Full transcript
0:00Hey class, welcome back to HUM210
0:02American Music. Today we're going to be
0:05discussing the era of music known as
0:07Tinpen Alley, the golden age of Tinpen
0:10Alley song. So from the 1920s to through
0:14the 1930s and certainly into the 1940s,
0:17Tinpan Alley was a description used for
0:20the popular song styles that were coming
0:22primarily out of New York City. The
0:24stars of Tinpan Ali like Cole Porter
0:27that you see here were primarily the
0:30songwriters meaning that those were the
0:32people it was all about Tinpan Alley was
0:34songs that were published by publishers.
0:36We got to this idea previously about the
0:39importance of music publishers and how
0:42hit songs first came about through
0:44publishing. Well, in the late 19th
0:47century or 1800s and the beginning of
0:50the 20th century or 1900s, there was an
0:54explosion in popular song. There was a
0:57lot of popular songs. We talked about
0:59how Steven Foster was one of the first
1:01people to make a living as a songwriter.
1:03We go from the era of Stephen Foster in
1:05the uh mid 1800s to the late 1800s. We
1:09started to have popular songs that could
1:11sell up to a million copies in sheet
1:14music. Recording was introduced at that
1:16point, but it wouldn't become popular
1:18for another uh 10 or 20 years. In the
1:21early part of the 20th century, there
1:23was an explosion in popular songwriting
1:26uh that went along with traveling shows
1:28that were going around, traveling
1:29vaudeville shows going around performing
1:31these songs and the interest in music
1:34like ragtime that led to the development
1:36of jazz and these songs became these
1:38standard uh song books, the standard
1:41songs performed by every jazz orchestra
1:44across the country. And that as jazz uh
1:48became a popular form of transmission
1:50for the music, it helped accelerate the
1:53popularity of these songs. And these
1:55songs were called Tinpan Alley because
1:57of for very specific they were nicknamed
1:59that for a very specific reason we'll
2:01get to in a moment. So to think a little
2:03bit about what we learned in the last
2:05class, what we learned in the last class
2:06about blues and hillbilly were occurring
2:08at the same time, but they were
2:10considered the margins. They were
2:13considered the alternative markets, the
2:15marginal markets, the central market for
2:18popular song was what was referred to as
2:20tinpan alley song at this time both for
2:23the style of song and where the songs
2:25were published.
2:27During the 20s and 30s, certain
2:29characteristic musical structures and
2:31styles of performance dominated popular
2:34song. Jewish immigrants, particularly
2:35from central and eastern Europe, played
2:38a central role in the music business
2:39during the early 20th century as
2:41composers, lyricists, performers,
2:43publishers, and promoters. Some of the
2:45hundreds of Jewish performers who worked
2:47in the vaudeville circuit that went on
2:49to become major celebrities on Broadway
2:51and in Hollywood films, Al Jolen, Sophie
2:54Tucker, uh George Jessel, Jack Benny,
2:56George Burns, and Milton Burl. This is
2:59just a few of the performers and you
3:00really think about the the golden age of
3:03Hollywood, the Hollywood musical that
3:05was extending out of the popularity of
3:07Broadway musicals in New York. There was
3:10a lot of segregation uh in business in
3:14which Jewish people weren't uh invited
3:17or allowed to participate in a lot of
3:19businesses. Uh there was a lot of
3:21anti-semitism, anti-Jewish sentiment at
3:24the time. And so entertainment was one
3:26field that a lot of performers, a lot of
3:28talented people who were Jewish, uh, who
3:31were recent immigrants to the United
3:32States could find a nich a niche in
3:36entertainment, whether it was comedy or
3:38song or in film, and produced a number
3:41of songwriters that wrote the songs that
3:43are still performed today. A lot of the
3:45the Tinpan Alley songs from the 20s and
3:4730s. Now we're in some cases a hundred
3:50years later and the songs are still
3:52being performed. So the rise of
3:55anti-semitism in Eastern Europe during
3:57the 1880s encouraged the im immigration
4:00meaning the millions of Jewish people to
4:02leave Eastern Europe to leave also
4:04Russia. Uh and this anti-semitism was
4:08increasingly violent uh in increasingly
4:11uh at the end of the uh 19th century
4:13beginning of the 20th century people
4:15were persecuted. uh lowerass immigrants
4:18denied the possibility of upward
4:20mobility for centuries poured their
4:22ambition into music, dance and comedy on
4:24the streets of New York. By the turn of
4:26the century, many of the biggest
4:27theatrical booking agencies were managed
4:29by Jewish people and young performers
4:32did not face the degree of anti
4:33anti-semitism present in the the other
4:36established businesses. uh important
4:39Tinpan Alley composers including Irving
4:41Berlin, Richard Rogers, um George
4:44Gershwin and Colt Porter were all Jewish
4:47composers who came from this came came
4:50from this uh reality in different ways.
