Introduction Chapter Outline

I.

United (Red and Blue) States

A.
Obamas November 2008 acceptance speech premise, We Are One
B.
Obama Inaugural Lincoln Memorial Concert (January 2009), entitled We Are
One from the national motto, e pluribus unum (out of many, one), seemed however to
stress the pluribus over the unum:
1.
Programming diversity in genre and performer
a)
Rock stars
b)
Soul singers
c)
Rap artists
d)
Country crooners
e)
Gospel choirs
f)
Symphony orchestra
2.
Music selections equally diverse
a)
Few singer-songwriters
b)
Duet and trios chosen to combine different styles
(1)
Higher Ground (Wonder) performers
(a)
Stevie Wonder (soul)
(b)
Shakira (Latin)
(c)
Usher (R&B)
(2)
American Pie (McLean) performers
(a)
Garth Brooks (country)

(3)

(4)

(5)

II.

(b)
Gospel choir (African American traditional)
America (My country, tis of thee), reprised by:
(a)
Josh Groban
(b)
Heather Hedley (Trinidadian R&B)
(c)
Gay Mens Chorus of Washington
Aaron Coplands Lincoln Portrait
(a)
Tom Hanks (reciter)
(b)
U.S. Armed Forces Symphony
One Love (Marley) reggae anthem
(a)
Sheryl Crow (country pop)
(b)
will.i.am (rap)
(c)
Herbie Hancock (avant-garde jazz)

Challenging the Classification of American Music as Single, Clearly Defined Category

A.
Various sources of categorization
1.
Billboard charts
a)
1950s: only three genres chartedpop, R&B, country-western
b)
Today: sixty charts distinguishing twenty-five genres
2.
Allmusic.com
a)
Nine basic genres
(1)
Only one genre of these nine designated world (outside
United States)
(2)
Eight of remaining categories divided into fifty-eight styles

(3)
Each of these styles is further divided into multiple
subgenres
B.
Overenthusiastic categorizing distorts the picture of how most people in the
United States actually experience music.
C.
Defining genre is itself unclear; its boundaries are permeable:
1.
Does the genre of a particular type of music refer to:
a)
The sound of the music?
b)
The function of the music in society?
c)
Who is marketing and listening to the music?
D.
Most genres do not exist in a vacuum but are constantly interacting with one
another
III.

Book Design
A.
Approaches music making in the United States as one unified, albeit highly
variegated, culture.
B.
Understands our nations music by studying its historical development across the
centuries
C.
Adopts three broad categories of music making, each of which have more to do
with the contrasting goals and ideals of musicians creating the music and the audiences
listening or dancing to it than with hard-and-fast boundaries:
1.
Classical
2.
Popular
3.
Folk
D.
Organization is roughly chronological:
1.
Arrival of Europeans through the Civil War
2.
Reconstruction through World War I
3.
Decades between World War I and World War II
4.
1940s to the present
E.
Although some individual chapters may focus on only one of the three broad
categories of music to the momentary exclusion of the other two, neighboring chapters
guarantee that none of the categories stays out of the readers attention for long.

IV.

Talking about Music

A.
Basic music elements of tones or notes
1.
Time: rhythm and duration
a)
Beats
b)
Tempo
c)
Rubato
d)
Measures or bars
e)
Accent
(1)
Downbeat
(2)
Upbeat
f)
Meter
(1)
Duple
(2)
Triple
(3)
Simple
(4)
Compound
g)
Phrase
(1)
Pickup notes
(2)
Cadence
(a)
Full cadence
(b)
Half cadence
(c)
Deceptive cadence

2.

(3)
Stanza
(4)
Shuffle
(5)
Swing
Pitch and dynamics
a)
Frequency
b)
Amplitude
c)
Crescendo
d)
Decrescendo or diminuendo
e)
Melody or tune
(1)
Melodic contour
(2)
Intervals
(a)
Steps
(b)
Leaps or skips
(3)
Conjunct melody
(4)
Disjunct melody
(5)
Compass, range (apex and nadir), register
f)
Pitches in combination
(1)
Scale, scale degree, and octave
(a)
Half steps or semitones
(b)
Chromatic scale
(c)
Pentatonic scale

(d)

B.

Diatonic scale
(i)
Major scale
(ii)
Minor scale
(iii)
Modes
(2)
Tonality and key
(a)
Tonic
(b)
Modulation
(3)
Harmony
(a)
Chords
(i)
Triad
(a)
Root
(b)
Major triad
(c)
Minor triad
(d)
Diminished triad
(b)
Chord progressions or changes
(c)
Consonance and dissonance
(d)
Chords built from scale degrees
(i)
Scale degree 1: tonic
(ii)
Scale degree 4: subdominant
(iii)
Scale degree 5: dominant
3.
Tone color: Timbre
a)
Open
b)
Mutes
c)
Partials
d)
Fundamental pitch
e)
Overtones and the overtone series
4.
Texture
a)
Monophony
b)
Homophony
(1)
Melody and accompaniment
(2)
Hymn texture or block chords
c)
Polyphony
Using the listening guides
1.
Devoted listening guide for every selection on the four-CD set
accompanies the book
2.
Listening guides include specific timings to indicate formal divisions and
places where notable events occur

V.
Importance of listening to each selection multiple times, focusing on various attributes
with each hearing