Play the music you love without limits for just $9.99 $3.33/month. Bessie Smith (1894-1937) began her professional career as a blues singer in cabarets in 1912. Death. 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. Log dich ein um diese Funktion zu nutzen. A modified 12 bar blues. 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. As musicologist Dr. David Evans has noted, Back-Water Blues was recorded in February 1927, before the great disaster of April. The song has a homophonic texture due to the use of instruments and vocalization in unison. View all Google Scholar citations And the rain begin to pour. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings. The first two lines are of almost equal length. Lets look at this poem closely. In this recording of \"Backwater Blues,\" we can hear these techniques at work, and they stand in contrast to the very structured twelve-bar blues form of the song. 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) This is historically problematical because that flood began two months after Smith . Smith, Bessie. Carl Van Vechten Estate/Library of Congress, Washington D.C., photograph by Carl Van Vechten, 1936, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bessie-Smith. 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. Today, I hear phrases such as the winter blues and Blue Monday and know that they are not considering this history. View Official Scores licensed from. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. 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). Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out (Bessie and Me). What are the introductory chords that illustrate this? [1] Its musical composition entered the public domain on January 1, 2023. This suggests to me that aspects of contemporary US poetry could be in lineage of African diasporic culture. There were reports that officials behaved in a discriminatory fashion. 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.'. There is one integral line throughout the stanza. Includes 1 print + interactive copy with lifetime access in our free apps. 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. 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. Back-Water Blues 65th in 1927. Marilyn Chin (1955- ) was born in Hong Kong, grew up in Oregon, and received her MFA from the University of Iowa. Harmonically, what is the piece based on? After discussing blues history, we went over Bessie Smiths Backwater Blues, then Langston Hughes Too Blue, and concluded our study with Jericho Browns Duplex (specifically A poem is a gesture toward home). There was evidence of lynchings and unspeakable killings and terrible acts against the black community. Lets look at the blues poem as a form. About a thousand people lost their lives. Writer(s): Smith 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. Leadbelly - Backwater BluesTaken from: 16 Greatest Songs (As Pictured)Track no. There aint no place for a poor old girl to go. Backwater blues done called me to pack my things and go. Its musical composition entered the public domain on January 1, 2023. Create beats, songs, and musical ideas with built-in music theory and AI from over 30k songs. She teaches in the MFA program at San Diego State University. Hooktheory requires WebAudio and this browser doesn't support it. "useRatesEcommerce": false 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). Bessie Smith, commonly referred to as the Empress of the Blues, was born in 1894 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Bessie actually wrote "Backwater Blues" for the Cumberland River flood that hit Nashville on Christmas morning 1926. Thank you. Following her death, Smith received numerous awards and honors for her achievements, including: Bessie Smith- American Singer. Encyclopedia Britannica, written by The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 Feb 2019, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bessie-Smith. The rhythm remains constant throughout the song, allowing the melody to flow peacefully during the piece. Discuss Bessie Smith's performance of "Back Water Blues" as an example of both. Print and download Backwater Blues sheet music by Bessie Smith. Bessie Smith, "Backwater blues", 1927The song "Backwater Blues" is a blues and jazz standard. Total loading time: 0 How does the music reflect the lyrical content of the piece? The conjunct melody made me want to sing along with her! Alle Informationen dazu findest du in unseren Sheet music arranged for Piano/Vocal/Guitar in C Major (transposable). Dazu brauchen wir deine Einwillung*. Back-Water Blues. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like backwater blues, libretto, step interval and more. According to the Theorytab database, it is the 5th most popular key among Major keys and the 5th most popular among all keys. Cause my house fell down and I can't live there no more. I see myself as an activist Chinese American poet, and I want to show the multiple sides of my literary inheritance. The rhythm and beat remain constant throughout the song. '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. The despair is deep, is deeply personal, but it is also metaphorical and speaks to the despair of an entire community. The narrator, who presents himself as a victim describes how . 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. Yeah, when it's thunderin' and lightnin'. 7 available keys. