The history behind some of the pieces is quite interesting. As I listened to "Long John" I had a few thoughts in my head. In today's society, you still hear similar things with call and responses, such as group work, pledges and so on. It was interesting to learn about the song leader in the piece we listened to that was named Lightning Washington (Starr and Waterman, 2014, p. 32).
For the pieces labeled Old-Time Music, it was interesting hearing in "Barbary Allen" the melodic lines in the a capella voice all stay the same for the entire song. The story told a deep story, but as translated in the book, some words were not written in modern day English but followed the local dialect in Kentucky, such as slow-lie (slowly). For the two renditions of "Soldier's Joy" the listener had one version with words and the other without. The first recording was The Skillet Lickers, which is made up of a string band, guitar and fiddles. This recording had sung verses as well as played verses. The song follows the A-B musical pattern, which is made up of two phrases. In the second version, Tommy Jarrell is the performer. The two are similar, but differences can be heard, such as tuning. Also, there is a different texture since there are no words in the song at all. In the beginning Tommy speaks a bit and that is it. In this recording, the fiddle seems has a more scratchy sound to the bowing, which gives it a distinct characteristic sound. Also, it has the same repetitiveness as the Skillet Lickers' rendition also.
"Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" has the sound and context of an Irish style of music with the light flute and the plucked string instrument, which could be either a guitar or a mandolin. Also, a fiddle/violin enters at various points throughout the song. The AABA form is heard very easily within the song as it is very light and soothing. There is no unhappiness to my ears in the song. The movement is not jumpy and mainly moves in steps, but there are a few occasions where there are leaps and jumps, but does not detract from the overall performance of steps.
Within "After the Ball" the waltz feel is felt and heard from beat 1. I can envision two dancers waltzing around the dance floor and hearing the higher notes in the piano can be the dancers spinning. Each verse is followed by a chorus, which is similar to music of today as we are used to hearing this in modern music. It took me by surprise to hear the narrative in the middle and for it not to be sung.
As heard in "Enigue Nigue" the polyrhythms were wild to listen to! It had me engaged like no other. Being a percussionist I was loving it. It was hard to follow, and did add a twist to how one would listen to the piece. Also, "La Cumparsita" had a very heavy guitar part rather than what I am use to hearing, which is more of strings and piano. Also, as I have listened to other tangos this week, I have heard many beginnings with the accordion.
This week's listening examples were interesting and many of the others were similar and different in many aspects. As we continue to listen, I will be able to relate back to the foundation that has been set here.
