Both Emma and Evelyn embody the transformations occurring in American society that Doctorow depicts in his novel. Emma represents the radical transformation of women from objects of sexual lust to empowered individuals, while Evelyn represents the continued stereotyping of women by American culture. In her apartment, Emma symbolically removes Evelyn's restrictive clothing, garments that serve as symbols of women's oppression and of their being controlled by the desires of men. The debased appearance of Mother's Younger Brother from behind the curtains further emphasizes the twisted sexuality that stems from distorted views of women in society.
Forman might have selected to remove her from the script because Emma serves a largely symbolic role in Doctorow's novel. Nevertheless, Emma's presence in the film version of Ragtime is missed because she perfectly embodies the genuine political struggle for social justice in America.
orks Cited
Doctorow, E.L. Ragtime. New York: Penguin, 1997.
Forman, Milos (dir.). Ragtime. 1981…...
mlaWorks Cited
Doctorow, E.L. Ragtime. New York: Penguin, 1997.
Forman, Milos (dir.). Ragtime. 1981 Film based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow.
They are sympathetic to alker because of their fondness for Sarah, a young Black washerwoman who is Coalhouse's lover. The iconic ASP family is called only by their family identities, because unlike alker and the Jewish Tateh, they do not need to make a name for themselves -- their place in the world is secure. But even with the help of a prominent family, no one will take a stand against the firemen. alker becomes an angry, militant activist, feeling, perhaps rightly so, that in 20th century America, no one will treat a Black man with respect. However, the presence of the gentler but still strong Sarah underlines that not every Black American agrees with alker, as does the presence of prominent, historical Black Americans like Booker T. ashington.
The prejudices of the legal system and society make an ironic contrast between the fact that Black music gives the musical…...
mlaWorks Cited
Ragtime." Score by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. Book by Terrence McNally.
She is just one symbol in the novel that represents how the American family would change during this time, and would never be the same. Impressionable young men like Younger Brother would take up radical causes, Father's would fail to move forward in their lives, and Mother's would begin to vocally fight against societal wrongs, including poverty and women's rights. America was in transition, the family was in transition, and even industry was in transition. It was a time of great expansion in the country, and only those who could grow with the changing society would be successful. Henry Ford knew how to change, and J.P. Morgan did not. That is why Ford succeeded, and Morgan died still looking for something more in his life. There are many symbols in this novel, but they all relate somehow to the great changes taking place in society, and many Americans' inability…...
mlaReferences
Doctorow, E.L. Ragtime. New York: Plume, 1996.
individuals have struggle accepting change. It takes quite some time for one to adapt to this. For regions of a country or even whole nations, change may take decades or possibly centuries.
Edgar Lawrence Doctorow can certainly relate to this Born in 1931, Doctorow (aptly named after EL Poe) has lived through tumultuous changes and grew to see America converging from one of exclusive races and racism into one that styled itself the 'melting pot' where all races converged into an ideal America and, then, in turn, separated itself into distinctive races where Affirmative Action became the ruling policy of the day. No stranger to cultural changes (Baker, 11), Doctorow describes the impact of these changes in his book 'agtime' published in 1975. agtime (an irreverent tale of change and racism including various famous people in absurd situations) became one of the 100 best novels in American literature. (Harter, &…...
mlaReferences
Baker, John F. PW Interviews E.L. Doctorow in Conversations with E.L. Doctorow, ed. Christopher D. Morris, Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999
Gussow, Mel. Novelist Syncopates History in Ragtime? In The New York Times, July 11th 1975
http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/03/05/specials/doctorow-syncopates.html?_r=1
Doctorow, E.L. Ragtime, London: Picador, 1985
Blues and Ragtime: Paving the ay for Jazz
Blues and ragtime helped to pave the way for jazz, one of America's truly unique music genres. Originating in the South, these genres were inspired by the African backgrounds of slaves coupled with the oppression that freed men and women faced after their emancipation. New Orleans became a musical hotbed during the jazz era. It was also during the development and popularization of the genre that jazz music found its way to Chicago and California, as well as New York. It was through the development of blues and ragtime that jazz emerged and was made accessible to the public.
Blues, from which rock and roll grew out of, was an "indigenous creation of black slaves who adapted their African musical heritage to the American environment" (Szatmary 2). Through music, these slaves were able to retain a piece of their past while at the same…...
mlaWorks Cited
Buddy Bolden. PBS. 3 July 2011, from .
Charles "Buddy" Bolden. 3 July 2011, from .
Edward "Kid" Ory. 3 July 2011, from .
Jelly Roll Morton. 3 July 2011, from .
127)
The ultimate test of interchangeable parts in a factory system are if the ideas can 'make it' in the marketplace of commerce. The ultimate test of what is really beneficial to workers or society is subsumed to the need to make a profit.
