RC of the Day 26//03/2013 
*The story of jazz is a miniature history of the modern mind. From the New Orleans jazz of King Oliver, Jelly
Roll Morton, and Bunk Johnson to be current divergent trends, one can trace a telescoped repetition of the
major developments in Western thought during the past two hundred years. To do this, one must concentrate
not on technical musicology but on what music expresses, i.e., the “content” of the music. After all, this is
he ultimately significant thing. Methods, forms and techniques are an indispensable means by which the
content is communicated, but they are nothing in themselves. Their whole importance lies in what they
succeed in expressing. Traditional New Orleans jazz provides a logical starting point. The first thing one
notices about this music is its immense vigour and vitality. Some people call it a childish vitality, belonging
only in the kindergarten of life and superseded by the sophistication of more recently developed types jazz.
Others welcome it as honest earthiness in contrast to the emotional apathy of some modern jazz. But
almost no one who knows the music will deny that, for better or worse, it expresses in abundance.
*There is another basic element in the content of New Orleans jazz — a proudly religious feeling. It is not
merely religious but specifically Judeo. Persons who question this will be found, in almost every instance,
unfamiliar with the music to be unreceptive to the communication feeling by any medium. The literature on
jazz doubtless reflects its under-emphasis on the view and critical standards of most of the writers of jazz.
*If the reader accepts the existence of a strong religious element in New jazz, he may as well skip this
paragraph, which is intended to indicate the objective evidence of element. Among the several sources that
contributed to the creation of New Orleans jazz, church music including the spirituals is outstanding.
According to the late Bud Scott “Each Sunday, Bolden went to church and that's where he got his idea of
jazz music”. Scott added that he himself had derived the four beat jazz guitar style from the hand clapping
in church. The original repertory of the Negro country brass bands consisted entirely of church music;
these bands are known to have exercised a great influence on the New Orleans brass bands. The striking
similarities in both, between New Orleans jazz and gospel singing leads one to conclude either that there
is a strong religious element in both or in neither, and to deny it in the gospel singing would of course be
absurd. Most of the creators of New Orleans jazz have been believers, some of them including Oliver and
surprisingly, Morton with persistent faith even in time of extreme adversity. Such fundamental attitudes in
a musician are likely to get into the music he creates. The Reverend Alvin Kershaw, whose profundity of
insight is almost unparalleled among speakers and writers on jazz, finds a pronounced Christian element
in traditional jazz and has had George Lewis' New Orleans band play in his church. There is plenty of
additional evidence.
*The combination of abundant vitality and Christian feeling characterizes not only New Orleans jazz but also
certain music in the European tradition most notably that of Johann Sebastian Bach. The conspicuousness
of both elements in his music has been frequently remarked. As a consequence, several learned writers
have likened him to a preacher. Unlike a monk or a mere theologian, a preacher must have not only
religiousness but also vigour in order to put his message across and some degree of earthiness in order to
link a man's daily struggles with the Christian's eternal aspirations.
*The Renaissance in Europe had introduced a respect for earthy vitality which, combined with an already
pervasively Christian ethos, gave rise to the state of mind or emotional attitude that could produce music
like Bach's. It has often been remarked that music lags behind the other arts in the reflection of successive
changes in prevailing attitudes or ways of thinking. Thus the Christian element had already been on the
wane in literature and the fine arts even before Bach's time. In an irregular way, and subject to occasional
reversals of direction, music since then has reflected the increasing secularization and the weakening of
Christian feeling.
*What has this side-glance at history to do with jazz? Just about everything. For the Negroes who created
New jazz were part of an ethnic group to which Christianity had only recently been introduced. Their faith
has the fervour associated with earlier periods in the history of Christianity. Their music, like Bach's was
a sort of anachronism, an expression of old and to some extent, discarded (by others) attitudes. It is
interesting to observe that in New Orleans jazz the synthesis of Christian feeling and abundant human
vitality led to much the same optimism and healthful good humour and (in the blues) to the same miraculous
transformation of sadness into a source of rich comfort as in Bach. Writers have noted certain technical
resemblances between traditional jazz and Bach's music, but they have neglected the far more important
resemblance in emotional attitude.