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like backwater blues, libretto, step interval and more. When it thunders and lightnin' and the wind begins to blow. Following her death, Smiths legacy continued on as she inspired new artists to display who they truly were. The three most important chords, built off the 1st, 4th and 5th scale degrees are all major . Mmm, I can't move no more. Billed annually at $39.99. She is considered by many as one of the most successful African-American females of all time. Once more, listen for the turnaround (the melody at the final two bars of each 12-bar progression or last line of each stanza) and hear it transform the melody of one progression/stanza into the next. She is the author of three collections of poems, most recently Rhapsody in Plain Yellow (2002). Bessie actually wrote Backwater Blues for the Cumberland River flood that hit Nashville on Christmas morning 1926. In order to interrogate said materials, six recordings by different musicians were chosen and meticulously transcribed. Jazz- Review Questions. Smith performed for nearly a decade until Columbia Records signed her in 1923. 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. AAB e.g. When it rains five days and the skies turn dark as night, when it rains five days and the skies turn dark as night, then trouble's takin' place in the lowlands at night. 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. We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Pro Credit Pack (3 Pro Credits) Included with first year, Your high-resolution PDF file will be ready to download in Datenschutzbestimmungen. The piece uses syncopation to allow variation between the instruments and the vocals. What is the structure of the lyrics? In terms of chords and melody, Backwater Blues is more complex than the typical song, having above average scores in Chord Complexity, Melodic Complexity, Chord-Melody Tension and Chord Progression Novelty. Poet, writer, teacher, and political activist Amiri Baraka was born Everett LeRoi Jones in 1934 in Newark, New Jersey. The piano's bass part keeps the rhythm of the piece steady but when doing the 'response', the right hand can complicate this and create interest. Third, Mamie Smith became the first Black blues singer to record a blues record in 1920. One subscription across all of your devices. Train with real songs. She lets the chords of the instruments dangle off of her words, resulting in a beautiful piece that focuses primarily on the lyrics. As a poet who writes in English I know that every time I write a sonnet I pay homage to the high European tradition and to master poets like Shakespeare, Dunn, Keats, Petrarch. 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, Clara Smith, and Mamie Smith). 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. The blues poems was more here on American soil, and so I study the blues poems closely and write blues poems to pay homage to all those African American blues masters. I have sympathy towards Smith during her performance of this song because she conveys how lonesome she is. While many latter-day . The best song poems, I believe, can live on the pages as well as in the ear. } Smith describes how down she is about her life and how she knows there is nothing she can do about it. Her lyrics aid the audience in understanding why she is down. The backwater blues caused me. It was written by Bessie Smith, and recorded (under the title ". Smith did not cut any corners in her songs- she told everyone how the world really was and how she felt about it. Her powerful voice stands out so much in this song that the instrumental background may not even be needed as supplementation. [3] However, that flood was at its worst some two months after the song was written. One more piece. 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. Her voice is subversive, defiant despite all odds against her. El disco e. However, the blues utility in our everyday language signifies to me that the blues are ingrained into US culture. Bessie Smith. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, courtesy of the Rock Hall Library and Archive, https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/bessie-smith. Smith . Borrowing from song to write about whats wrong. He attended Rutgers University and Howard University, spent three years in Jericho Brown's first book,Please(New Issues, 2008), won the American Book Award, and his second book,The New Testament(Copper Canyon, 2014), was named one of the best poetry books of the year SterlingAllenBrown devoted his life to the development of an authentic black folk literature. The consonant chords allow for a smooth harmony to flow continuously during the song. The song "Backwater Blues" is a blues and jazz standard written by Bessie Smith. Learn to hear chords by ear. Backwater Blues gefllt bisher niemandem. Feature Flags: { She made almost 200 recordings, including duets with Louis Armstrong and Joe Smith. The first two verses are unique and do not have any repetition. She believed that her truth needed to be told, so she told it. Smith continued on to become very successful with hits like St. Create beats, songs, and musical snippets with built-in music theory, melody guides, and intelligent chord suggestions. . I am majoring in biology and love helping my community! Chris Fisher-Lochhead. 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. "Backwater Blues" (1927) . Updated September 9, 2020. "it rained five days and the sky turned dark as night". Brown, who alongside Langston Hughes was a pioneer of blues poetry in the 1920s. Great cover of blues classic Backwater blues on The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band 2011. album How I Go It also deals with how said flood displaced several victims and led to the loss of hundreds of lives. What are the introductory chords that illustrate this? 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. Bessie Smith tabs, chords, guitar, bass, ukulele chords, power tabs and guitar pro tabs including backwater blues, careless love, nobody knows you when youre down and out, taint nobodys business . I cant do justice to this poem, to Backwater Blues, by just reciting it myself. And I can't live there no more. 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 . My name is Lex and I am a rising senior at the University of Georgia. Nonetheless, when she recorded it in 1927 "Backwater Blues" became an anthem for the great Mississippi River Flood. The poem moves to personal depression. 