4:52George Gershwin lived in Brooklyn. Uh
4:54but his family had had fled uh Eastern
4:56Europe. uh Irving Berlin, we'll talk
4:59about his families had fled Russia as
5:02Russia became very uh developed very
5:04anti-Jewish practices including
5:07violence. So this was these are people
5:09that uh their families had had lived you
5:11know very tumultuous lives to get to
5:13this country right im immigration
5:15stories abound right America is very
5:18much a country of immigrants and this is
5:20these are stories of people that uh came
5:22to New York and found a niche in this
5:24world of music and music publishing. So
5:27Tinpan Alley specifically refers to West
5:3028th Street in Manhattan. West 28th had
5:33a bunch of music publishers. You could
5:35see all these signs for Whitney Warner
5:38Music and music publishers and Jerome
5:41Merrick, all these different companies
5:43uh that were housed in these buildings.
5:45Uh and they all had pianos, people
5:47banging on pianos, as you see on the
5:49right there, Irving Berlin, that we'll
5:50talk about in a moment. Um sitting at
5:52the piano, they all had people banging
5:54away at the pianos playing the latest
5:56songs, trying to sell people sheet
5:58music. These were music publishers.
6:00These were people who published sheet
6:01music. And so if you were doing had a a
6:04vaudeville show or you were just an
6:06amateur musician or you had an
6:09orchestra, you would go and you would
6:11try and buy all the latest songs that
6:13were coming out of this rich area for
6:16songs which was the which was the 20
6:18West 28th Street row of all these music
6:20publishers and you would go up there and
6:23different people would be sitting at the
6:24pianos auditioning the songs for you,
6:26playing the songs for you almost like if
6:29you could imagine such a a DJ at a
6:32record store. This person would sit at
6:35the piano and play the song of the sheet
6:37music and they people would say, "Oh, I
6:39like that one. I want to buy it." Uh, at
6:41the same time, you'd have other people
6:42in there playing pianos saying, "I've
6:44got a new song trying to audition their
6:46song for a music publisher to get it
6:48published." And so this whole traffic of
6:50all these people banging on pianos in
6:52all these different offices sounded very
6:54chaotic of all these different uh pianos
6:57playing different songs at the same time
6:59and people you know it sounded very
7:00chaotic. And at one point somebody said
7:02that sounds like a tin pan alley meaning
7:05it sounds like a lot of people banging
7:06on uh uh bang banging on tin pans in an
7:09alleyway and rather than music all the
7:12noise coming from all the pianos. And
7:13the name stuck. So people started to
7:15refer to the songs that came out of
7:17these publishing companies as 10 panali
7:19songs. So at the right we have Irving
7:22Berlin born uh Israel Balin uh in 1888
7:26lived a very long life uh 100 lived 101
7:30years uh the most productive and varied
7:33and creative of the of the tin penali
7:35songwriters. He was a professional uh
7:37songwriting writer before World War I.
7:39World War I being 1914 to 1918. So, it's
7:43a professional songwriter before World
7:45War I and continued into the 1960s. His
7:48most famous songs included Alexander's
7:50Ragtime Band, Blue Skies that we'll talk
7:52about in a moment, Cheek to Cheek.
7:54There's no business like show business,
7:56White Christmas, and God Bless America.
7:59So, if you think I'm dreaming of a white
8:02Christmas, Christmas is a Christian
8:04holiday, but here the song was written
8:06by a Jewish songwriter. uh uh you know
8:09and God Bless America almost became the
8:11national anthem at one point. So if you
8:13can think of God Bless America in the
8:16running for one of the most patriotic
8:17songs behind the Star Spangle Banner uh
8:20is these are songs that were uh composed
8:22by a Jewish immigrant who fled his
8:25family fled Russia uh during a massacre
8:28of Jewish people in 1892. So during that
8:31incredibly uh difficult time for the
8:34family, he got to New York and he made
8:36his living as a song plugger, meaning he
8:38was one of the guys that would sit at
8:40the piano when people came in and said,
8:41"I want to buy a new song." He would sit
8:43and play the latest songs that the
8:45publisher had just published. And in
8:47that process, he learned what would work
8:50and started to write his own songs that
8:52the publishers published, including a
8:54song called Alexander's Ragtime Band. We
8:56talked about the importance of ragtime
8:58culture. Here's a song about going to
9:00see a ragtime band, right? And that's a
9:03song that really started off his
9:04publishing career. He wrote songs for
9:06the Broadway stage and for the new
9:08medium of sound film that we'll talk
9:10about in a moment. Uh, and is was the
9:12most prolific and consistent of all the
9:14tin tin panhallic composers and for
9:18almost 60 years was publishing songs for
9:20almost 60 years. Many of them as I
9:23mentioned were quite successful and
9:24quite wellknown. So, uh, in the
9:27Tinpanali song form, we'll talk about in
9:29a bit, there's a specific form that was
9:31used by the majority of Tinpan Ali's
9:33songs. Uh, composers, uh, singers and
9:36arrangers fulfilled listening
9:37expectations while introducing just
9:40enough unexpected variation to keep the
9:42listeners attention. The best
9:44songwriters were able to work creatively
9:46within the structural limitations of
9:48popular song form. So, we'll talk about
9:50that song form in a moment. [snorts]
9:52Whereas these people live very difficult
9:54lives, Tinpan Ali songs did not by and
9:57large deal directly with the troubling
9:59issues of the 20s and 30s. Racism,
10:02massive unemployment during the Great
10:03Depression, and the rise of fascism
10:06across central and eastern Europe, which
10:08ultimately led to World War II.
