The Effects of Jazz and Classical Music on Musicians Essay Example for Free

The Effects of Jazz and Classical Music on Musicians Essay A thesis presented on the history of jazz as compared to classical music and the effects on musicians, beginning with the birth of jazz, and covering the twentieth century. Berliner (1994) impresses upon the idea that jazz music is more important to a musician’s development and an individual’s mental health than classical music. It is this author’s opinion that Jazz is superior over classical music because jazz music is often soft, smooth, and reflective. In addition, the world of jazz has some wonderful artists who can both play and write jazz music so extraordinary that it will make music lovers melt like ice as the stress washes away. Jazz allows people to close their eyes, relax, mediate, and dream about their loved ones. It is the best for mediation purposes because it provides people with softness, calm, soul, and fantasy. The freedom found in jazz represents the freedom inside of all Americans. Jazz itself is a success story told through its own invention. True jazz musicians play the music that they do as a necessity to themselves. Their music is their diary, and their diary is more pure than words can tell. Jazz is Americas great contribution to the arts. It is thrilling, exhilarating, and thought-provoking music that stirs emotions of all kinds. Jazz is in the mind, heart, and in the soul. Its influence extends worldwide, and touches all related forms of music. It is an enriching art form that deserves a special place in our vibrant culture. III In the world of jazz, young performers must master a repertoire of chord progressions, off-beats, and harmonies so that they can count on them as structures around which and through which they might weave more magical variations. Jazz players use chord changes as a means of giving shape to melodic improvisation. Classical players merely read lead sheets or book arrangements and use strict chord symbols in a much more static way. â€Å"Classical music is simple for its rhythmic pattern and simplistic chords while jazz’ chords are complex† Cook (p. 17). Many may argue that classical music is a more integral part of development, but a talented classical composer will in fact draw on stylistic elements of jazz to enrich the classical tradition of symphonic music. Classical composers have consistently been making use of two elements of jazz over the years which are syncopation and harmony characterized by blue notes. â€Å"Indeed, even apparently knowledgeable classical musicians often sound confused and unsure about the essence of jazz music.† Carr (p. 174). Some of the most accomplished musicians of our time have devoted themselves to a life-long study of jazz music, and few classical musicians have been able to master jazz. Jazz music ran parallel to the development of the twentieth century classical style music. Those musicians that learn both types of music are not locked into one type of discipline, and will have more musical experiences. â€Å"We are the musical melting pot achieving a vision of merging cultures that fulfilled the image that America had of its own social destiny.† Gioia (P. 395). As a result of this concept, jazz composers began to attend symphony concerts, and subsequently jazz and classical styles began to overlap to a degree; which resulted in an art form now referred to as jazz fusion. Some would argue that jazz music is too different from classical due to being unceremonious, gritty, or too improvisational. Between 1920 and 1950 jazz and classical music together made the most successful contributions to music. â€Å"One genre essentially has the ability to learn something from the other, and can create an even more captivating sound.† Ratliff (p. 23) Many could dispute over the fact that a newcomer to jazz might feel bewildered by its proliferation of styles and differing approaches to music-making. â€Å"Indeed, harmonies are more dissonant, phrases more irregular, accents sharper, and tempos are more varied, but that is what makes it so beautiful. Its casual nature is evidenced by the inoffensiveness of wrong notes being plated, by singers taking breath sometimes without relation to lyrics, and musicians being introduced right in the middle of a performance† Ratliff (p. 72). Classical music on the other hand can occasionally trigger a thorough exploration of self and mind. It may cause a person to look at their failures in life. A sudden realization of self can be extreme or painful. Not everyone enjoys classical music. In the UK, classical music is used to drive groups of youths away from places they congregate in. Jazz music is a beautiful improvisational art making itself up as it goes along just like the country that gave it birth, and with each tap of the foot, jazz musicians reaffirm their connection to the earth. Jazz waxes and wanes between tension and repose. It challenges the musician with unpredictability and then rewarding the listener with predictable rhythms. â€Å"Jazz rewards individual expression but demands selfless collaboration.† Ward (p. 1). Listening to jazz is not just a satisfying and rewarding experience; studies show that it is actually good for a musician’s health. Listening to jazz or playing jazz melodies can relieve chronic pain and migraines, reduce blood pressure, accelerate post-stroke recovery, improve memory, boost immunity and induce relaxation. 