Finally we recognize that the period between the 16th and the 19th century is the most important period in the development of an American indigenous architecture of standards of aesthetics articulated through music with the African and African American reconfiguration of the hymns of the Christian church through Gospel and the creation and advent of its secular cousin the Blues.
Between the 16th and the 19th newly arrived Africans and African Americans in the south of the United States represented the majority populations in certain regional areas of the cotton belt and therefore the process of creating an architectural foundation for a unique culture began. These African and African American populations developed over a period of four centuries an identity defining musical vocabulary and language of their own that produce standards of aesthetics informed by their cultural and musical traditions from West Africa as well as the contemporary reality of the pain and horror of their socio-economic conditions in North America, hopes and aspirations.
We know that these plantation colonies were culturally separated from European influences, politically, technologically and therefore culturally. Politically, because European plantation owners despised the various kings and queens of Europe to whom they were to pay taxes, and culturally because they (plantation owners) fled Europe because most of them did not belong to the European ruling class of the times (Hester, 2000). We should note that between the 16th century and the 19th century there was little if any cross-cultural fertilization between Europe and the New World since technologies in the area of communications were nil and travel lengthy and dangerous.
Furthermore, in the absence of the technological revolutionary inventions of the turn of the 20th century, recordings and radio, European music of the time was stylistically an chored in the Baroque and Classical era, and provided no academic or intellectual support mechanism for the rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic rules that nurtured and informed the foundation of the music of the Mississippi Delta Blues.
The most important period of development for the emergence of American musical standards of aesthetics happens between the 16th and the 19th century for the nascent nation and its large African and African American populations of the South. These African populations who provide entertainment to the European American plantation owners are part and process in the South of the organizing of rhythmic, harmonic and melodic concepts that are anchored in African traditions and will forever color the hymns of the Christian church through the Negro-Spirituals of the Gospel.
While the most famous musician of Europe in the times of Mozart was a composer of African descent, the Chevalier de Saint George, Europe's premier violinist, fencer, colonel, and conductor of the largest orchestra of France, that of Queen Marie Antoinette, his incredible story remained submerged beneath the sands of time by European academia just like the socio-cultural contributions of the African peoples of the Empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhai whose men, women and children settled the New World.
Let us never forget that the stunning socio-cultural success of the degrading minstrel show era which featured African Americans, their music and its folklore was an effort by European Americans, in the mid 19th century period of the building of this nation, to discredit African Americans who had built a sonic, melodic, harmonic and rhythmic vocabulary away from European classical standards aesthetics for a nation that excluded them.
Lastly, anyone trying to point to the music of the Broadway shows of the early and mid-20th century as proof of European contributions to the development of American popular music and Jazz, should be reminded that the conceptual innovational bedrock of American music is founded on the intuitive concepts of improvisation, call and response systems, rhythmic syncopations, polyrhythmic expressions of time, bent notes, textural colors of the banjo, along with the chordal harmonies and melodies of West Africa which were long rejected by European canons because of the generation of blue notes considered devil's notes by the Christian Church, notes, rhythmic expressions and tonal colors so essential to the identity of the music of Ghana, Mali, Songhai and that of the Mississippi Delta.
And yet, it is these innovative West African tonal and rhythmic singularities that uniquely animate and inform the peerless identity of our American music through the Negro Spirituals, the Gospel of the African American Baptist Church and the Blues.
Between the 16th and the 19th newly arrived Africans and African Americans in the south of the United States represented the majority populations in certain regional areas of the cotton belt and therefore the process of creating an architectural foundation for a unique culture began. These African and African American populations developed over a period of four centuries an identity defining musical vocabulary and language of their own that produce standards of aesthetics informed by their cultural and musical traditions from West Africa as well as the contemporary reality of the pain and horror of their socio-economic conditions in North America, hopes and aspirations.
We know that these plantation colonies were culturally separated from European influences, politically, technologically and therefore culturally. Politically, because European plantation owners despised the various kings and queens of Europe to whom they were to pay taxes, and culturally because they (plantation owners) fled Europe because most of them did not belong to the European ruling class of the times (Hester, 2000). We should note that between the 16th century and the 19th century there was little if any cross-cultural fertilization between Europe and the New World since technologies in the area of communications were nil and travel lengthy and dangerous.
Furthermore, in the absence of the technological revolutionary inventions of the turn of the 20th century, recordings and radio, European music of the time was stylistically an chored in the Baroque and Classical era, and provided no academic or intellectual support mechanism for the rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic rules that nurtured and informed the foundation of the music of the Mississippi Delta Blues.
The most important period of development for the emergence of American musical standards of aesthetics happens between the 16th and the 19th century for the nascent nation and its large African and African American populations of the South. These African populations who provide entertainment to the European American plantation owners are part and process in the South of the organizing of rhythmic, harmonic and melodic concepts that are anchored in African traditions and will forever color the hymns of the Christian church through the Negro-Spirituals of the Gospel.
While the most famous musician of Europe in the times of Mozart was a composer of African descent, the Chevalier de Saint George, Europe's premier violinist, fencer, colonel, and conductor of the largest orchestra of France, that of Queen Marie Antoinette, his incredible story remained submerged beneath the sands of time by European academia just like the socio-cultural contributions of the African peoples of the Empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhai whose men, women and children settled the New World.
Let us never forget that the stunning socio-cultural success of the degrading minstrel show era which featured African Americans, their music and its folklore was an effort by European Americans, in the mid 19th century period of the building of this nation, to discredit African Americans who had built a sonic, melodic, harmonic and rhythmic vocabulary away from European classical standards aesthetics for a nation that excluded them.
Lastly, anyone trying to point to the music of the Broadway shows of the early and mid-20th century as proof of European contributions to the development of American popular music and Jazz, should be reminded that the conceptual innovational bedrock of American music is founded on the intuitive concepts of improvisation, call and response systems, rhythmic syncopations, polyrhythmic expressions of time, bent notes, textural colors of the banjo, along with the chordal harmonies and melodies of West Africa which were long rejected by European canons because of the generation of blue notes considered devil's notes by the Christian Church, notes, rhythmic expressions and tonal colors so essential to the identity of the music of Ghana, Mali, Songhai and that of the Mississippi Delta.
And yet, it is these innovative West African tonal and rhythmic singularities that uniquely animate and inform the peerless identity of our American music through the Negro Spirituals, the Gospel of the African American Baptist Church and the Blues.
