The Birth of Blues

Blues according to Henrietta Yurchenco:

“The old African field hollers and worksongs, which regulated the rhythm of communal work or ease the burden of physically exhausting work, were transformed into blues on American soil” (450).

“Melodies – sometimes sung, sometimes chanted or half spoken, and embellished by cries, wails, moans, falsettos, gravelly tones, whispers, portamento, or unexpected asides – were imitated on instruments sometimes as a dialogue in the traditional African call and response pattern” (450).

“The blues is thus an American form of music born of the wall of separation between white masters and black former slaves in the aftermath of the Civil War” (450).