113. Blues: 4. 1950s, ACJ Music Academy

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This week's lecture is “1950s”, the 4th topic of “Blues”, which is a summary of the contents of “113. Blues: 4. 1950s” introduced on November 29th (Wed), 2017.

The transition from country blues to urban blues, which began in the 1920s, was driven by a series of economic crises and booms, which caused many rural blacks to migrate to urban areas, known as the “Great Migration”. The long boom after World War II led to another large-scale migration of African-Americans, the “Second Great Migration,” which resulted in significant increases in the real income of the urban blacks and new migrants constituted a new market for the music industry. 

The term “race record” was originally used by the music industry for African-American music, but was later replaced by the term “rhythm and blues”, and the rapidly evolving music market reflected in Billboard magazine's Rhythm and Blues chart. This marketing strategy reinforced trends in urban blues music, such as the use of electric instruments and amplification, and the generalization of blues beat and blues shuffle, which were found everywhere in rhythm and blues. This commercial flow also had a significant impact on blues music, which, along with jazz and gospel music, became a component of rhythm and blues.

The cover of race records catalogue
of Victor Talking Machine Company

After World War II, new styles of electric blues became popular in cities such as Chicago, Memphis, Detroit and St. Louis. Electric blues was played through a microphone and PA system or overdriven guitar amplifier using electric guitars, double bass (later replaced by bass guitars), drums and harmonica. From 1948, when Muddy Waters recorded his first success "I Can't Be Satisfied", Chicago became a center for electric blues. Chicago blues was heavily influenced by Delta blues, as many of the performers had migrated from the Mississippi area.

Muddy Waters

In the 1950s, blues had a major impact on mainstream American popular music. Popular musicians such as Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry were influenced by the Chicago blues, but their passionate playing styles helped break the prejudice that blues is melancholic.

Bo Diddley

Chuck Berry

In the late 1950s, a new style of blues pioneered by Magic Sam, Buddy Guy and Otis Rush appeared in Chicago's West Side. This "West Side sound" was supported by powerful rhythm parts from rhythm guitar, bass guitar and drums, and an amplified electric lead guitar dominated the sound, and the expressive guitar solo was a key feature of the music.

Buddy Guy

Around the late 1950s, a genre called “Swamp Blues” developed near Baton Rouge. Strongly influenced by Jimmy Reed, swamp blues was characterized by a slower pace and simpler harmonica use than the Chicago Blues style.

Jimmy Reed

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Interesting Art Stories: 75. A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, Édouard Manet, ACJ Art Academy

 

 

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Currently, I am introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the title “Interesting Art Stories”.

The 75th story is “A Bar at the Folies-Bergère” by Édouard Manet.

Self-Portrait with Palette, Édouard Manet
(1878–79)

“A Bar at the Folies-Bergère” is Édouard Manet's last major painting. Painted in 1882 and exhibited at the Paris Salon of that year, this painting depicts a scene in the Folies Bergère nightclub in Paris. The painting belonged to Manet's close friend, composer Emmanuel Chabrier, hung over his piano and is now in the Courtauld Gallery in London.

The Folies-Bergere (2013)

Courtauld Gallery

The detailed depiction of a modern scene demonstrates Manet's dedication and commitment to Realism.

Manet used a mirror in this painting and placed the bartender woman, in the center of the painting, who appears to have a conversation with a gentleman on the right. However, in 2000, to recreate this scene as painted by Manet, a photograph taken from the perspective of a staged reconstruction was shown. 

According to this reconstruction, what many people thought the bartender woman and the gentleman were talking turned out to be a visual trick. In other words, based on the painter, since this gentleman must be standing to the left of the painter, outside the painting area, who is painting in the front, he must be far from the bartender, not standing directly in front of her. 

Also, from the point of view of the observer, this observer should be standing closer to the bar and to the right than the gentleman in the painting. This appearance characterizes Manet, who has been criticized by critics for ignoring perspective, as it is an unusual departure from the perspective point of view.

The mirror in this painting also appears in Diego Velázquez's masterpiece "Las Meninas", who was a painter Manet admired.

Las Meninas, Diego Velázquez (1656)

The bartender woman in the painting is a real person, known as Suzon, who worked at the Folies-Bergère in the early 1880s.

Other notables include the pair of feet in green shoes in the upper left-hand corner, which belong to a trapeze artist who is performing from the restaurant's ceiling. 

Also, from the red triangle on the label on the depicted beer bottles, it can be seen that it is a “Bass Pale Ale,” and the emphasis on the English beer brand instead of the German beer can be interpreted as evidence of anti-German sentiment that arose in France after the Franco-Prussian War.

