As discussed in the latest chapter 5, by Cooley, much of
European music can be summed down to just a few common traits. Many pieces use
simple rhythmic structures, form, and melodies. The first example, “I Have Good
Tobacco,” is a French folk song that attributes back to an Abbot in the early
1770s. It follows a simple ABA form, is written with a solid rhythm that
utilizes a duple meter, and keeps to a single major key. However, not all modern
music from Europe will fall into these guidelines. Bands such as Radiohead
commonly twist the normal duple and triple meters for time signatures much more
exotic, such as in “Morning Bell”. This piece is written in a 7/8 time
signature, not the common 4/4 used in many popular songs today. It also does
not follow the ABA form and utilizes modes of the minor scale as it shifts
between minor and major keys as tonal centers. Though Radiohead has always been
a band that shifts the boundaries of popular music, it is one of Europe’s most
popular groups still performing and writing today. It seems that many of the
traits of European music have instead shifted more over to American popular
music.
I had not heard of either of the pieces you used for your blog entry, so I thought I would check them out. It was interesting to read on the link provided that the folk song, "I Have Good Tobacco," is a children's song. For further evidence of this, I YouTube-d it, and based on the animation used on the videos, it definitely seems to be a children's song. I thought this was mostly interesting due to the fact that the do not seem to be the most appropriate for children. However, the lyrics provide some insight of the culture. As you mentioned, though, the song is in a major key, does follow a simple ABA form, and uses simple rhythmic structures in a duple meter, in addition to using simple melodic structures and ideas.
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