Cultural Melting Pot
It's time again for Three Tune Tuesday, that day of the week where members of the Hive community shares three songs of their liking with the rest of the community.
Prefer to listen? Check out the Podcast!
- Blind Skeleton Three Tune Tuesday on Apple podcasts!
I take a slow, relaxing approach to Three Tune Tuesday: I like to share pre-1924 78rpm songs from my collection, and record them while playing on an appropriate time-period windup phonograph. I encourage you to take a few moments and slow down with me. Settle down, close your eyes, and take yourself back.. way back.. in time, to a distant uncle's parlour in the early 1920's. There are comfortable seats, pleasant conversation, and old music.
The early 20th century was a time of great change and cultural fusion, particularly in the urban centers of America. Cities like New York, Chicago, and New Orleans became veritable melting pots, where people from all corners of the world came together, bringing with them the rich tapestry of their musical traditions. Imagine the sounds of Italian arias mingling with African American spirituals, or the strains of an Irish jig intertwining with a Spanish flamenco! These urban centers became crucibles of creativity, where musical styles collided and combined in ways never before imagined.
This era saw an unprecedented influx of immigrants to America's shores. Between 1900 and 1915 alone, more than 15 million immigrants arrived in the United States, each group carrying with them the songs of their homeland. The tenements of New York's Lower East Side echoed with Yiddish folk songs, while the streets of New Orleans pulsated with the rhythms of Caribbean and African music. These diverse musical traditions didn't remain isolated; they mingled and merged, creating new forms of expression that would go on to shape the landscape of American music for generations to come.
"El Choclo"
"El Choclo" is a tango composed by Ángel Villoldo in 1903. The tango was originally a 'working class' dance born in the streets of Argentina and Uruguay.
"El Choclo," which translates to "The Corn Cob," might seem an unlikely title for a passionate dance tune, but it was common for early tangos to reference everyday items or slang terms.
This version was recorded by Banda Espanola in 1908 on the Columbia label. Talk about a melting pot! A South American dance, recorded by a Spanish band on the American Columbia label. Now that's America!
Nola
Nola, written by Felix Arndt in 1915, takes us to the bustling streets of New York City. "Nola" is a perfect example of the cultural fusion happening in American music during this era. At its core, the piece is a charming ragtime number, a quintessentially American genre with roots in African American communities. However, Arndt's classical training shines through in the complex harmonies and intricate melodic lines, creating what he called a "syncopated waltz." The result is a composition that bridges the gap between the popular ragtime style and the European classical tradition.
"Gypsy Love Song"
"Gypsy Love Song" comes from the 1898 operetta "The Fortune Teller" by Victor Herbert, an Irish-born American composer who was instrumental in developing the American operetta style. This piece, like many of its time, presents a romanticized and often inaccurate portrayal of Romani, or "Gypsy," culture. It's important to note that while these portrayals were popular in early 20th-century entertainment, they often relied on stereotypes and exoticized views of Romani people. The fascination with "Gypsy" themes in music and theater of this era reflects the broader trend of European and American audiences being drawn to what they perceived as exotic or mysterious cultures.
This version was performed by Eugene Cowles in 1906.
Three Tune Tuesday (TTT) is initiated by @ablaze.
Blind Skeleton Online Radio: https://blindskeleton.one/radio/
Listen to the podcast!
https://blindskeleton.one/blind-skeleton-podcasts/
(c) All images and photographs, unless otherwise specified, are created and owned by me.
(c) Victor Wiebe
Blind Skeleton
Online Radio! 24x7 of OTR classics:
The Skeleton Brew coffee shop is open!
Those were all really great pieces. I loved the first song El Choclo, it has that authentic sound that you can still find in some place in Uruguay.
It's amazing to hear the recording and imagine what the world was like then, very, very different than what we see day to day. What a great connection to the past!
Great stuff like always!
Thanks so much! I have so much fun putting these together; I'm glad other's appreciate them too!
ooo how does the archive.org work. like anybody can upload and you can upload those like old tracks even tho it's not yours? O.O can people take you down for copyright?
archive.org really tries to archive as much information and culture as possible. It's very easy for them to do with public domain, open source, and similar things (there are even "abandonware" games, which were originally commercial games, but have since been abandoned by the publisher). They do occasionally run into issues when someone claims copyright on what they've added, and they're currently in litigation over some books they've uploaded.
For the most part, however, they have some really good things!
oh so those songs werent uploaded by you? O.O i was curious about that part