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. This is historically problematical because that flood began two months after Smith recorded her song. There's thousands of people ain't got no place to go. Mchtest du Inhalte von aktivieren? Blues on Yellow Marilyn Chin from Rhapsody in Plain Yellow. 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. The song has a homophonic texture due to the use of instruments and vocalization in unison. 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. homophonic texture. Mmm, I cant move no more. The scene is set with the terrific storm by the female speaker, so depressed that she cant even get out of the door. I love writing blues poems. SKU: MN0121681 The third-sixth verses have the traditional AAB blues pattern, which helps emphasize what she is saying during each verse. Has data issue: false for this article. Of course, I learn so much from the Bessie Smiths blues poems. When it's . The piece has a homophonic texture due to the supplementation of the instruments to the vocalization of Smith. Discover an intuitive and deep understanding of how music works. What characterizes a blues performance? See the E Major Cheat Sheet for popular chords, chord progressions, downloadable midi files and more! I have her strong voice in my ear at all times. She manages to escape her flooding home, only to look back and see that she will never be able to go back to it. 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. 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. Chin is the recipient of the PEN/Josephine Miles Award, a Fullbright Fellowship, and the Paterson Prize, among numerous other honors. "When it rains five days, and the skies turn dark as night (x2). For examples of innovative uses of these devices in poetry, visit Jericho Browns Duplex, Evie Shockleys Fukushima Blues, and Kevin Youngs Langston Hughes.. The beat is easy to tap along to, making it easier to focus on her lyrics. The third line either comments or reverses the first two lines. 04 January 2007. La Bouche) [2023 Mix] [Extended Mix] Songtext. Backwater Blues by Big Bill Broonzy was written by Bessie Smith and was first recorded and released by Bessie Smith in 1927. 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. Not only did she sing, she was also an actress and comedian. LISTENING part 1 SEIGFRIED CHAP 5. richard wagner germany Smith (on vocal with James P. Johnson on piano) recorded it as "Back-water Blues" on February 17, 1927, in New York City. The flood was a devastating ordeal. Second, the first published blues composition is accredited to W.C. Handys Memphis Blues in 1912. Through an examination of Smith's touring itinerary, the testimony of fellow entertainers who toured with her, newspaper reports, and other documents, it can be shown that the song was composed about a flood of the Cumberland River that struck Nashville, Tennessee, on Christmas morning, 1926. The rhythm and beat remain constant throughout the song. The initial first line resoundstherefore necessitates itself perhaps as a question, a declaration, or even a second guessing of this sung things existence to its audience of many or just their self. 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. Major keys, along with minor keys, are a common choice for popular songs. She earned her title by displaying her powerful voice to the public for everyone to hear. 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. Hi! 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. 15Label: Route 16Year: 1990This CD is from my own collection. 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. *Als Songtexte.com PUR User kannst du entscheiden, welche Inhalte von externen Anbietern wie Youtube, Big Bill Broonzy released it on the album Folk Blues in 1954. Bessie Smith had a powerful impact on future blues and Rock and Roll singers, like Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, and Janis Joplin. Smith (on vocal with James P. Johnson on piano) recorded it as "Back-water Blues" on February 17, 1927, in New York City. In "Backwater Blues", the writer retells the incidents surrounding the flooding of Nashville in 1927. I do not believe in a fixed way to write blues poems or poetry with blues feeling. ). Study of Smith's touring itinerary, of testimony of fellow entertainers who toured with her, and of contemporary reports indicates that the song was written in response to the flood that struck Nashville, Tennessee on Christmas Day 1926. Through an examination of Smith's touring itinerary, the testimony of fellow entertainers who toured . 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. Theres this rich toughness in her voice that tells us this girl and her people are going to get through this calamity. 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. 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. Teach music and songwriting in ways that keep students engaged, excited, and inspired. 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. The beat does not change because each verse follows the same AAB pattern, which results in the same rhythm continuing on. 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. I think in the best identity poems that the self represents something much larger than the self. Download and Print scores from huge community collection ( 1,426,528 and growing) Advanced tools to level up your playing skills. They relocated the white folks in an expedient manner but corralled the black folks into abysmal camps. Her ability to use \"blue notes\" and other vocal embellishments, along with a loose melodic phrasing, became hallmarks of jazz and blues inflection that other musicians (singers and instrumentalists) emulated. Nonetheless, when she recorded it in 1927 Backwater Blues became an anthem for the great Mississippi River Flood.
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