What is jazz?

The origin and meaning of jazz: Jazz took shape at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.

The recognized birthplace is New Orleans, a subtropical city in Louisiana, southern United States.

Among many popular musics, jazz is the earliest and most influential music genre in the world. Jazz is actually American folk music.

European church music, African American violin and banjo traditional music combined with African singing and African American labor chants formed the original "folk blues", and "ragtime" and "folk blues" constituted early jazz.

From the 17th to the 18th century, Western colonialists trafficked large numbers of black Africans to the Americas and became slaves of white people there. They were forced to labor and tortured.

In the fields and after work, black slaves missed their hometown and relatives and often sang a kind of lamentation to express their painful feelings.

This kind of music also permeates some religious songs.

Because blue is regarded as a melancholy color among the American people, these sad songs are collectively called Blues.

The Chinese transliteration is "Bruce".

We often find music titles with Blues in American music works, such as "Rhapsody in Blue", "Blue Tango", "Blue Love", etc.

Another origin of jazz comes from a kind of piano music called "ragtime".

"Ragtime" is the transliteration of the word Ragtime.

The meaning of the word is "jagged beat".

Therefore, it is also called "Sanpai music".

It also developed from African folk music.

At the end of the 19th century, a black pianist named Scott Joplin (1869-1917) created a new style of piano music: the right-hand treble part plays a main melody or a very special syncopated rhythm.

Arpeggio.

In general music in 4/4 time, the first and third beats are strong beats, and the second and fourth beats are weak beats. In the treble part, every beat and a half, that is, three eighth notes, there is a strong sound, and the left hand

It is to regularly play a rhythm composed of light and heavy quarter notes. The first and third beats are bass strong beats, and the second and fourth beats are chords and weak beats.

In this way, the left and right hands form an interlaced beat, which makes the music humorous, joyful, and lively. Due to this creation, Joplin is known as the "King of Ragtime".

Some people say that the word Jazz evolved from the African dialect Jaiza.

The original meaning of this word is "speed up the drumming"; another way of saying it is: In the early years, there was a musician named Jasper in New Orleans. Everyone got used to calling him Jas. Later, it was passed down again and again, and it became Jazz.

; Others say that the word Jazz evolved from the word Chaz.

Most of the early black jazz musicians did not know how to read music. When they played, they only relied on inspiration and freely changed familiar tunes.

So it has a strong improvisational nature.

Since there are not many people, three or five musicians often work together. Over time, a tacit understanding will naturally form between them.

In the winter of 1923, Paul Whiteman, the foreman of New York's "Palace Band", approached the composer Gershwin and said he wanted to hold a unique concert, including a finale program that would surprise the audience, which would combine jazz and symphony.

At the same time, Gershwin was a musical innovator. He started writing in January 1924 and completed it in just one week.

Since the "blues scale" and seventh chords composed of minor thirds, perfect fifths, and minor sixths are mainly used in it, the music is named "Rhapsody in Blue", which is translated as "Rhapsody in Blue" in my country. 》.

The performance was a great success.

Since then, jazz has been revived by serious musicians and intellectuals, and many composers have followed suit and created many jazz-style musical works, such as some American musicals, Hindemith's "Dance Suite", Sturt's

Lavinsky's "Black Concerto" and other works all use jazz music materials and rhythms.

Characteristics of jazz music: (1) In terms of the major scale, its third (Mi) and seventh (Si) notes are often lowered (usually a semitone, but actually less than a semitone).

Sometimes the fifth level (Sol) tone is also dropped a half step.

These flat notes are often supplemented by portamento and vibrato, which further enhance the melancholy and sad color of the song. Because of these characteristics, the scale formed in this way is called the "blues scale".

(2) Syncopated rhythm and triplets are often used in the melody, resulting in an inversion of light and stress; (3) The rhythm is mostly double beat, usually 4/4, and some are 2/4; (4) From the lyrics and melody

Structurally, blues mostly uses symmetrical, rhymed two-line words.

Repeat the first sentence.

Each tune has 12 bars and each sentence has 4 bars, thus forming a solid musical form structure of three sentences: ‖∶ A ∶‖＋B (5) Commonly used chords include tonic chords (Ⅰ), dominant chords (Ⅴ) and subordinate chords.

(IV), therefore, the harmony sounds harmonious and simple.

Other characteristic factors: Jazz singing uses meaningless "liner words" to form a unique style of jazz singing under the rules of improvisation.