10:11The ideal of romantic love was inherited
10:14from European song and poet traditions
10:17is reflected in the lyrical content
10:19performance style of Tin Penali songs.
10:21The first person lyrics characteristic
10:23of Tinpani songs allow the listener to
10:26identify with his or her personal
10:28experience more directly than that of
10:29the singer. So, if you think of a of a
10:32pop ballad from today, like uh uh
10:35Beyonce's Halo or something like that,
10:38that just seems to be about an ideal
10:40love, not not representing what's going
10:43on, the troubles of the world, uh but
10:45something that's a very ideal view of
10:47love and a very ideal and idealistic
10:49view of romantic love. That's what a Tin
10:52Penali song that's the tradition of Tin
10:54Penali songs. Now, a little bit about
10:56the song form. So, Tinpan Alawali song
10:59form is based around a refrain. In fact,
11:02the other section that you'll learn
11:03about the verse isn't even often
11:05performed today. Uh, the primary form of
11:09a tin pani song is a refrain that is a
11:12aaba. I know last class we talked about
11:15a blues lyrics that were aab meaning was
11:18one line of a lyric that line was
11:20repeated and then there was another
11:21another line. Uh, this is a different
11:24form. I don't want you to get confused.
11:26This is not blues. This is a very
11:28different form than blues. This is a 32
11:30bar tinpan alley song. Uh each one of
11:34those sections is eight bars. That a
11:36section is eight. The second A is eight
11:39is eight making it 16. The B section or
11:42bridge is another eight and that and
11:44that final A making it 32 bars. Okay, 32
11:48bars or measures. folks who aren't
11:49aren't in music, uh, work with me as I'm
11:52I introduce these concepts and, uh,
11:54we'll try to get there together. The A
11:56section presents the main melody, the
11:58basic pattern of the lyrics, and the the
12:01basic idea of the lyrics, and a set of
12:03chord changes that support them. The
12:05music of the A section is then repeated
12:07with new lyrics. Some slight variation
12:09in the melodic changes will be added,
12:12making it a little bit of a changed A,
12:14but, we'll just call it another A. The B
12:16section or bridge is then introduced and
12:19presents new material, a new melody,
12:21chords, and lyrics. The A melody and
12:25chord changes are then repeated with new
12:27lyrics. Okay, so that seems seems like
12:30maybe a lot, but uh if you've ever heard
12:32the Flintstones uh theme from the
12:34Flintstones, if you haven't, well, I
12:36just dated myself, but if you have,
12:38Flintstones meet the Flintstones. D.
12:44That's the A section. Then it repeats
12:46from the town of ped rock. D.
12:51That's the second A. Then notice the
12:53change. Let's fly with the family down
12:56the street. D.
13:00And then back to the A. Meet the meet
13:03the Flintstones. Have a D
13:07and and so on. If you don't know the
13:08Flintstones song, u don't worry about
13:11it. We'll listen to many different many
13:14different uh aaba forms, but the idea is
13:19that that bridge that bridge section
13:22sometimes called the middle eight
13:24because it's in it's that eight bar
13:26section that's different from from all
13:28the others uh is an opportunity for the
13:30to leave that leave that form a little
13:32bit, leave that that main melody and
13:34then come back to it. So Irving Berlin's
13:38song Blue Skies, remember these are this
13:41is a primarily about songwriters. We're
13:43going to look at some performers too,
13:45but primarily today we're talking about
13:46songwriters. Irving Berlin's Blue Skies
13:49is written in 1926 and originally
13:51performed in a musical called Betsy. It
13:53was a Jewish musical, meaning it's a a
13:55musical about a Jewish family who's
13:57looking for a matchmaker for their
13:58daughter Betsy. Uh it it includes
14:02features drawn from traditional Jewish
14:04songs particularly in the B section. The
14:07song is in AABA form. Note the variation
14:10of the blue skies idea in the in the A
14:13section. So you'll see blue blue skies
14:16is the lyric in the first A section.
14:19Then you'll see a slight variation blue
14:21birds in the in the second A section.
14:23And then in the final A you'll hear blue
14:25days. Okay? And that's common in in tin
14:28penali songs that you'll have a a theme
14:30that comes back a little bit different
14:31in the A section that isn't in the B
14:34section. Okay. So, um
14:37if I was to sing this blue skies smiling
14:41at me, nothing but blue skies do I see.
14:45And then same melody, same tune with
14:48slightly different lyrics. Bluebirds
14:50singing a song, nothing but bluebirds
14:53all day long. B section's different. at
14:56the bridge. Never saw the sun shining so
14:58bright. Never saw things going so
15:01bright. Noticing the days hurrying by.
15:04When you're in love, oh, how they fly.
15:06Now back. Blue days, all of them gone.