*As time moved on, however, jazz went the way of post Bach European music and of Western man. What
have been the dominant trends in modern European and American thought? One, amply attested, has
been a continuation of the movement away from a Judeo Christian orientation. In jazz, too, this tendency
is plainly discernible. It is a long road from the almost devout way in which a New Orleans jazz band
performs a spiritual to Dizzy Gillespie's rendition of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” or, as he has sung it,
“Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac.” A milestone on this road is Louis Armstrong, whose Reverend Satchelmouth
joshing, very significantly, marked the period in which he departed from the New Orleans norm.
*The important change is in the content of the music. This change cannot be demonstrated with scientific
irrefutability, but it is nevertheless obvious. Not that the religious element has wholly disappeared in non-
traditional jazz. Along with the vitality of the old music, it is especially conspicuous in the blues, even when
played by a non-traditional group. The funkiness of the blues, and their association with the mood of
religious music, generally manage to come through. Even in Bird, who was closer to the tradition than
most moderns, the blues contain not only the traditional blues feeling but also undercurrents of despondence
and even, at times, of desperation, elements inimical to the fundamental confidence and optimism of the
Christian believer. In less blues minded moderns, the religious element generally becomes considerably
weaker. The tendency among modern jazz musicians to turn away from the Judeo-Christian tradition, to
turn from all religion in the conventional sense or to Mohammedanism or some other exotic religion is
consistent with the change in the content of the music.
39. What does the author emphasize when he mentions the similarity between Jazz and Western
thought?
a. The technical musicology of Jazz should be ignored.
b. What the music expresses should be the point of concentration.
c. Content of the music in terms of the methods, forms etc. is the point of concentration.
d. Methods, forms and techniques affect and are affected by what the music expresses.
40. Which of these is not a trait of New Orleans Jazz?
a. It possesses a lot of vigour and vitality which is interpreted in a different manner.
b. Some people define it as childish vitality.
c. Most renowned critics consider it inferior to the sophisticated recent type of Jazz.
d. Some welcome it as honest earthiness.
41. What accounts for those who lack the “profoundly religious” feeling related to New Orleans Jazz?
a. Non familiarity with New Orleans Jazz.
b. Non receptivity to communication of Christian feeling by any medium.
c. Both (a) and (b)
d. Non familiarity with music
42. What is the author's view on the similarities between New Orleans Jazz and gospel singing?
a. There is a strong religious element in both.
b. There is no religious element in either.
c. Either of the above
d. None of the above
43. What are the qualities that justify the analogy of a preacher to be used for Johann Sebastian Bach?
a. Religiousness and Vigour
b. Religiousness, Vigour and Earthiness
c. Vigour and Earthiness
d. Religiousness and Melody
44. What common belief is corroborated by the fact that the Christian element was declining before
Bach in arts except music and was manifested in music later?
a. Music lags behind other arts in reflecting prevailing attitudes.
b. Literature is the first art which sets the trend and music is the last.
c. Music takes more time to reflect the prevailing attitudes because it goes through reversals of
direction.
d. Music is increasingly getting secular and there is a weakening of the Christian feeling.
45. What is the contribution of the fact that Negroes to whom Christianity was recently introduced
created New Orleans Jazz?
a. Their attitude was anachronistic and had to change quickly to adapt to the taste of the listeners.
b. The lyrics and the content heavily borrowed from Christian symbolism and facilitated it in becoming
popular with the older segment.
c. Their faith touched a chord with many other Negroes but did not appeal to mainstream US.
d. Their faith had more fervour than was prevalent and this combined with the vitality led to a striking
similarity with Bach's music.
46. What is the important change in the “content” of music that the author is talking about?
a. The earlier religious feeling is replaced by undercurrents of despondence signalling a shift.
b. The earlier religious feeling is completely replaced by undercurrents of despondence and
desperation.
c. The content earlier referred to expression of religious feeling and now means suppression of that
feeling.
d. None of the above
Happy CATing
P.S- Again (*) indicates a new para 
and Wish you all a Colourful Holi