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Comparisons of Nochecitas Mexicanas and Uncle Penn Cultures |
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Andrew Cabodi, San Clemente High School, California, USA |
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Nochecitas Mexicanas/ Mariachi
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Uncle Penn/ Bluegrass
Bluegrass is an evolution of country music and was commonly known in the early twentieth century as mountain music. These country and mountain music songs reflected on the day to day experiences of the band members, which primarily consisted of life on the farm or in the hills of the wilderness. Origins of bluegrass reveal early ties to the songs of the black slaves, who worked the fields of the Americas. The start of Bluegrass is viewed in 1938, when a popular country duet, The Monroe Brothers, broke up and Bill Monroe created Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Monroe is considered the father of Bluegrass music.
Monroe’s song “Uncle Penn” is one of his best examples of the style he created. The instrumentation in “Uncle Penn” consists of solely acoustical instruments and vocal melodies. More specifically, the acoustic instruments consist of a mandolin, banjo, fiddle, guitar, and upright bass. The first measure of the song begins with the violin, and the rest of the instruments add in in the second measure. The melody which the violin is playing is a melody which will be repeated many times throughout the song. This is known as a motif. To add, the structure of the song is in A B A B form, and the violin motif is part A. Approximately 18 measures into Uncle Penn, Monroe begins to sing solo, accompanied by all the acoustical instruments playing the background. A few bars later, other members join Monroe and harmonize the vocals. This part containing the harmonization of voices is known as the chorus, and is visited later in the song. The vocal sections are part B, which first consists of a solo voice, with different lyrics each time, and then the chorus revisited. And so the pattern continues of violin melody to vocals to violin and so on. Every once and a while, after the violin melody, there will be a small banjo solo. Bluegrass often has improvisational solos for banjo, which uses a revolutionary technique called the “Scruggs style,” developed by banjo player Earl Scruggs. It is a three finger picking style, which enables the banjo player to play eight note phrases in the duple meter very quickly, in turn energizing and entertaining the audiences. This style is very specific to Bluegrass, and the banjo uses it even when playing background music. The simplicity of the song reflects the life of the musicians. They are people of the country who only need the necessities. The structure is a simple A B A B, with a constant background that does not change key very often throughout the entire song. Lastly, the lyrics are about musicians…who they are, what they are! Uncle Penn is described as the great violin player who would have everyone “dance all night till the break of day.” The simplicity and joy of the artists’ lives is depicted in “Uncle Penn.”
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Introduction | Bluegrass History | Uncle Penn |
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