2 Jazz music helps distract people. It gives individuals a sense of control and also releases endorphins into their bodies that alleviate pain. There is a very contextual debate that classical music is superior due to the fact it can release dopamine during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music. It conveys very well what the composer puts into it, and although classical music does activate pleasure and reward-related regions of the brain creating a high, playing highly pitched stimulating music for long periods is not healthy because it leads to cortisol and noradrenalin secretion without the concomitant fight or flight action. Long term overdose with those hormones is well documented to create many health problems, from depression to sexual dysfunction. The current market share of Jazz in America is mere 3 percent, but jazz is still regarded as a very powerful music which is in the blood and feeling of the American people more than any other style of music. It can be made the basis of serious symphonic works of lasting value in the hands of a talented composer. â€Å"Jazz music has always been and forever will be fundamental in the development of future musicians† Cook (p. 65). Glossary Bebop: the style of jazz developed by young players in the early 40s, particularly Parker, Gillespie, Kenny Clarke, Charlie Christian and Bud Powell. Small groups were favored, and simple standard tunes or just their chord progressions were used as springboards for rapid, many-noted improvisations using long, irregular, syncopated phrasing. Improv was based on chordal harmony rather than the tune. The ‘higher intervals’ of the chords (9th, 11th and 13th) were emphasized in improv and in piano chord voicings, and alterations were used more freely than before, especially the augmented 11th. The ground beat was moved from the bass drum to the ride cymbal and the string bass, and the rhythmic feel is more flowing and subtle than before. Instrumental virtuosity was stressed, while tone quality became more restrained, less obviously ‘expressive’. The style cast a very long shadow and many of today’s players 60 years later could be fairly described as bebop. Blues: (1) A form normally consisting of 12 bars, staying in one key and moving to IV at bar 5. (2) A melodic style, with typical associated harmonies, using certain ‘blues scales’, riffs and grace notes. (3) A musical genre, ancestral to jazz and part of it. (4) A feeling that is said to inform all of jazz. Boogie (boogie-woogie): a style of piano playing very popular in the thirties. Blues, with continuous repeated eighth note patterns in the left hand and exciting but often stereotyped blues riffs and figures in the right hand. Cadence: A key-establishing chord progression, generally following the circle of fifths. A turnaround is one example of a cadence. Sometimes a whole section of a tune can be an extended cadence. In understanding the harmonic structure of a tune, it’s important to see which chords are connected to which others in cadences. Free Jazz: a style of the early and middle sixties, involving ‘free’ playing and a vehement affect. It was originally associated with black cultural nationalism. Sometimes two drummers and/or two bass players were used. Some free jazz was profound, and some not very good. Some who played it later denounced it, but the style became an ingredient in future styles and still has many proponents despite its lack of general popularity. Groove: an infectious feeling of rightness in the rhythm, of being perfectly centered. This is a difficult term to define. A Medium Groove is a tempo of, say, 112, with a slinky or funky feeling. Improvisation (improv): the process of spontaneously creating fresh melodies over the continuously repeating cycle of chord changes of a tune. The improviser may depend on the contours of the original tune, or solely on the possibilities of the chords’ harmonies, or (like Ornette Coleman) on a basis of pure melody. The ‘improv’ also refers to the improvisational section of the tune, as opposed to the head. Inner voice: a melodic line, no matter how fragmentary, lying between the bass and the melody. Interlude: an additional section in a tune, especially one between one person’s solo and another’s. The Dizzy Gillespie standard A Night In Tunisia has a famous interlude. Jazz Standard: A well-known tune by a jazz musician. See Standard. Latin: (1) Afro-Cuban, Brazilian or other South American-derived. There are many special terms used in Latin music and I haven’t tried to include them here. (2) Played with equal eighth notes as opposed to swung (see swing def. 2). Also ‘straight-8†². The feel of bossa novas and sambas. Pattern: a pre-planned melodic figure, repeated at different pitch levels. Something played automatically by the fingers without much thought. Reliance on patterns is the hallmark of a weak player. REFERENCES: Berliner, Thinking in Jazz, University of Chicago, 1994 Carr, Ian, Jazz the Essential Companion, Prentice Hall Press, 1987 Cook, Richard, The Penguin Guide to Jazz, Penguin Books, 2004 Gioia, Ted, The History of Jazz, Oxford University Press, 1997 Ward, Geoffrey, Jazz a History of America’s Music, Random House, 2000 5