homophonic texture. Updated September 9, 2020. Jazz- Review Questions. Back-Water Blues, composed by Bessie Smith and recorded by her on 17 February 1927, has long been associated in the popular mind and even by some writers with the great flood of the lower Mississippi River and its tributaries that occurred that year. "When it rains five days, and the skies turn dark as night (x2) There's trouble taking place in the lowland that night." Harmonically, what is the piece based on? The melody is conjunct, making it easy to follow the lyrics of the song and the instrumental portions at the same time. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bessie-Smith, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gXShOJVwaM, https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/bessie-smith, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go6TiLIeVZA, 1980: Inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, 1989: Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1989: Received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, 1994: Face was placed upon a US Postage Stamp, 2001: Down Hearted Blues was named one of the Songs of the Century by the National Endowment for the Arts, 2002: Down Hearted Blues was listed on the National Recording Preservation Board by the Library of Congress, 2006: Down Hearted Blues listed in the Grammy Hall of Fame. The blues artists who wrote and sang in this era there are famous names in this era such as Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Howling Wolf, and of course, Bessie Smith, who is one of my favorites. Discuss Bessie Smith's performance of "Back Water Blues" as an example of both. SKU: MN0121681 Though theres no singular definition of the blues that fully encompasses the history and culture of the people from whom the blues are derived, I do think there are some notes to consider. Smith is believed to be one of the highest paid black performers of her time. *Als Songtexte.com PUR User kannst du entscheiden, welche Inhalte von externen Anbietern wie Youtube, I think in the best identity poems that the self represents something much larger than the self. Of course, I learn so much from the Bessie Smiths blues poems. Backwater Blues - Wikipedia What characterizes a blues performance? The piece uses syncopation to allow variation between the instruments and the vocals. Hooktheory requires WebAudio and this browser doesn't support it. This piece draws its material from the song "Backwater Blues" by Bessie Smith and from the historically articulated performance practice that has accrued to it. Train with real songs. This is historically problematical because that flood began two months after Smith recorded her song. What is 12-bar-blues form? Each verse in the song follows an AAB pattern from beginning to end. The repetition of her lyrics depict just how saddening her situation is- she is in the middle of losing everything. Backwater blues done caused me to pack up my things and go, / Backwater blues done caused me to pack up my things and go, / 'Cause my house fell down and I can't live there no more. This is a song poem. hasContentIssue false. Songtext von Bessie Smith - Backwater Blues Lyrics The rhythm and beat remain constant throughout the song. [3] However, that flood was at its worst some two months after the song was written. The three most important chords, built off the 1st, 4th and 5th scale degrees are all major chords (E Major, A Major, and B Major). The vocalization stands out far more than the sound of the instruments, primarily due to Smiths incredible voice. Although Smith is very pleasing to the ears, she seems to be slightly monotone in this piece. Smith (on vocal with James P. Johnson on piano) recorded it as "Back-water Blues" on February 17, 1927, in New York City. Instagram oder Facebook auf Songtexte.com geladen werden. As musicologist Dr. David Evans has noted, Back-Water Blues was recorded in February 1927, before the great disaster of April. The Mississippi River flood of 1927 was horrific. When it rained five days and the sky turned dark as night, Zur deutschen bersetzung von Backwater Blues, Die 10 schnsten Songs fr ein gemtliches Picknick, Die 10 beliebtesten ESC-Songs aller Zeiten, "Sing meinen Song" 2023: Alle Infos, Teilnehmer, Songs & Folgen, "Let's Dance 2023": Alle Tnze aus Show 9 + Songtexte, I'd Rather Be Dead and Buried in My Grave, Udo Lindenberg & Apache 207 - Komet Songtext, Ikke Hftgold, Schrze & DJ Robin - Bumsbar Songtext, Purple Disco Machine & Kungs - Substitution Songtext, Hypaton, David Guetta & La Bouche - Be My Lover (feat. She believed that her truth needed to be told, so she told it. Down Hearted Blues, her first recording, sold nearly 800,000 copies, firmly establishing her as a new singer in the blues genre. Bob Dylan - Backwater blues Lyrics | Genius Lyrics When it thunders and lightnin' and the wind begin to blow. The flood was a devastating ordeal. Writer(s): Smith It was written by Bessie Smith, and recorded (under the title ". While many latter-day . I have sympathy towards Smith during her performance of this song because she conveys how lonesome she is. :)---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Title: Backwater BluesLevel: BeginnerCom. The flood was a devastating ordeal. Irma Thomas released it on the album Our New Orleans 2005 - A Benefit Album in 2005. Bessie Smith. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, courtesy of the Rock Hall Library and Archive, https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/bessie-smith. Great cover of blues classic Backwater blues on The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band 2011. album How I Go She performed in various minstrel and black vaudeville shows, and as her reputation and fame grew, she performed with many of the other leading early jazz musicians of her time: Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, and James P. Johnson, just to name a few. Louis Blues featuring Louis Armstrong, Backwater Blues, and Nobody Knows You When Youre Down and Out. As the Swing era was emerging, Bessie Smith was tragically killed in an automobile accident in 1937 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. There was evidence of lynchings and unspeakable killings and terrible acts against the black community. The opening choruses of each performance . Death. Bemoaning the fate of losing a home to flood waters after five days and nights of rain, Smith laments: 'Thousands of people ain't got no place to go.'. Back-Water Blues Bessie Smith (Columbia, 1927) When it's . View Official Scores licensed from. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like backwater blues, libretto, step interval and more. Her powerful voice stands out so much in this song that the instrumental background may not even be needed as supplementation. Theres this rich toughness in her voice that tells us this girl and her people are going to get through this calamity. Hier geht's zu meiner Musik auf Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/artist/1EV1CjZHtzJGK5SZyEyKst?si=ya1BsYRcTpSlZeVFtMKekAMeine Musik auf Deezer:https://deezer. In "Backwater Blues", the writer retells the incidents surrounding the flooding of Nashville in 1927. Almost half a million homes were destroyed. As an attempt to escape poverty as a teenager, she joined the Moss Stokes Company with her brother and Gertrude Ma Rainey, the Mother of the Blues. Ma Rainey served as the most influential person during Smiths pre-professional career. Bemoaning the fate of losing a home to flood waters after five days and nights of rain, Smith laments: Thousands of people aint got no place to go. While many latter-day listeners have equated this song with the disastrous 1927 flood of the Mississippi River, Smith actually recorded this before that particular flood had occurred. Bessie Smith- Back Water Blues. Youtube, uploaded by TravelerIntoTheBlue, 9 Oct 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gXShOJVwaM. One more piece. Its musical composition entered the public domain on January 1, 2023. Backwater Blues - Piano - YouTube Since tab form can't express time interval, I hope you will figure I love writing blues poems. Dazu brauchen wir deine Einwillung*. About a thousand people lost their lives. Smith performed for nearly a decade until Columbia Records signed her in 1923. She began recording regularly in the 1920s, distinguishing herself as the most successful African American artist of her time with her recording Down Hearted Blues in 1923. Smith . She made almost 200 recordings, including duets with Louis Armstrong and Joe Smith. The backwater blues caused me. Lyrics powered by www.musixmatch.com. Poet, writer, teacher, and political activist Amiri Baraka was born Everett LeRoi Jones in 1934 in Newark, New Jersey. But the second strophe, the second stanza, we turn inward, and its about personal disaster: I woke up this morning cant even get out of my door, I woke up this morning cant even get out of my door. The three most important chords, built off the 1st, 4th and 5th scale degrees are all major . The a rhyme glues the three-line stanza together. The first line sets the scene, the second line repeats the first for emphasis. The third-sixth verses have the traditional AAB blues pattern, which helps emphasize what she is saying during each verse. ). Back Water Blues by Irma Thomas was written by Bessie Smith and was first recorded and released by Bessie Smith in 1927. Thank you. Pro Credit Pack (3 Pro Credits) Included with first year, Your high-resolution PDF file will be ready to download in She is considered by many as one of the most successful African-American females of all time. The flood from The Cumberland River that struck Nashville, Tennessee on Christmas Day 1926, AAB e.g. Bessie Smith (1894-1937) began her professional career as a blues singer in cabarets in 1912. Johnson was instrumental in the development of the piano style that emerged from Harlem in the 1920s known as \"stride.\" \r\rIn the age before sound amplification and microphones, a successful singer needed to be able to project. It also deals with how said flood displaced several victims and led to the loss of hundreds of lives. I do not believe in a fixed way to write blues poems or poetry with blues feeling. Discover an intuitive and deep understanding of how music works. Bessie Smith (Down Hearted Blues, 1923) Jazz Legend. Youtube, uploaded by RagtimeDorianHenry, 3 Jun 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go6TiLIeVZA. Through an examination of Smith's touring itinerary, the testimony of fellow entertainers who toured . Of course, we Americans have historical amnesia. Lets look at this poem closely. Try listening to Backwater Blues while reading the lyrics; hear how the piano embodies the texture of what is being sung, as if the piano witnesses and takes on the storm and flood alongside Bessie Smith. The song "Backwater Blues" is a blues and jazz standard written by Bessie Smith. Harmonically, what is the piece based on? First, research supports the claim that blues music originated during the postUS Civil War era (186165) and is derived from spirituals and work and field songs of Black sharecroppers of the rural south, particularly the Mississippi Delta. 