15:09Nothing but blue skies all day long.
15:12Okay. So, in order to in bring all this
15:15all together with this idea of the
15:17entertainment matrix, we have a clip
15:20from a film called The Jazz Singer. The
15:23Jazz Singer, the first sound film
15:25released in 1927. And notice we talked
15:28about the rise of jazz culture. We're
15:30going to continue to talk about that in
15:31our next class. We have a film, the
15:34first sound film to come out is about a
15:37jazz singer and it's about a Jewish
15:40performer in New York who's a jazz
15:42singer who actually performs when he
15:44performs on stage in blackface. Right?
15:47going back to that idea of the tra the
15:49uh the tradition of minstrel sea that we
15:51talked about that still existed in the
15:541920s. But here we see him sitting in uh
15:57a parlor and he's sitting there with his
16:00mom and he's playing his mom this song
16:02Blue Skies and it's the song that just a
16:05year earlier had been part of this
16:07musical Betsy. Okay, so notice the
16:10different context. First it was in a
16:12Jewish musical Betsy. Now it's in a
16:14Hollywood movie about a different
16:15subject called the jazz singer. And then
16:17later we'll see it in something else.
16:18It's what's called the standard. It was
16:20performed many times by many different
16:22people. Now we associate one song with a
16:25person. Here you would associate it as
16:27being a song that is then performed by a
16:29number of different performers. Not yet
16:31locked in to the idea of that's this
16:34person's song or that's that person's
16:36song. Uh the the person here would be
16:38the songwriter. uh and the different
16:40performers who were stars in their own
16:42right uh would perform that song in
16:44different contexts. So here's Blue Skies
16:47uh performed by Al Jolson and pay
16:49attention to the uh the lyrics and how
16:52that B section is different from the A
16:54section. You hear the repeated melody uh
16:57in the A section but you hear the B
16:58section or bridge as different uh in
17:01form and style.
17:06[music]
17:09sky smiling [music] at me.
17:13Nothing but blue sky. Do I see or don't
17:19blue [music] singing a song? [singing]
17:23Nothing but little blueird all day long.
17:28[music]
17:28I never saw the sun shining so bright.
17:31Never saw things going [music] right.
17:34Notice the day by love or don't
17:40take all of the
17:43nothing but blue.
17:48[music]
17:49You like that mama?
17:51>> Okay. So, now we've got sound film. This
17:53is actually we in the previous class we
17:55talked about St. Louis Blues uh and the
17:58film with Bessie Smith, but that was two
18:00years after this. This is the first
18:02sound film and this would really begin
18:04the craze toward making films with sound
18:08and the rise of the Hollywood film
18:10musical coming out the the tales of the
18:13Broadway musical, the stage musical. And
18:16he performs this twice. He performs it
18:18once in in this uh in this way. And then
18:21he uh gives a long discussion to his mom
18:23and mama and he says, "Uh, mama, I'm
18:26going to play it for you like I play it
18:28in the club, jazzy." And you'll notice
18:30that he starts to strike the piano
18:32harder. His diction changes, the way
18:34he's singing changes. Uh, and he's kind
18:36of putting on this accent. Uh, and
18:38that's part of the uh part of the show.
18:41At a certain point though, his
18:43performance gets interrupted by his
18:45father who's a rabbi and is very
18:47offended that his son has turned out a
18:48jazz singer and he wants his son to uh
18:51go and become a rabbi. So any of the uh
18:53people in class, if you're whether
18:55you're an aspiring musician and you
18:57might have a family member who's saying
18:59knock off that music, go do something
19:02else. Uh that's something you you you
19:04might see a little parallel in this
19:06scene there. So, this is Al Jolson again
19:08performing uh performing Blue Skies
19:11later in this in this scene. And you'll
19:13see he says, "I'm going to do it jazzy."
19:16Mama, listen. I'm going to sing this
19:18like I will if I go on the stage, you
19:19know, with this joke. I'm going to sing
19:20it jazzy. Now, get this. [music] Blue
19:23sky smiling at me. Me, me, me. Little
19:27blue sky. Do I see [music]
19:30do blueird singing a song? [singing]
19:34Not [music] little words all day long.
19:37You like that, don't you? Never for the
19:39time. [music] Never forget going right
19:44by when you're in love. [music]
19:48Long
19:50nothing but
19:52Okay. So, uh that that abrupt ending
19:56there. Okay. So, you notice that in this
19:58in in this one, it's a lot more
20:00syncopated. There's a lot more movement
20:02on the piano, more of the influence of
20:05ragtime and another piano style that uh
20:07called stride piano in the in the style
20:10of performance. Uh as he said, I'm going
20:12to do it jazzy like I would in the club.
20:14So this is one performance context for
20:16Blue Skies, but we could look at a lot
20:18of different performance contexts over
20:20the course of the next hundred years
20:23nearly uh leading up to the present in
20:26which Blue Skies is still performed such
20:28as a film version in featuring a singer
20:31named Bing Crosby. And the singer named
20:33Bing Crosby is performing a very
20:36specific style of singing that we're
20:38going to talk about in a moment. Uh this
20:40is in 1946 a film called Blue Skies with
20:43an entirely different story than The
20:45Jazz Singer, different story than Betsy.
