Hello and welcome to Episode Fourteen of Page Turn: the Largo Public Library Podcast. I'm your host, Hannah!
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The Spanish Language Book Review begins at 8:56 and ends at 11:33
The English Language Transcript can be found below
But as always we start with Reader's Advisory!
The Reader's Advisory for Episode Fourteen is The Bone Mother by David Demchuk. If you like The Bone Mother you should also check out: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter, and Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugresic.
My personal favorite Goodreads list The Bone Mother is on is Books You Wish More People Knew About.
Today’s Library Tidbit is all about American Roots Music. Over the last few years and going in to the future Largo Public Library has brought in various musicians and groups to perform. Some of the different musical styles we’ve featured include blues, jazz, American folk, and soul. Each of these different musical styles belongs to the family: American Roots Music.
American Roots Music are music styles that are original to or were developed in the United States. The only music that is native to the USA are the various styles of music created by the Indigenous peoples of North America. Traditional Native American or First Nations music differs depending on the geographic and tribal areas. To get an idea of the similarities and differences in traditional Native American music you just have to do some research into the different drums used: footed drums, large double-sided skin drums, box drums, hand drums, water drums and even within those types there are various types depending on the tribe and the occasion.
The musical styles that developed in the USA include blues, jazz, soul, American folk, and bluegrass. The oldest of these genres is blues, the newest is soul. Although as jazz is a constantly innovating genre you could argue that it stays forever young.
Blues was developed by slaves in the United States. Blues is a combination of field hollers, work songs, spirituals, and ballads. These are combined with the rhythms and melodies of West African music, much of what we think of as the rhythms and patterns of blues is actually West African music. Blues is also classified by the use of the blues scale, characterized by the blue notes, the flattening on the third or fifth notes on the scale and the use of specific chord progressions. While there is no way to know why the blues is called the blues another characteristic of the genre is melancholic lyrics. The official beginning date of Blues comes after the Emancipation Act of 1863, and speculation exists that it was only after emancipation that African-American’s had any level of freedom enough to be vocal about their daily hardships.
Jazz developed out of blues and ragtime in New Orleans at the end of the 19th century. Jazz is a marriage of African-American musical styles, blues, West African musical expression that survived slavery, and white European military band music. Military instruments were added to the development of jazz as African-Americans were able to own these instruments as confederate soldiers pawned their instruments at the end of the Civil War. There is no good definition of jazz, however, improvisation is found in all styles of jazz and is considered a defining characteristic. Jazz also relies on off beat rhythms, which developed out of West African drumming styles. As jazz grew up through the years and moved away from New Orleans many different styles developed.
What most people think of when they hear American folk is actually Appalachian music. A combination of English ballads, Irish and Scottish fiddle music, it was further developed when slaves brought the banjo and blues into the area. Appalachian music served as broadsheets for much of the area.
