A nearly absolute mathematics-like independence

[samiaseo222]

Much has been written about the influence of black music on the bluegrass style. The strict and severe style of the English folk ballad and Scots-Irish lament had time in the isolation of the Appalachian mountains to develop a backwoods character; the music became more loose and improvisational. In this the black influence has been felt, but Mr. Cantwell suggests that this freedom may have gone with the territory, so to speak, an effect of the independent lifestyle of the settlers. Western (European) music is distinct from the rest of the world's music in that it doesn't mimic natural sound, eg. birdsong. In Mr. Cantwell's words Western music, of other forms of expression.

Tied to nothing else "in nature but the physcial properties of sound". Black music, as all other forms of non- Western folk music, is tied to dance, ritual, poetry and drama in mimicry and subtlety of phone number list voice expression. In close proximity to the primitive style, bluegrass made the banjo talk and the fiddle wail and cry. "Jubilus" is the Latin word for joyful call or country cry and is often heard in bluegrass music. It can be found in black tradition also, as in the field hollers and the shouting of the black musicians Leadbelly and Howling Wolf.

This "high and lonesome sound", as bluegrass is often described, may have its origins in the Biblical literalism native to eastern Kentucky in the heart of the Appalachian range. The practices of foot-washing, snake-handling, speaking in tongues and baptism by immersion are also found here. The high pitched singing associated with bluegrass is found in primitive Baptist hymns, "Lift up thy voice like a trumpet" (Isaiah 58:1). Mr. Cantwell suggests the singing style as another literal interpretation. Who influenced whom? Black and white music may have a parallel tradition in this instance.