3.2 Online-Unterricht - Backwater Blues - YouTube "Backwater Blues" (1927) . The song "Backwater Blues" is a blues and jazz standard written by Bessie Smith. There were reports that officials behaved in a discriminatory fashion. There is one integral line throughout the stanza. Though, after repeated listening and reading of blues standards like Backwater Blues, call and response became more than an AAB tercet on page/to my ear. We could define and reproduce several devices of blues lyric, such as call and response, and blues turnaround, and surely, we can write sad poems. She is the author of three collections of poems, most recently Rhapsody in Plain Yellow (2002). Bessie Smith had a powerful impact on future blues and Rock and Roll singers, like Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, and Janis Joplin. Back-Water Blues' was one of the best known works of the Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith, recorded for Columbia Records in 1927 with James P. Johnson on piano. West End Blues - Louis Armstrong (Analysis) - bradpottermusic In order to interrogate said materials, six recordings by different musicians were chosen and meticulously transcribed. Over her ten year career, she created one hundred and sixty recordings. How does the music reflect the lyrical content of the piece? This is historically problematical because that flood began two months after Smith recorded her song. Entire black neighborhoods were wiped out. "Backwater Blues" (Song) - Song Meanings and Facts In this blog post I am going to be looking at and analysing a track by famous New Orleans jazz musician, Louis Armstrong. Backwater Blues gefllt bisher niemandem. Furthermore, Baraka notes that Africanisms (retentions of African culture throughout the African diaspora) were not limited to US Black people but that the culture of the Americas contains and is itself influenced by Africanisms. Sheet music arranged for Piano/Vocal/Guitar in C Major (transposable). He studied under Seamus Heaney and Lucie Brock-Broido at Harvard University and, while a student there, became a member of the Dark Room African diasporic culture and the aesthetics of the blues. Bessie Smith, "Backwater blues", 1927The song "Backwater Blues" is a blues and jazz standard. Bessie Smith, commonly referred to as the Empress of the Blues, was born in 1894 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We were grounded by Amiri Barakas claim in Blues People, in which he conveyed that in the context of Black American culture, music explains history as history explains music. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings. Kevin Young was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. It is a flexible approach to pitch (pentatonic base)-BLUES NOTES, descending melodic lines, raw/ gritty timbres, call and response, swing or laid back/flexible approach to the . And the rain begin to pour. There's thousands of people ain't got no place to go. I have her strong voice in my ear at all times. Backwater Blues by Big Bill Broonzy was written by Bessie Smith and was first recorded and released by Bessie Smith in 1927. Este es un disco muy bueno; una gran voz, la Reina del Blues Dinah Washington, y unos temas espectaculares, las canciones de la gran Bessie Smith. One subscription across all of your devices. Adds to the blues feel as the music is seen to reflect the realities of her situation. print music publishers. The lyrics of the song are interpreted with respect to the events of that flood. Almost a million people became homeless for a time. Smith continued on to become very successful with hits like St. Backwater Blues Bessie Smith Chords and Lyrics for Guitar I believe the blues represents a range of human experience that can speak on and to that thing that nearly ended someone but the very fact of them living to sing about it encapsulates the blues. Bessie Smith - Back-Water Blues Lyrics | Genius Lyrics Bessie Smith is the best-known of the female "classic blues" (or "city blues") singers from the 1910s and 1920s (others include Ma Rainey, Ethel Waters, Clar. 7 available keys. LISTENING part 1 SEIGFRIED CHAP 5. richard wagner germany Considering these notes about the blues inception, the blues endured and scoredif not directly then through derived musical formsthe majority of the United States early nation-building and cultural formation. Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out (Bessie and Me). I mean, first, it sets up a terrible storm when it rained five days and the skies turned dark as night, when it rained five days and the skies turned dark as night. She manages to escape her flooding home, only to look back and see that she will never be able to go back to it. music review for midterm Flashcards | Quizlet "useRatesEcommerce": false However, I recommend practicing the classic form (first line repeated in the second line, third line responds to the second, entire poem at least three tercets long) to fully grasp blues aesthetics. Lets look at the blues poem as a form. Back-Water Blues 65th in 1927. Hostname: page-component-75b8448494-knlg2 After discussing blues history, we went over Bessie Smith's "Backwater Blues," then Langston Hughes' "Too Blue," and concluded our study with Jericho Brown's . Yeah, when it's thunderin' and lightnin'. The song has a homophonic texture due to the use of instruments and vocalization in unison. Chris Fisher-Lochhead. According to the Theorytab database, it is the 5th most popular key among Major keys and the 5th most popular among all keys. Thematically, write about whatever you feel must be sung. "it rained five days and the sky turned dark as night". This personal depression by extension is about the depression of an entire people, marginalized in the back waters, stricken with poverty, homelessness, suffering social injustice, discrimination, and now hit with this catastrophic natural disaster. The consonant chords allow for a smooth harmony to flow continuously during the song. Content may require purchase if you do not have access. The beat is easy to tap along to, making it easier to focus on her lyrics. Please download this song, preferably the original 