20:47Uh this song is you know this this song
20:50has outlived its earlier um its earlier
20:54purpose and now it's incorporated into a
20:57different song performance with a
20:58different musical arrangement uh but the
21:00same lyrics. Note uh 1946 was this postw
21:04World War II moment that was considered
21:06a very optimistic moment in American
21:09culture. Uh the United States had just
21:11won the war that millions of Americans
21:13had fought in and now uh there was this
21:16feeling of of that we were headed
21:18towards prosperity. Uh not we I wasn't I
21:21wasn't alive then. uh but that people
21:23were in America were headed towards
21:25prosperity and there that prosperity is
21:28is very clearly shown here. There's
21:31something very clear about uh if we
21:34think about the lyrics of Tinpan Ali uh
21:36they're a lot of the songs have this
21:39idea that love is heaven on earth right
21:42our family love will see us through
21:45right this idea that you're looking at
21:48uh the development of this idea of the
21:50American family as heaven on earth and
21:54this of course is not a heaven that
21:56everyone participated in this is still a
21:58very difficult time in this country,
22:01very segregated time, very racist time
22:03in in this country. We could go on and
22:05on about all the difficulties, but none
22:07of those difficulties are represented in
22:09the lyrics of Tinpan Alley.
22:12[music]
22:15So here the uh song gets away from its
22:18roots. It's no longer associated with
22:20Jewish culture at all. Uh this is a uh
22:23would be mainstream Christian performer
22:25at a time when Jewish people were still
22:27segregated from many clubs and many
22:29businesses. Uh and this is a mainstream
22:33uh white Christian performer uh
22:35performing the song in a in a film by
22:38the same name uh at this point in
22:40American history. And look at this image
22:42right here uh in which these two people
22:44are looking forward in their life. uh
22:46this very optimistic idea of American uh
22:49love as heaven on earth. Uh and that's
22:52something that of course uh not everyone
22:55in America participated in this in this
22:58fantasy uh or in this or or in the uh
23:01this was not a reality for the majority
23:03of America. But this is being
23:04represented as an ideal in the same way
23:06that any music video these days might
23:08show you an ideal of something uh that
23:11is not necessarily uh you know
23:13consistent with the reality. This is
23:15very much an showing you an ideal of uh
23:18of heaven on earth and love is heaven on
23:21earth or American love is heaven on
23:23earth and that's something that uh tin
23:25panali songs there's a lot of in tin
23:27panali songs okay and now it's time for
23:30question number one question number one
23:33in a paragraph approximately 200 words
23:35using only your own words write a
23:37response to the previous section of the
23:39lecture meaning up to this point
23:41incorporating your reactions and
23:43providing details about what was
23:44discussed
23:45Note, this prompt is left without much
23:47direction on purpose. In order to get
23:50you thinking and writing, make sure to
23:52always provide details in your
23:54explanation.
23:58And now back to the lecture. So as we
24:01think a little bit about the style of
24:02singing, the very low style of singing
24:05has a name, kuning. Okay, this is a
24:08style that emerged after the electric
24:10microphone was introduced uh circa mid
24:131920s uh suggesting a very private
24:16musical experience
24:18uh reflecting the efforts of
24:20professional composers to tap the the
24:23aspirations meaning the the things
24:25people wanted of an expanding and e
24:27ethnically mixed but predominantly white
24:29middle class uh exerting an appeal that
24:32cross the boundaries of race, religion
24:34and class. So this idea of cruning, this
24:36very quiet singing is made possible by
24:39the movement of something from something
24:41called stage voice. Stage voice, hello
24:44my baby, hello my honey. I'm not trying
24:46to blow your ears out, but the shouting
24:48out of a song to the back of the room uh
24:51because in the early days on Broadway
24:53stage, there was no microphones
24:55available of any kind, right? And so
24:57people really had to shout to the whole
24:59theater if they wanted to sing to the
25:02era in which the electric microphone
25:04allows people to get in really close and
25:06speak really quietly but still be heard
25:08and sing blue sky.
