Essay/Term paper: Jazz and classical music

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Culture

Jazz and Classical Music


Upon entering a modern record store, one is confronted with a wide variety of
choices in recorded music. These choices not only include a multitude of artists,
but also a wide diversity of music categories. These categories run the gamut
from easy listening dance music to more complex art music. On the complex side
of the scale are the categories known as Jazz and Classical music. Some of the
most accomplished musicians of our time have devoted themselves to a life-long
study of Jazz or Classical music, and a few exceptional musicians have actually
mastered both. A comparison of classical and Jazz music will yield some
interesting results and could also lead to an appreciation of the abilities
needed to perform or compose these kinds of music.

Let's begin with a look at the histories of the two. The music called classical,
found in stores and performed regularly by symphonies around the world, spans a
length of time from 1600 up to the present. This time frame includes the
Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Contemporary periods. The
classical period of music actually spans a time from of 1750 to 1800; thus, the
term Classical is a misnomer and could more correctly be changed to Western Art
Music or European Art Music. European because most of the major composers up
till the 20th century were European. Vivaldi was Italian, Bach was German,
Mozart and Beethoven were Austrian; they are some of the more prominent
composers. Not until the twentieth century with Gershwin and a few others do we
find American composers writing this kind of art music. For the sake of
convention, we can refer to Western Art Music as Classical music.

Jazz is a distinctively American form of music, and it's history occupies a much
smaller span of time. Its origins are found in the early 1900s as some dance
band leaders in the southern U.S. began playing music that combined ragtime and
blues. Early exponents of this dance music were Jelly Roll Martin (a blues
player) and Scott Joplin (ragtime). The terms "Jazz" and "Jazz Band" first
surfaced in the year 1900. Some say this occurred in New Orleans, although
similar music was played at the same time in other places. The most prominent
exponents of this early music, called Dixieland Jazz, included Louis Armstrong
and Sidney Bechet. After World War I, Jazz music had evolved and was aided by
the development of the recording industry. The small dance band ensemble grew
into the larger orchestra known as the "Big Band". The music of the Big Bands
became known as "Swing." Two of the more famous Swing band leaders were Tommy
Dorsey and Harry James. In the late 40s and through the 50s, a different kind of
Jazz became popular. This music, played by a very small ensemble, was much more
sophisticated and complex . Its rich harmonic changes and melodic counterpoint
were not conducive to dance. It became known as "Bop," with Charlie Parker and
Dizzie Gillespie being the early proponents. In the last twenty years there has
been a combination of Jazz with popular music of the US and Latin America. This
modern Jazz music has been called "Fusion." Present day exponents include Pat
Metheny and Chic Corea. There has also been a return to the sound of Bop in the
last ten years by such musicians as trumpeter Winton Marsalis and his brother
Branford, a saxophonist.

Let's focus on the instrumentation of the two kinds of music. In Classical music,
both large orchestras and small ensembles are used. But generally, the greatest
and most prominent compositions are for the larger symphony orchestra. The
largest part of the orchestra is the string section consisting of violins,
violas, cellos and string basses. These instruments were invented very early in
medieval times but really matured into their present form during the late 18th
century. The wind instruments, comprised of brass and woodwinds, took longer to
mature. The brass section in particular did not posses the ability to play
chromatically (in all keys) until the advent of valves which allowed the length
of the instrument to be changed while playing. This occurred around the middle
to late 19th century. Consequently, the brass instruments are less prominent in
the music of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven along with their contemporaries. Late
19th and early 20th century composers make use of a very large orchestra with
all the fully developed wind instruments. Some of the master
orchestrator/composers of this time were: Wagner, Rimskey-Korsakov, Ravel and
Stravinsky. Currently, composers also make use of the full orchestra but with
the addition of increasingly larger percussion sections which add many unique
and unheard of sounds than in earlier music.

Early Jazz music was played in small ensembles making use of clarinet, tuba,
cornet, baritone, drums, and piano. Dixieland groups of New Orleans had similar
instrumentation. During the Swing era, larger groups were employed to achieve
more of an orchestral sound. The Big Bands of the this era were predominantly
wind orchestras containing alto and tenor sax sections, trumpet and trombone
sections, along with piano and drums. When Bop music arrived, the alto saxophone
and trumpet were the preferred instruments of the major soloists who were backed
up by piano, string bass and drums. With the advent of Fusion, electric
instruments such as the electric guitar and keyboard synthesizer became
prominent.

