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Blues Music Analysis

450 Words2 Pages

Answer: Melancholy.

Answer: This song fits very well in what I would consider to be blues music. It has all of the right ingredients, love, sadness, and a broken heart. It also uses instruments that are traditionally linked to blues music, the piano, and saxophone. The emotion that is heard through Bessie Smiths vocals gives the listener a true feeling of the blues.

Answer: I pictured a very lively scene, with many things happening at the same time. The sounds are very sudden and unexpected, making it a thriller. After remembering the piece mentioned in our text, I realized that it’s representing the movements and rituals of ancient pagan tribes. This is probably why this work has so much energy in it and sounds more foreign to people.

Answer: Patriotic. …show more content…

I can also identify a jet engine, as well as many electronic tones throughout the piece.

Answer: This is a very entertaining and mesmerizing type of music to listen to. It’s simple, yet it has a flare to it. The same melody is repeated over and over again, but each time it’s played a little differently. Sometimes it is played by different instruments, or in different combinations. It feels as if there’s so much going on. This makes this piece appealing and fascinating to listeners, who can’t help but want to hear more.

Answer: The song is about a man who has little money and gets by on what he has. He wears old worn out suits and shoes, smokes cigars that he has found, and also takes handouts in towns. It can also be gathered that he sometimes works by pushing a broom, and lives in an 8x12 room.

Answer: I can hear an imitation of drums, bongos, the harp, and sounds similar to a music box. This is a very interesting way of creating these sounds, who knew screws could make music!

Answer: The song starts off with Frederic Chopin’s Prelude in C-minor, Opus 28, No. 20. As soon as I started listening I recognized the sad

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As a matter of fact, the storyteller does not appreciate Sonny's motivations to play jazz music until the evening he socially joins Sonny to his stage show at a nightclub. Sitting in a dark corner at the nightclub, the storyteller listens to his brother play, considering the reminder of Sonny's friend, Creole, of what the Blues are about, "The tale, of the blues, how we live, and how we are delighted, how we suffer... and how we triumph... must be heard... it's the only light we've got in all this darkness." (Baldwin 139). For the narrator, he perceives that the Blues is the manifestation for Sonny's emotions, especially his suffering, because, as Creole would say, music is the only light in the

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For Baldwin, the blues are not a specific genre of music, but rather something more universal. The narrator explains that the blues are "the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph" (Baldwin p.139). Given this definition, the story "Sonny's Blues" is a blues piece in itself because it begins with the suffering of two brothers, follows their growing sense of communion, and ends with the triumph of brotherly love over suffering. The narrator admits that this formula isn't new, but claims that "it's the only light we've got in all this darkness" (Baldwin p.139). The story “Sonny's Blues" is an attempt, much like Sonny's actual music, to relate with its audience and, through understanding and compassion, to relieve suffering.

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That you shouldn’t let your living situations or surroundings determine your outcome. Sonny's Blues shows challenges that troubled the African-American community, and how drugs troubled the young artists and kept them bound like slaves. How those living in Harlem, felt like there was no escape to the poverty that surrounded them. How a young artist was overcoming his demons, with the support of his family and living out his dream. How one has to forgive and not let the past control one’s future, nor let the surroundings of your environment determine where you will go in

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In the story, “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin insists, that music is a universal language that speaks life into a dead soul. Stereotypical notion of music arouses emotions that are disregarded. The story demonstrates the significance of music and the components that communicates needs and wants. Sonny’s character was not very talkative, but his music spoke with volume. This paper will analyze the elements of music told in “Sonny’s Blues” that connects and bonds the characters emotionally, physically and socially.

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When the narrator accompanies Sonny to the nightclub to listen to him play his music; Sonny’s music portrays his wisdom as he plays about his brother’s frustrations with the trials and sufferings they both endured. Sonny’s artful playing of the blues opens the narrator’s heart to listen genuinely. If one listens to what lies on the inside that is the key to finding oneself. Joseph Flibbert states in the article “Sonny’s Blues” Overview, “In the music he hears, he sees his mother’s face, and that of his little girl … The powerful incantations of Sonny’s art reaches his soul, and for the first time, he listens to the dark voice within”.

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The dynamics for “Caravan” is mostly mezzo forte, and there does include sections of the song where the trumpet builds up and is full forte. The Tempo of this song is 118 BPM metronomes and in the key of C Major. A soundscape of unprecedented exoticism is the texture of this piece that invokes feral

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