History of Blues and Automatic Generation with Clojure

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BLUES

Blues is one of the roots of modern popular music and one of the genres that play an important role, becoming

The blues was a type of music and musical style that emerged from African Americans and their descendants who were brought from Africa as slaves in the deep South of the U.S. in the late 19th century, and was the music produced by the painful and sad cries of the people of that time. The lyrics of the early blues would be as simple as the following.

I woke up this morning to my blues.
Walking around like a man.
I woke up this morning and my blues
I woke up this morning and my Bruce was walking like a man.
Hey, Mr. Bruce.
Give me your right hand.

I got a letter this morning.
I read it.
I got your letter this morning.
I read the letter.
It's Muddy Waters.
You better go home.
Your girlfriend's dead.

Blues “blues” means blue mood, sadness or depression, and it became a music of personal commentary (the cry of one’s own soul). Later, jazz, which emerged from the blues, became more sotisfied and was called social commentary (social language), and similarly, rock, which emerged from the blues, became more energetic.

Blues is said to have originated from Negro spirituals, field hurrahs, and work songs. Because blues players were poor, they mainly played acoustic guitars, which were relatively easy to obtain.

Blues Features

Slavery was legal in the United States from 1640 to 1865 (equivalent to Edo itself in Japan), and many blacks were brought to the United States by slave traders from Africa. The blues is said to have originated when black slaves were forced to work hard and poor in the fields, and in the midst of their hardships, they thought of their homeland and sang songs in the melodies of their homeland.

It is said that the early blues combined all the elements of call and response brought from Africa, Negro spirituals, and hymn melodies that used church melodies.

Music in the form of “call and response” (call and response) was also called work songs, field hurrahs, etc., and was sung like a call to action during labor (work songs) or at different places where each person worked (field hurrahs), to forget the songs and hard life during labor. The songs were sung to forget the hardships of life.

The style of singing created by blacks who encountered Christianity and who believed that God would deliver them became the Negro spiritual, and was often combined with old Christian hymns, especially those written by Isaac Watts, an 18th century English (non-Catholic) minister and hymn writer. These early American hymns were often a fusion of older Christian hymns, especially those written by Isaac Watts, an 18th century English (nonconformist) minister and hymn writer. These early American songs were influenced by Europe (especially England and Ireland, as described in “Irish Road Trip (1): Travels in England” and “Irish Road Trip (2): Travels in Ireland“).

In the “blue note” scale, which is characteristic of the blues scale, the “mi” and “shi” are a semitone lower than in the regular major scale.

In fact, the fact that the mi and shi notes are lowered by a semitone has been a characteristic of Anglo-Saxon (Germanic tribal) and Celtic folk music since well before the Tudor dynasty (an English dynasty from the late 15th to the 16th century).

In the famous “Greensleeves,” the cither note is raised a semitone when the melody rises and lowered a semitone when it descends. Peter van der Merwe’s “Basic Theory of Popular Music” also states that Anglo-Saxon and Celtic folk music had a great influence on the blues.

The blues is also characterized by a basic harmonic progression of 12 bars. This progression is composed of chords such as “I7 – IV7 – V7” and creates the characteristic blues sound.

Types of Blues and Artists

There are many different genres of blues, and different musical styles have emerged from different regions and eras. The major blues genres are described below.

Country Blues: This is the music of the Mississippi Delta and the Mississippi River region in the southern United States.

• Mississippi Delta Blues: In the Mississippi River region of the southern United States, where discrimination against blacks remained severe even after emancipation and white culture had little influence, soulful singing and tunes with a strong African style are characteristic, along with the use of percussion instruments and intense rhythms, and the use of harsh and hysterical singing styles, not bound by the 12-bar limit. The singing style is not limited to 12 bars, and the holler (horror, scream) singing style gives a hysterical impression. The soulful singing style and tunes with a strong African ethnic flavor are also characteristic of this music, and representative musicians include Charlie Patton, who is considered the founder of Delta Blues, and Robert Johnson, widely known as a legendary bluesman.

• Texas Blues : Compared to Mississippi, Texas is an area that had an emancipation policy even before the Emancipation Proclamation, so the style does not deviate much from the 12-bar, and the call and response between singing and guitar is clear and the melody is relatively close to the current blues. Less muddy than the Mississippi Delta, representative blues musicians include Blind Lemon Jefferson, a prewar blues giant who was born blind, Texas Alexander, who did not play an instrument but sang only, and Lightnin’ Hopkins, who has been playing the blues since 1940. After 1940, there is Lightnin’ Hopkins.