7.It occurred to Father one day that.... he was a Negro (p.134)
Despite the fact that identity might seem like something one is given at birth, the ways that society perceives one's color, ethnicity, and race are not always the same as one's personal sense of self.
8. It was the second of the frightened...provoked from her innocence (p.158)
The sense of a woman's innocence of sexuality is highlighted in this quotation, as the woman in question proceeds from a sense of early purity to awareness.
9. The theatre shook on its foundation and.... from the proscenium arch. (p. 171)
The proscenium arch is the gold, false arch that frames the stage and…...
Negro Spirituals and the Development of Blues, agtime and Jazz Music
The melodies and rhythms of Africa have found their way to America through many ways and the African-American spirituals are one of them. There is one religious folk song, originally sung by the African-American protestants of the southern United States is now known as the spirituals. These pieces of music originated during the period of 1800 to 1850. It was a result of the efforts of trying to convert the then slaves to Christianity. This is generally known as the second Great Awakening. The words contained in the spirituals are based on images present in the Bible, and specially the stories in the Old Testament regarding liberation from bondage. There are also stories from the New Testament regarding the life of Jesus and the visions from the Book of evelation. These were the songs that the slaves sang while they…...
mlaReferences
Berendt, J.E. "The jazz book: New Orleans to jazz rock and beyond." London et al.: Paladin Grafton Books. 1986, 171-172
Berlin, Edward A. "Ragtime - A Musical and Cultural History" London, University of California Press, 1980, p.43-46
Epstein, Dena J. "Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War." Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1977, p.22-24
Gridley, Mark C. Jazz Styles: History and Analysis. Prentice Hall: New Jersey, 1997, p.44-47
However, the true journey Tateh makes in the book is one from poverty-stricken street artist to prosperous businessman.
oth these journeys change Tateh, and that is the point of his journey throughout the novel. Doctorow writes, "ut his new existence thrilled him. He whole personality had turned outward and he had become a voluble and energetic man full of the future" (Doctorow 217). Eventually, he marries "Mother" and they move to California and live prosperously.
Tateh's life has changed dramatically, and his family has changed too. His journey also shows that America was changing at the time, and that families and society were becoming more blended. There was still a line between white and black, Jew and Christian, but society was becoming more accepting, and that is really the final point about Tateh's journey, he was one of the first to help blend immigrant and upper class, as people around America…...
mlaBibliography
Doctorow, E.L. Ragtime. New York: Random House, 1975.
Cool Jazz
A Brief History of Cool Jazz
December 6, 2012, would have marked the ninety-second birthday of pianist Dave Brubeck. The nonagenarian was looking forward to performing at the Palace Theater near his home in aterbury, Connecticut. Sadly, Brubeck died of heart failure just one day shy of the celebratory concert. The concert went on as scheduled, but it was a memorial rather than a birthday party. It is what Brubeck would have wanted. Brubeck was one of the originators of a jazz style that became known as "cool jazz." He was a brilliant pianist who loved to experiment with rhythms and instrumentation in ensemble work. Brubeck never stopped innovating over his long career during which he composed symphonies, classical and religious music, ballets and film scores He valued musical integrity over commercial reward. "You never know what's going to work," he said. "You just go with what you believe in,…...
mlaWorks Cited
Dave Brubeck Quartet. 1961. YouTube. Web. 10 Dec. 2012. .
Dryden, Ken. "Take five: The public and private lives of Paul Desmond." All About Jazz.
2 Feb. 2011. Web. 10 Dec. 2012. http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=17894 >.
Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Pianist-virtuoso and composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869) was born in New Orleans and grew up in a neighborhood where Creole music was commonly played. He was heavily influenced by African -- Caribbean music throughout the rest of his life (Gelfert, 2001). Gottschalk was exposed to these musical influences coming from outside his house as well as from his grandmother and nurse who were both natives of Saint -- Dominigue, French colony on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola and later known as Haiti (Starr, 1995). Gottschalk had six sisters and brothers, five of them were half -- siblings born to his father's mulatto mistress (Gelfert, 2001; Starr, 1995). As a young child Gottschalk displayed a talent for playing the piano and his parents hired a private tutor to teach them. You also started learning the violin at the age of six and gave his first public piano performance at…...
mlaReferences
Gelfert, A. (2001). The Life and Times of Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Retrieved on December 5,
2013 from http://www.louismoreaugottschalk.com/Biography/biography.html .
Gottschalk, L.M. (2006). Notes of a Pianist. New York: Princeton University Press.
Loggins, V. (1958). Where the Word Ends: The Life of Louis Moreau Gottschalk. LSU Press.
"The traditional march became the dominant form, and the result was a new art form, the Classic rag" (Jasen p. 83).
However, if one were to analyze the Entertainer more closely, the tonal harmonies are those that one would hear in classical music, such as in Bach's sonatas, where the subcoordinate harmonies of contemporary music are in play and the first chord is in progression with a second and the second with a third. These cycles create the overall feeling, founding a tone, whereas the melody carries on the direct relationship with the listener. Joplin uses these techniques to create in this piece of music a feeling of overall coordination and wholeness. Yet he does so in a "ragtime" beat that brings the technique up-to-date. This piece of music is timeless because of this, and therefore "classical" (Dahlhaus, p. 25).