25:11Right? Very quiet. And that quietness,
25:14what does it what does it give you? It
25:15gives you a sense of intimacy that you
25:17didn't have from that stage voice when I
25:19was shouting it out really loud as we'll
25:21hear at the end of today's class. So
25:24cruning uh became a really important
25:26part of the music music industry. Uh
25:30Bing Crosby, I just played Bing Crosby,
25:32one of the big hitmaking kuners of the
25:35era. Frank Sinatra, another person who
25:37was considered a kuner. Uh at this
25:39point, all the recordings were done live
25:43with everybody recording together. Early
25:45recordings
25:47were even pre-electric. What I mean by
25:49live is not that they were in front of
25:50an audience, but that everybody stood in
25:53front of a horn and uh all had to
25:56perform at the same time. There was
25:58nothing. We have a lot of studio
25:59technology that allows for people to
26:01record different parts and and and
26:03synchronize them together and
26:05multitracking and different digital
26:07environments. There was none of that was
26:08available at this time. All recordings
26:11that were made uh from the 1900 to the
26:15early 1950s were all everybody recording
26:19together. Everybody recording at the
26:21same time live with no editing. And even
26:23in the 1950s was only a few that were
26:27recorded uh kind of pieced together um
26:30tech using technology until the 1960s
26:33when that really took off. Uh but say in
26:36jazz every jazz record up to 1970
26:39certainly uh just about every jazz
26:41record everybody was performing all at
26:43the same time. Uh in popular music and
26:46rock in the 1960s there started to be a
26:48lot more experimentation with recording
26:50and we'll talk about that. But thinking
26:52about the electric microphone introduced
26:54around 1925 really transformed the style
26:57of singing. We'll see Gene Austin who is
27:00a performer that we're going to uh look
27:03at in a moment. one of the first kuners,
27:05one of the first people to bring out
27:06this idea of cruning that you could get
27:08close to the mic and sing very quietly
27:11uh in a very low tone. And that low tone
27:14would would create a kind of intimacy
27:16and romance with the listener that you
27:18couldn't get if you're shouting it out
27:19to the back of the room. So, uh, My Blue
27:22Heaven is the song we're going to listen
27:24to. Uh it's written by Walter Donaldson
27:28and George Whiting, but we're not we're
27:30not in this case we're going to concern
27:31ourselves more with the performer who's
27:33Gene Austin. Uh and it was released in
27:361927, the one of the bestselling records
27:38of that era. Uh Austin was one of the
27:41first kuners and there's images of
27:44homecoming and evening featured in the
27:46verse that are really important. Uh like
27:49such as this lyric. So I I've got my own
27:51headline here. Home and family is
27:53heaven. And the one of the lyrics is a
27:55smiling face, a fireplace, a cozy room,
27:58a little nest that nestles where the
28:00roses bloom. Just Molly and me, meaning
28:03his wife and him, and baby mix three.
28:05We're happy in my blue heaven. So the
28:07home is is again like blue skies. It's
28:10another idea of like this idea of an
28:12American home and American love as as a
28:15kind of heaven on earth. Uh the uh
28:19design falls into four sections. the
28:21typical AABA design. Uh each a section
28:25ends with a critical line, my blue
28:27heaven. The lyrics present a familiar
28:29and comfortable version of the American
28:31dream. And the choice of a cello set the
28:34record apart immediately from from the
28:36norm of its time. So here's where you
28:38start to think about record producing.
28:40Even when you've got a number of people
28:41together, somebody thought, "Oh, we
28:43should have a cello playing the melody
28:45because that would give it a sense of,
28:48you know, luxury and class." And this is
28:51where we get into the whole idea of
28:52psycho acoustics, right? How different
28:55sounds of music will make people feel
28:57different things. Uh, and the cello is
29:00there to give people a certain feeling,
29:02a certain feeling of luxury, of class,
29:05and of, you know, these are people
29:06aspiring to be middle class. And this is
29:09supposed to be a classy kind of sound.
29:12So the song begins with a verse. And as
29:16I mentioned before, the verse in
29:17Tinpanelli is not really the thing. You
29:19can they don't even perform the verses
29:22in most performances of this song in
29:25later years. And that verse is the part
29:28that begins with that day is ending,
29:30birds are wending. So you'll hear in the
29:33beginning the cello will play the the
29:35refrain melody, the A melody, and then
29:38you'll hear this little verse section,
29:39and then after Nothing But Love, it'll
29:41go into this uh form uh in which each
29:45one of the A lines ends with my blue
29:47heaven, and you'll hear that melody, the
29:50same melody repeated with different
29:52lyrics. And this for the second A, I
29:54turn to the light, little white uh
29:57light, lead you to my blue heaven. And
29:59then the B section, the bridge. You'll
30:00notice the melody changes, the tune
30:02changes. A smiling face, a fireplace, a
30:05cozy room, a little nest nestled in a
30:09rose's bloom. And then back to the A
30:11section. Just Molly and me, baby mix
30:13three. We're happy in my blue heaven.
30:15Then this repeated, but now instead of
30:18the lyrics, the cello plays the melody
30:21and Jane Austin just does a little bit
30:23of a response to the cello. Little
30:25humming in response. Uh the same for the
30:28repeat of the A section. Then the vocal
30:30comes back in for the B section. Uh and
30:34uh and then uh for the for the uh A
30:36section again to close out that refrain.
30:39And then the same thing happens again,
30:41but now instead of uh instead of the
30:43cello, it's a little bit of a whistling
30:45like a bird call referencing the birds
30:48uh that are that are referenced in that
30:50beginning verse uh before it goes back
30:52again to the lyrics and the B section
30:54and the A section. So, see if you can
30:56follow this melody that repeats even
30:59though you're not getting the lyrics in
31:01those second uh in those second repeats
31:04of the refrain, but see if you can
31:06follow the way that the melody is is is
31:10playing through the different
31:11instruments and still keeping that form,
31:13that form of the 32 bar form or AABA
31:18form. And that same structure is still
31:20there even though the words are replaced
31:23first by the cello and then by the bird
31:26whistle
31:29[music]
31:36[music]
31:44day is ending.