• East Coast Blues: Representative blues musicians include Blind Willie McTell, a 12-string guitar virtuoso; Blind Blake, a terrific ragtime blues guitarist; and Blind Boy Fuller, who is said to have been able to play in a variety of styles.

City Blues and Classic Blues:

• City Blues: Beginning during World War I (1914-1918), blacks in the South migrated to northern cities such as Chicago in search of work. City Blues became a style of country blues, with men playing the guitar.
• Classic Blues : This style of singing, with a female focus and piano or big band backing, gave entertainment value to country blues. Mamie Smith’s “That Called Love” became the first recorded blues.

• Chicago Blues: Like other blacks, Delta bluesmen migrated to Chicago. Maxwell’s Street at that time was filled with street musicians, and from among them were born the bluesmen who would later represent Chicago Blues. Chicago blues was characterized by the use of electric instruments and bands, and the lyrics often addressed urban life and working-class themes, and the musicians incorporated many jazz and rock elements. Muddy Waters, a leading musician, was one of those who moved to Chicago from Mississippi and established Chicago blues by fusing the city blues and delta styles that were popular at the time.

• Urban Blues: This is a new style of blues that emerged in the Texas-West Coast region as a result of the great migration of blacks to the northern and western cities. This style is more closely connected to jazz, and is not overly jazz-oriented compared to classic blues, nor is it as focused on playing only as city blues. T-Bone Walker, one of the leading artists of this style, has established a rock-like style, playing guitar solos backed by a combo band.

• Modern Blues : By this time, radio and other media had become widespread, and blues, which had been distinctive in each region, was gradually integrated by B.B. King and others and came to be known as modern blues. The style of modern blues, which has a more mature sound and is introduced below, is a stochastic style that refers to rhythm & blues and beyond, and is in the vein of city, Chicago, and urban blues. The “three great kings” are B.B. King, Albert King, and Freddie King.

Modern Blues:

• Blues Rock: A genre that combines elements of blues and rock. It is characterized by electric guitar-based performances and lyrical themes. Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan are representative artists.

The diversity of the blues is very wide, and regional and cultural influences have given rise to a variety of styles. Known for putting emotions and life stories into song, the blues holds an important place in the history of music.

Example implementation of composing a blues song with clojure’s overtune

Overtone, described in “Math, Music, and Computers” is a music programming library based on the Clojure language and is a tool for composing and playing music. See “Clojure and Functional Programming” for more information on Clojure.

First, to add Overtone to your project, add the following dependency to your project.clj file

:dependencies [[overtone "0.10.3"]]

Next, import Overtone so that it can be used

(ns your-namespace.core
(:use [overtone.core]))

The following is an example of a Clojure code that generates a simple 12-bar blues tune.

(defn play-blues []
  (definst guitar (sin-osc 440)) ; Guitar sound
  (definst bass (sin-osc 110))   ; Base sound
  (definst drums (mono (perc 0.2 0.2))) ; Drum sound

  ; Blues progression in 12 bars (I-IV-V)
  (def blues-chords [[:C4 :F4 :G4] [:F4 :Bb4 :C5] [:G4 :C5 :D5]])

  ; Play the melody
  (defn play-melody [notes]
    (if (seq notes)
      (let [note (first notes)]
        (at (now) (guitar note))
        (Thread/sleep 500) ; 500 millisecond break
        (play-melody (rest notes)))
      (at (now) (guitar 0))))

  ; Playing blues tunes
  (doseq [chord blues-chords]
    (play-chord chord 500)
    (play-melody (map note (rand-nth chord)))
    (Thread/sleep 2000))

  ; Play bass and drum rhythms
  (at (now)
    (do
      (bass 0.5)
      (drums 0.5)))
  
  (Thread/sleep 8000) ; Wait for the song to end.

  (kill guitar) ; Stop instrument
  (kill bass)
  (kill drums))

(play-blues) ; Playing blues tunes

The chord generates a simple guitar, bass, and drum part, playing a 12-bar blues progression, with the melody line being generated from randomly selected notes of the chord. Thread/sleep is used to wait for the playback to finish.