In listening to the Entertainer, one is reminded of a tinkling…...
mlaReferences
Dahlhaus, C. (1979). Richard Wagner's Music Dramas. Trans. Mary Whittall. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.
Jasen, D.A. And Tichenor, T.J. (1978). Rags and Ragtime: A Musical History. New York, NY: Dover Publications, p. 83.
Stark, J. (1915). "Joplin." Ragtime Review Vol 1 (2), p. 23.
Tichenor, T. (1996). Total Joplin: The Complete Works of Scott Joplin (CD-ROM, collection of scores, sheet music covers, prints and multimedia review of Joplin's life) Sunhawk, 1996.
Jazz Consisted of:
• Folk and blues styles
• Emphasis on:
• simple harmony
• rhythm
• and improvisation (based on melody)
• Mostly ensemble playing with all instruments playing together except for solos
• syncopation
The special conditions that gave rise to its development in New Orleans were:
• Brass band marches were popular
• The red-light districts known as "Storyville" had clubs where dance bands played
• French quadrilles, ragtime and blues were popular there
• The Afro-Creole and vaudeville shows were influences there
• Tourists came to New Orleans and that is how the "jazz" style of the area spread
• Many Africa-Americans were hired to perform in brothels and bars: Buddy Bolden, Louis Armstrong and many others
With so many different ethnicities and cultures gathering together in one urban location, people latched onto their community traditions and introduced their folk music trends into American society. Irish, German, Italian, and Afro-American styles of music were all mixed into these areas. Much of…...
Charlie Parker
Music:
The music of United States changed significantly during the twentieth century, and each generation went on to develop its own music. These were all immensely popular, had strong rhythmic touch and were very different from the earlier forms which existed. These were used for dancing or just for the purpose of listening. When the twentieth century started it was the time for a variety called Ragtime. After the end of the First World War, Jazz had its origin and it influenced all other forms till it was affected by the stock market crash in 1929. This period was called the roaring twenties. Then it was time for a new form to emerge and this was in the music of the ig ands and led at different stages by Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, Jimmie Lunceford, Glen Gray and Chick Webb in the beginning. They were then followed by Tommy Dorsey,…...
mlaBibliography
Weinstock, Len. "The Big Band Era, Or How America Came Out Of the Great Depression and Went On To Win World War II, 1991" Retrieved at Accessed on 03/08/2004http://www.redhotjazz.com/bigbandessay.html.
Azinhais, Joao "The King of Jazz" Retrieved at Accessed on 03/08/2004http://www.redhotjazz.com/whitemanarticle.html.
Weinstock, Len. "The origins of Jazz" Retrieved at Accessed on 03/08/2004http://www.redhotjazz.com/originsarticle.html.
Slave Songs of the United States" A. Simpson & Co. Retrieved at Accessed on 03/08/2004http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/allen/allen.html .
Jelly oll Morton was born Ferdinand Joseph La Menthe in 1890 and later became a pioneer of modern American jazz. Growing up in New Orleans, he played piano in saloons and brothels when he was still a child. As an adult, he formed a band, the ed Hot Peppers and also played on his own. Morton is renown for his ability to bring traditionally black musical styles to the mainstream and he was heavily influenced by his New Orleans upbringing. Morton is particularly remembered for a series of recordings he made in Chicago for CA Victor in the 1920s, and Morton is credited as being one of the first to mix individual improvisation with more structured group arrangements. Although he claimed to have invented jazz, this is not strictly true; instead, he is credited as the first jazz composer. After Morton, improvisation became a staple of jazz. His best-known tunes…...
mlaReferences
"Jelly Roll Morton." The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. Accessed 10 October 2004.
http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_morton_jelly_roll.htm
"Jelly Roll Morton." Accessed 10 October 2004. http://www.redhotjazz.com/jellyroll.html
"Jelly Roll Morton. World Book online. Accessed 10 October 2004. http://www2.worldbook.com/features/aamusic/html/morton.htm
Spike Wilner Trio at Smalls
This is a review of the Spike Wilner Trio's performance at Smalls on December 1st, 2015. Smalls is located in Greenwich Village and is well-known as being a good jazz club. It is small as the name of the club suggests and in the basement but it is a good place to go to hear music. Spike plays the piano, while the other two members of the trio play accompany: Tyler Mitchell plucking beats on the bass and Anthony Pinciotti helping Tyler to beat out the rhythm on the drums.
There was a lot of syncopation I noticed immediately coming from their music as it would start and stop and pick up in an unexpected direction. Spike is very good at playing ragtime on the piano, but of course he is good at playing anything and the tones and textures that come from the trio are…...
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