1927 recording by Bessie Smith, and listen to her amazing singing. Brown, who alongside Langston Hughes was a pioneer of blues poetry in the 1920s. Nose To Tail - Dragon Ball Z Raging Blast 2, Mushihimesama Futari - Sea of Frozen Crystals. She uses her voice in this particular form to symbolize that she has given up and that she knows she will never find true love. Marilyn Chin (1955- ) was born in Hong Kong, grew up in Oregon, and received her MFA from the University of Iowa. It was originally composed by Joe "King" Oliver and is largely performed as an instrumental, although lyrics were . Download and Print scores from huge community collection ( 1,426,528 and growing) Advanced tools to level up your playing skills. Jazz- Review Questions Flashcards | Quizlet } I chose these works for how they built upon classic blues (blues that follows the standard AAB lyrical structure and common themes of love, longing, suffering, and travel) by addressing an ecological concern, as in Backwater Blues, or innovating the classical structure, as in Too Blue, and Duplex., I want to encourage reading and listening to early blues poetry and classic blues as a method toward mastering blues aesthetics. I cant do justice to this poem, to Backwater Blues, by just reciting it myself. Today, I hear phrases such as the winter blues and Blue Monday and know that they are not considering this history. There aint no place for a poor old girl to go. Smith describes how down she is about her life and how she knows there is nothing she can do about it. And I can't live there no more. Backwater Blues Sheet music for Piano (Solo) | Musescore.com The narrator, who presents himself as a victim describes how . Perhaps the build-up of rain made her anticipate the flood; it was released just as the flood came, and as a result, it became a big hit., Charter Member Directory (Password Protected). I make it a point to learn the African American poetic tradition. Terrible images came across the television screen and recently with global warming and continuous flooding and natural disasters this poem survives the test of time and can speak to a variety of incidents and international dislocated peoples. Third, Mamie Smith became the first Black blues singer to record a blues record in 1920. Play the music you love without limits for just $9.99 $3.33/month. Back-Water Blues. It was covered by Brother John Sellers, Toni Lynn Washington, Meschiya Lake and The Little Big Horns, The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band and other artists. Bessie Smith - Backwater Blues Flashcards | Quizlet The beat does not change because each verse follows the same AAB pattern, which results in the same rhythm continuing on. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Create beats, songs, and musical snippets with built-in music theory, melody guides, and intelligent chord suggestions. To pack my things and go. Nonetheless, when she recorded it in 1927 "Backwater Blues" became an anthem for the great Mississippi River Flood. "When it rains five days, and the skies turn dark as night (x2). There's trouble taking place in the lowland that night, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Bessie Smith's 'Back-Water Blues': the story behind the song", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Backwater_Blues&oldid=1150358087, This page was last edited on 17 April 2023, at 18:17. On September 26, 1937, Smith was en route to a show in Memphis, Tennessee with her companion of many years, Richard Morgan, when he sideswiped a truck and lost control of their car. She lets the chords of the instruments dangle off of her words, resulting in a beautiful piece that focuses primarily on the lyrics. Photo credit: Carl Van Vechten, Celebrating Contemporary Books & Writers at the Library, From the Catbird Seat: The official Poetry and Literature podcast, Receive notifications about events, activities, and online resources, Marilyn Chin reads and discusses Bessie Smith's "Backwater Blues", Rhapsody in plain yellow, by Marilyn Chin, Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature. Includes 1 print + interactive copy with lifetime access in our free apps. Bessie Smith, "Backwater blues", 1927 - YouTube Log dich ein um diese Funktion zu nutzen. In the Voice and in the Deep, Blues Poetry - Poetry Foundation The call and response between vocals and piano does what? Total loading time: 0 'Cause my house fell down. Backwater Blues tells the story of how the speaker is forced out of her home due to flooding waters. This is historically problematical because that flood began two months after Smith . Alle Informationen dazu findest du in unseren hear how the piano embodies the texture of what is being sung, as if the piano witnesses and takes on the storm and flood alongside Bessie Smith. Has data issue: false The despair is deep, is deeply personal, but it is also metaphorical and speaks to the despair of an entire community. Smith did not cut any corners in her songs- she told everyone how the world really was and how she felt about it. Song: Back-Water Blues written by Bessie Smith | SecondHandSongs Designed and built by Hooktheory in California. 15Label: Route 16Year: 1990This CD is from my own collection. 04 January 2007. She teaches in the MFA program at San Diego State University. The words vary from one performer to another; this opening verse is representative: When it rains five days, and the skies turn dark as night (2) According to the Theorytab database, it is the 5th most popular key among Major keys and the 5th most popular among all keys. Her lyrics aid the audience in understanding why she is down. However, the blues utility in our everyday language signifies to me that the blues are ingrained into US culture.
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