JAZZ ELEMENTS IN SERIOUS MUSIC

Unquestionably, the most significant contribution made to music by the United States in the 20th century lies in the field of popular music. Its most outstanding characteristics greatly influenced the “between the war” period of European music.

Of the first importance in ragtime and jazz is the strong evidence of syncopation. (Which is the shifting of the normal accent, usually by stressing the normally unaccented beats.) There are two main type of syncopated rhythms the obvious off beat accent.

And a type of polyphonic rhythm that superimposes a melodic unit of three units over a rhythmic background of four units.

Igor Stravinsky (born 1882) and Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) wrote similar rhythms before 1912 along with many “serious” composers that followed them.

The second characteristic is the modifications of the major scale by the use of “blue notes”. The flatting of the third and seventh tones of the scale used mostly in blues become of great interest to European composers who were desperately seeking new ideas in scale patterns.