Musical is an art of arranging sounds in a particular pattern to create a pleasant harmony to the ears of the listeners. Just like the industrial revolution took time to reach its present level, the two major forms of musical in America were realized after a long time of progressive development as (Riddle 2003) explains.
American musical was firstly borrowed from the European States; the American musical pioneers built on it to develop theirs then later they completely detached from it came up with their own different style of presentation according to (Lubbock 1962).
Musical comedy was the first of the only two advanced musical styles to be established in America. Then there followed the other which is the musical play and the two have been cherished widely in the twentieth and the twenty first centuries. There are several legend musicians who played a key role in making American musical what it is today and have been covered by history. The changes that were met in the twentieth century in musical varied from the cultural, content to the form of delivering the musical.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
Music in America is an art that has a very long history in its development in form and content to the level it is now. The historians have established that it has taken hundreds of years to develop from its primitive form to the now sophisticated forms. (Lubbock1962) traces music in America way back in the year 1735. He argues that this introduced music did not originate from America itself but from England.
The Essay on African American Music
By 1945, nearly everyone in the African American community had heard gospel music (2). At this time, gospel music was a sacred folk music with origins in field hollers, work songs, slave songs, Baptist lining hymns, and Negro spirituals. These songs that influenced gospel music were adapted and reworked into expressions of praise and thanks of the community. Although the harmonies were similar to ...
From those years on up to 1960,s the initial way of treating musicals underwent great transformation and many people came into terms with music unlike in the past. As the year 1960 was dawning, Americans began to get enlightened about Musicals where they were in a position to define it and find out its relationship with art according to (Gann 2000).
Through continued development of interest in learning what music was, the people also became able to relate it with culture. It is also worthy noting that the various phases through which the American music underwent included the transformation of the places of performance.
The first pieces of music were only played in the urban centres but it slowly filtered into the rural as time went by. According to (Gann 2000), the music was taken from the urban to the rural setting in the year 1961 and from there onward it expanded and widely spread more into the interior like a bush fire. In 1980,s several individuals ventured into bettering the quality of the musical performed in the theatres which took the dimension created by the Americans more than that of Europeans.
CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
The culture of the people influences greatly the type of music they compose, the type of dance they use to accompany their songs and more so the kind of perception they have on the present generation music. American musical has had a lot of influence on the way the Americans perceive their abilities and identify their characters according to (Knapp 2005).
In the same manner, the music the Americans borrowed from the Europeans took after the cultural practices of the natives of the country.
Through the ages the American musicals saw a great transition in the way the Americans treated music in relation to their culture. It came a time when the stake holders in musicals began to present their cultures through the art of music especially holding cultural ceremonies where people got the opportunities to express their personalities as (Knapp 2005) confirms.
The American musicians also were able to portray their culture through their manner of dressing during music play performances in the theatres. The twentieth century also was the year of making music as a source of earning personal living in addition to expressing the people’s beliefs and practices. (Crawford 2000) confirms that the art of music took the dimension of commercial activity during its development during the twentieth century and a rapid growth as a business the common exercise of the day.
The Essay on The Musical Culture of the Country of Burundi
Every nation has its own culture and traditions which has been practiced by the people for many decades or centuries. Most of the cultural practices of a nation are usually passed down to the next generation. Although they are altered to fit the current generation, some parts of the culture remain intact and do not change; they are the same practices done in the past. The same is true with the ...
By watching a clip of the American produced musical, one was in a position to analyse the type of culture the performers upheld from the way the dressed, their make-ups, the food they eat and the dancing styles which were adopted during music development time.
FORM DEVELOPMENT
The form in which music first entered America is not the same style of music we play in America today. A great transition has occurred in the music industry in terms of the several classes of music which have hit in the country. Lubbock (1962) asserts that the first type of music to be played in America was Flora and this had its source from England.
In this twenty first century, this kind of music can only be referred to as a legend and you may find that the current generation is not aware of the former existence of such kind of music. In the twentieth century, the American natives set out to develop their own style of music which indeed they did in two phases.
The first phase was characterized by a lot of emulation of the pre-existing opera style of England which was later advanced. This first move by the upcoming American musicians constituted what was called the comedy music. The second phase of American musical development was the new form of music which was not derived from the European form.
According to (Lubbock 1962) it was the Showboat which established the campaign towards developing American-produced music which came to be referred to as music play. Here the musicians could perform their own composed music in public. The music industry in the new form was since then continued by the other successors including Oklahoma and the others. Their establishments have since then not been out dated because music play and the prior styles are the only two ruling the American music industry.
The Essay on Early Jazz Forms Of Music Have Derived Form Original Ragtime
Early History of Jazz Jazz is a style of music that began and has been revolutionized within the United States. Jazz music first appeared in the city of New Orleans and eventually moved onto Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, and New York City. Jazz unites different elements of African, African- American, religious, brass brand, and blues style of music. The music of Jazz, and its changes through ...