The logo of Bass Brewery

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The Stories about Music Films: 58. I, Don Giovanni (2009)

 

Basic Info

Title: I, Don Giovanni

Genre: Drama, History, Music

Country: Spain, Italy, Austria

Language: German, Italian

Running time: 127 minutes

Release date: 23 October 2009

Staff

Director: Carlos Saura

Producer: Andrés Vicente Gómez, Andrea Occhipinti, Igor Uboldi

Screenplay: Carlos Saura, Raffaello Uboldi, Alessandro Vallini

Music: Nicola Tescari

Cinematography: Vittorio Storaro

Edited by: Julia Juaniz

Cast

Lorenzo Balducci as Lorenzo Da Ponte

Tobias Moretti as Giacomo Casanova

Lino Guanciale as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Emilia Verginelli as Annetta

Ennio Fantastichini as Antonio Salieri

Summary

"I, Don Giovanni" is a 2009 Spanish-Italian-Austrian collaboration drama film directed by Carlos Saura. 

The film tells the life of Lorenzo da Ponte, an Italian Freemason who did not give up his libertinism, despite the Roman Catholic Church's order to behave like a priest. The Holy Inquisition accuses da Ponte of betraying the Christian faith through his licentiousness and publication of criticisms against the church influenced by Casanova and orders him to be exiled. 

Then, his close friend Giacomo Casanova writes a letter introducing da Ponte to Antonio Salieri, before he leaves Venice for Vienna. Because of this, Salieri introduces him to Mozart and da Ponte writes "le Nozze di Figaro". 

With Casanova's intervention, da Ponte persuades Mozart to publish a second edition of the "Don Giovanni", which was performed before the Emperor Joseph II, to great success.

Movie Review

“Picturesque!”

“A worthy take on Don Giovanni”

“Enjoyable period piece with impressive production design, outstanding musical score and nice acting”

“Operatic and beautiful”

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Movie Trailer

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Amedeo Modigliani in Worldwide Museums: 11. The National Gallery of Denmark

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The 11th place I would like to introduce for this week is The National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The National Gallery of Denmark (Danish: Statens Museum for Kunst, also known as "SMK") is the largest art museum in Denmark and is also officially the main museum for visual art in Denmark. SMK supports fostering and developing museum activities throughout Denmark, and cultivating and strengthening cooperation with museums in Denmark and abroad.

SMK has the largest art collection in Denmark with over 260,000 works. The art collection was originally built as the royal collection, meaning the private property of the Danish kings, but with the introduction of democracy in Denmark in the mid-1800s, the collection was handed over to the people, which ultimately gave birth to SMK. 

The large collection of works of art can be seen at SMK's exhibitions and presentations, but the collection is so vast that if you visit SMK on a specific date, only a small part of it will be displayed. Many works in the collection are displayed at other museums in Denmark or abroad as part of their exhibitions, but most of the collection is kept in the museum's storage facilities. 

Currently, SMK is working to realize its ambition to digitize its entire art collection, making it freely available online.

The works of Modigliani currently in the possession of The National Gallery of Denmark are as follows.

Alice (c. 1918)

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112. Blues: 3. Before 1950s, ACJ Music Academy

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This week's lecture is “Before 1950s”, the 3rd topic of “Blues”, which is a summary of the contents of “112. Blues: 3. Before 1950s” introduced on November 25th, 2017.

The first publication of blues sheet music may have been "I Got the Blues", published in 1908 by New Orleans musician Antonio Maggio. Then, in 1912, Hart Wand's "Dallas Blues" and W.C. Handy's "The Memphis Blues" were published.

W. C. Handy

In the 1920s, the blues became a major element of African-American and American popular music, and it evolved from informal performances in bars to entertainment in theatres.

Developed near Memphis, Tennessee in the 1920s and 1930s, the Memphis blues style was influenced by jug bands. In the late 1930's or early 1940's, many Memphis-based blues musicians moved to Chicago and became part of the urban blues movement.

Sheet music for "The Memphis Blues"

Urban blues style was characterized by more systematic and sophisticated, as performers no longer belonged to their local, immediate community, and had to adapt to the preferences of a larger and more diverse audience.

Boogie-woogie was another important style of urban blues in the 1930s and early 1940s. Although this style is often associated with solo piano, the singer, as a solo part, also accompanied by bands and small combos.

In the 1940s, the jump blues style was developed, which grew up from the boogie woogie wave and was strongly influenced by big band music.

Ockbrook Big Band at Pride Park Stadium

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