Let’s turn to our studies…
In America there have been essentially two schools of thought in music:
- Literate Tradition
2. Oral Tradition
These two traditions have, in the main, fallen on racial lines.
The reason is that, in America, from 1619 until 1865, slavery was legal.
Wikipedia quotes: “The comprehensive “Negro Act of 1740” was passed in the Province of South Carolina, during colonial Governor William Bull's time in office, in response to the Stono Rebellion in 1739. The act made it illegal for enslaved Africans to move abroad, assemble in groups, raise food, earn money, and learn to write.
As appalling, morally, and as sad, emotionally, as that is, it would also have long reaching effects, musically, on American music.
Since African Americans were forbidden from learning to write letters, they were also, collaterally, denied access to writing notes.
That being the situation, as all people have a need to express their creativity, the African Americans, who were drawn to music as a form of creativity, had to learn to play by ear…not sight.
This divided music into two camps:
1) Those who took pride in their ability to execute flawlessly the notes they saw written on the page
2) Those who took pride in their ability to create melody…on the spot
We will be exploring the second group...