31:48Birds are landing [singing]
31:50back to the shel.
31:53[music] Each little [singing] nest they
31:55know.
31:57Night chains [music] falling,
32:00lovers calling. [music] What makes the
32:04world go round? Nothing but love.
32:08[music]
32:10went a long call
32:14and evening [singing] is night.
32:16[music]
32:17I hurry through my
32:21blue [singing]
32:22heaven. [music]
32:25I turn the light.
32:28A little white light
32:31[music]
32:32will lead you [singing] to my
32:35new moon.
32:38[music]
32:40A smiling face, a fireplace, [music] a
32:44cozy room
32:48[singing]
32:49that's [music] nestled where
32:54mommy [singing]
32:54and me [music]
32:57and baby make.
33:01We're happy.
33:03[music]
33:05Blue Haven.
33:11[music]
33:16[music]
33:24>> [music]
33:31[music]
33:37>> A smiling face, [music] a fireplace, a
33:41room,
33:44a little mess [music] that's nestled
33:47where a road is bloom
33:51and me [music]
33:53And baby makes three.
33:57Where happy am I? [singing]
34:00[music]
34:01Heaven.
34:05[music]
34:12I [singing] heard
34:16[music] my
34:19heart
34:25[music]
34:31[music]
34:33smiling face up [singing] a place.
34:38[music]
34:40A little nest that nestled where the
34:43loes. [music]
34:46Just Molly and me
34:49and baby [music] makes three.
34:53We [singing] hurry. [music]
34:58[singing]
35:03So Gene Austin's quiet intimate
35:07performance would never have worked on
35:08stage unless it was for that electric
35:10microphone that made that cruning
35:12possible. And that cruning creates a
35:15sense of intimacy, right? As if he's
35:17singing only for you or only for his
35:19family. One can even imagine the things
35:21he's talking about this this cozy room
35:24and the fireplace w within within the
35:26song. And that's the art of Tinpan Ali,
35:29the marriage of Tinpan Ali's song and
35:32the cruning vocal style, right? Is is is
35:35both things are at work here. So both
35:37the the song and the the style of uh the
35:40style of vocal performance really make
35:42an impact on this on on this recording.
35:48So out of this period,
35:51as I mentioned, developed an hundreds
35:53and hundreds of songs that became
35:56wellknown within dance floors and
35:59vaudeville shows and Broadway musicals
36:01and film musicals and were reused and
36:03re-recorded over and over again. One
36:06song by George Gershwin called
36:08Summertime was recorded over 20,000
36:11different times. uh and you could think
36:13about those were the number of times it
36:15was recorded but you could think of a
36:17lot of amateur or local musicians that
36:19would have also played it at the same
36:21time. Why? Because at the time there
36:24were no speaker systems to play music.
36:26There was no uh there was no mechanisms
36:29in effect like a jukebox or a Spotify
36:32playlist or an iPhone or a DJ. There was
36:35nothing like that. If you needed music
36:37at a restaurant, at a bar, at a
36:39ballroom, whatever it was, you needed a
36:42performer to perform and they would
36:44perform these songs. As everybody would
36:46perform these songs, they became a
36:49standard repertoire for a jazz band. And
36:51jazz musicians were expected to know
36:53these different standards. So, Blue
36:55Skies would have been example of a
36:58standard, as would George Gershwin's I
37:00Got Rhythm and a number of other George
37:02Gershwin songs. So George Gershwin is
37:04another example of a songwriter that
37:06came out of the tren tin panali
37:08tradition. Uh this is the most widely
37:10known of American composers even outside
37:13of popular song. He achieves success in
37:16the world of concert music meaning
37:18orchestral music as well as popular
37:20music. His music demonstrates a
37:22sophisticated incorporation of stylistic
37:24devices derived from African-American
37:26sources such as syncopated rhythms and
37:29blue notes. And he's from Brooklyn.
37:33Which brings us to his song, I Got
37:34Rhythm. I Got Rhythm is a great uh
37:37example of a Tinpan Alley song that
37:39really incorporates a lot of
37:40African-American musical features,
37:42specifically uh syncopation. The beat is
37:45here.
37:48I got
37:50I got
37:52notice that the lyrics to I got rhythm
37:56are off the beat. The syncupation and
37:59the concept of lyrics go hand in hand.
38:01The song combines a structural elegance
38:03with rhythmic vitality. First introduced
38:05in the stage show called Girl Crazy. But
38:08as I said, a lot of these songs move
38:09outside of their original
38:12move outside of their original context
38:14and thus become standards. In this case,
38:17a jazz standard I got rhythm that became
38:20so popular that people started playing
38:22the chord changes from it. And they
38:24instead of saying the chord changes from
38:26I got rhythm, they started calling it
38:28rhythm changes. and rhythm changes is a
38:31chord progression that was used for the
38:33writing of many different jazz songs.
