

There are lots of superstars these days; among fifteen number one hits there are the ones of Madonna, Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, Cindy Birdsong. In the 1970-80s Michael Jackson made his fantastic career. In addition to live performances he produced a lot of records, CDs and video clips. His particular ability to combine extraordinary gracious movements with singing brought him fame all the world round.

Some young musicians combined their vocal and composer masteries with their dramatic skills (so-called “performance”). The talented singer Diamond Galas (1955) using a very gloomy vampire stage image and lots of technical and light effects created unsurpassed emotional performances full of energy and expressions. Joan La Barbara (1947) possessing a wonderful vocal technique brilliantly experiments with modern compositions written by her husband Morton Subotnic and chamber music easily passing from charming whispering and thrilling moans to anxious beast cries. Black composer Anthony Davis (1951) improvises

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