West End Blues (1928) by Louis Armstrong - Part 2
- Created by: Olivia Grace Matthews
- Created on: 06-06-15 07:58
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- West End Blues (1928) by Louis Armstrong
- Melody
- Opening bar - broken chord then leap of dim. 5th
- Chromatic movement in bar 2 F-F#-G
- Occasional large leaps - descending minor 9th in trumpet
- Conjunct melodic lines rarer but can be seen at bar 14 in trumpet
- Blue notes common eg. Raised 2nd
- Use of flattened 3rds. Trombone solo = flat minor 3rd alternates with raised major 3rd
- Flat 7th in bar 10 = means of moving to subdom chord
- Phrase lengths - 4 bars long
- Tonality
- Opening solo = ambiguous. Suggest C minor or Eb major
- Blue notes - destabilise tonality
- Dom 7th in trumpet part leads to first unambiguous statement of tonic chord of Eb in bar 7
- Bar 7 - blues in Eb
- Flat 7th suggests modulation to A flat but is really a secondary dom chord reinforcing progression to sub dom chord
- No real modulation
- Perfect cadences in tonic key
- Harmony
- Standard 12 bar blues. Uses primary chords
- Most chords in root position
- Augmented dom triad in bar 6
- Substitution chords - provide variety
- Chromatic chords
- Rhythm and Metre
- Comping rhythm - steady crotchets
- Triplets common
- Jerky style with dotted rhythms
- Rhythmically often very free
- Distinctive feature - long held notes
- Occasional scotch snap - feature of early jazz. Semiquaver then dotted quaver
- Common time
- Melody
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