38:35So, it's a song that has had a long life
38:38over over decades uh in the jazz
38:41community. And the chords under under
38:43the term rhythm changes. Somebody will
38:45say, "Oh, what what what are we
38:47playing?" Oh, just play rhythm changes.
38:49We'll tell you that they're playing the
38:50chords from the song I got rhythm.
38:53and its consistent syncopation that I
38:55talked about earlier uh conveys the jazz
38:58in influence flavor that was popular in
39:00a lot of Gershwin's songs. Okay. So to
39:03listen to this though we now get to get
39:05hear the opposite of the cruning sound
39:08with that stage voice uh the pre-elect
39:11electric microphone Broadway style stage
39:13voice here being performed by Ethel
39:15Merman. And again we're going to start
39:17out with the verse. The verse is not
39:20always performed in uh in later versions
39:23of this song because it's really when
39:25you get to the refrain. The refrain is
39:27really what a tin pen alley song is
39:28about. The refrain again is in that a ab
39:31aa form. Uh the first refrain I got
39:35rhythm, I got music. The second a I got
39:39daisies in green pasture. Same melody
39:43slightly different lyrics but still has
39:44that I got. And then the B section, old
39:48man trouble, you won't mind him, you
39:50won't find him round my door. That
39:52section, the bridge section, different
39:54melody, different lyrics, leaving the I
39:56got formula for a minute. And then
39:58coming back to the final A. I got
40:00starlight, I got sweet dreams, same
40:03melody again, same I got idea, same
40:06syncupation in the way it's performed.
40:08And you'll hear the stage voice of Ethel
40:10Murman, the opposite of the sound of
40:12cruning.
40:18>> [music]
40:24>> Days can be sunny [music]
40:26with never a [singing]
40:30what money can buy. [singing]
40:35Birds in the tree sing their day
40:37[singing] full of song.
40:40[music] Why shouldn't we sing along?
40:44[singing]
40:46I'm chipper all the day.
40:50Happy with my life. [singing]
40:54How do I get that way?
40:59Look at what I've [singing] got. [music]
41:05I got rhythm. [singing] I got music. I
41:10got my man. Who could ask for anything
41:12more? I got [singing]
41:15[music]
41:15in green pasture. I got my man who could
41:19ask for anything more. An old man
41:22trouble say [singing] I don't find him
41:25cuz you find him around my [singing]
41:32sweet dream. I got my man. Who can ask
41:35for anything more? Who can ask for
41:37anything more? [music]
41:46>> [music]
41:51>> Who can anymore?
41:54[music]
41:59[music]
41:59Who can ask for anymore? [singing]
42:02And don't trouble
42:05find him.
42:06>> [music]
42:06>> You'll find him around my back door.
42:14[music]
42:15Who could ask for [singing] anything
42:17more?
42:19[music]
42:20Who could ask for [singing] anything
42:25more? [music]
42:30All
42:31>> [music]
42:38>> right. And with a big finish that was
42:39very much in a style of Broadway singing
42:42of the time. Uh Tinpan Alley songs. The
42:45Tinpan Alley again being the style of
42:47songs, the nickname for the style of
42:48songs that were coming out of those
42:50publishing houses. uh and Broadway had a
42:52a long relationship, a long-standing and
42:55mutually beneficial relationship between
42:57popular songs and Broadway shows that
42:59led onto the movie musicals as well that
43:02developed a lot of the songs that were
43:04uh the mainstream pop music from the
43:061920s to the 1940s. This relationship
43:08was most fruitful in the 1920s and 30s,
43:11the so-called golden age of of Tin
43:13Panali song. The Broadway reviews
43:15featured diverse skits, songs, dancers,
43:17and performances. But the plot and
43:19characterization in the majority of the
43:21Broadway productions was secondary to
43:23the emphasis on good songs and dancing.
43:26And the good songs were coming out of
43:28this set of companies on West 28th
43:30Street, uh, publishing companies that
43:32had these songwriters working for them.
43:34A lot of Jewishowned companies, a lot of
43:37songwriters that were that were coming
43:39in and out playing lots of songs in the
43:40pianos. the noise sounded like a tinpley
43:44to somebody and that name stuck and
43:46that's a nickname used to describe the
43:48song. So, it's really about publishers
43:50and songwriting and how these songs were
43:52recorded over and over and over again.
43:55You wouldn't associate I Got Rhythm or
43:57My Blue Heaven or Blue Skies. You
43:59wouldn't associate any one of these
44:00songs with a specific performer. They
44:03were performed by a number of different
44:05people over decades and then ended up
44:07being part of the standards of American
44:10song. Okay.
44:15And now it's time for question number
44:17two. In a paragraph approximately 200
44:20words using only your own words, write a
44:23response to the performance of Gene
44:24Austin discussing the vocal technique
44:27and related technology employed and the
44:29songwriting of George Gershwin citing
44:32the included example and the shown
44:34performance by Duke Ellington. In your
44:36view, what were the most interesting or
44:37important points to consider in these
44:39performances and history?
44:42Explain using details. Okay, look
44:45forward to reading.