How has each of these kinds of music been transmitted to later generations of
musicians? Early in the evolution of classical music, a system of notation was
gradually developed which for the most part remained stable from the Renaissance
on. This gave the composer control over how his compositions were to be played.
Throughout the history of Jazz, however, notation was more like a rough sketch.
This was because the syncopated rhythms of ragtime and the melodic riffs of the
blues were not easily notated. Also, early Jazz musicians were not formally
trained; they usually learned by ear. Some songs were transcribed and written
down, but not in precise ways. Jazz music became more of a passed on tradition
that a musician learned through interaction with other players. In a similar way,
the modern Jazz musician must rely on previous recordings to get a feel for the
style and technique which he desires to learn from. But in classical music, one
composer can learn from an older composer by looking at and analyzing the music
that the previous composer wrote down. Likewise, classical musicians can master
the parts they must play by practicing the music that has been written or
published beforehand. These two approaches to passing on tradition are both
valid. However, without the recording medium Jazz music might have developed
much differently than it has.

The cohesive element that keeps a musical group together is also an interesting
contrast. In Classical music, the conductor uses a baton and plays the orchestra
as if it were his instrument; he looks at a complete score of all the events
happening in the composition and interprets these events based on his knowledge
and intuition of what the composer intended. Jazz groups rarely utilize
conductors. The swing era employed them for the sake of keeping the larger sized
group together but other jazz styles did not and do not to this day. The drummer
of the Jazz ensemble provides the beat that keeps the group together but even he
is interacting with the other soloists as the song is performed.

Perhaps the most interesting point of comparison between the two types of music
is in improvisation. Improvisation is the ability to play and compose
spontaneously "on the spot" while the music is playing. This has been an
important element of Jazz from it's inception. Although improvisation was less
prominent during the swing era, it regained importance with Bop and onward.
Early Jazz was improvised, using ragtime and blues as a loose structure. In the
swing era, popular songs were arranged by an arranger and soloists played
improvisations over the repeating sections in order to lengthen the song for
dancing. With the advent of Bop, improvisation assumed great importance. The
musicians memorized the chord changes to a song, along with the melody, but then
played very loosely and in the end substituted new chords along with greatly
embellishing the original melody to the point of being unrecognizable. These
factors, along with the ability to interact with each other, became important
and remains so in the Fusion music of today.

In Classical music, modern listeners are mostly unaware of the fact that many of
the great composers of the past were not only excellent performers but also
great improvisers. Starting with J.S. Bach (1685-1750), the greatest composer of
the Baroque era, he in fact made his living through his great skill as an
improvisor. It was common for the Lutheran Church organist of his day be able to
improvise on choral melodies and Bach was considered one of the greatest at this.
There are written accounts of other composers improvisational abilities
including Mozart (1756-1791), Beethoven (1770-1829), and Franz Liszt (1811-1886).
Yet, as time went on, improvising gave way to the composer's desire to exert
complete control over his music. By the late 19th century, improvising was rare
and not used at all in public performances of classical music.

In summation, we can say that Jazz and Classical music represent two approaches
to Art Music. The Classical composer or performer has a long and rich body of
music in written form that he uses to learn from while the Jazz musician uses a
body of recorded music to learn. Because of it's small size, the modern Jazz
ensemble allows loose interaction while the symphony orchestra's large size and
diversity of instruments provides many different sounds and wide dynamic range.
In classical music the composer strives for control; he uses printed music to
guide and direct the musicians through the conductor. In Jazz music, the songs
are loosely composed, thus forming a basis for individual expression within an
ensemble. When you go to hear a symphony, you hear an orchestra conducted by the
conductor playing a composition. When you go to a Jazz club you hear a small
jazz ensemble interacting and improvising a song. Both of these kinds of music
provide rich expression and detail to the serious listener. They take different
paths to reach their final form but give a person equal opportunities to
appreciate the creative output of each.