Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-qxsvm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-13T09:18:40.071Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Machines and music: instrumental contributions to bluegrass

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2022

Neil Newton Open the ORCID record for Neil Newton [Opens in a new window]
Neil Newton*
Affiliation:
Los Angeles, CA, USA E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the performance of bluegrass fiddle tunes, each repetition of the tune is generally played on a different instrument. I argue that the degree to which the instrument can influence the motivic material in improvised passages is beyond idiomaticism – where phrases might suit one instrument more than another – to the point where melodic pitch collections are shaped by the instrument itself. By combining post-human philosophies with music theories that emphasise instrument–player relationships, this essay shows how non-humans exercise agency in bluegrass improvisation. The resultant instrument-influenced passages contrast with each other, as each is played on a different instrument. This can help to signify formal structure within a performance, while the recurrence of particular instrument-influenced elements can be seen as a genre marker in bluegrass.

Type
Article
Information
Popular Music , Volume 40 , Issue 3-4 , December 2021 , pp. 470 - 491
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Bateson, G. 2000. Steps to an Ecology of Mind (Chicago, IL, The University of Chicago Press)Google Scholar
Beimborn, D. (n.d.) ‘Lloyd Loar signature date counts’, The Mandolin Archive. http://www.mandolinarchive.com/signature_dates.html (accessed 22 September 2020)Google Scholar
Bryant, L.R. 2014. Onto-cartography: An Ontology of Machines and Media (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, C. 2019. ‘“Together again,” but we keep on crying: Buck Owens, Tom Brumley, and the pedal steel guitar, 1964’, Music Theory Online, 25/2. https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.19.25.2/mto.19.25.2.burns.htmlCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cantwell, R. 2003. Bluegrass Breakdown (Urbana, IL, University of Illinois Press; originally published 1984)Google Scholar
Caplin, W.E. 1998. Classical Form: A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven (Oxford, Oxford University Press)Google Scholar
Clark, A., and Chalmers, D. 1998. ‘The extended mind’, Analysis, 58/1, pp. 7–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Souza, J. 2017. Music at Hand: Instruments, Bodies, and Cognition (Oxford, Oxford University Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, R.O. 2020. The Portable Community: Place and Displacement in Bluegrass Festival Life (London, Routledge)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godbey, M. 2011. Crowe on the Banjo: The Music Life of J.D. Crowe (Champaign, IL, University of Illinois Press)Google Scholar
Goldsmith, T. 2004. The Bluegrass Reader (Urbana, IL, University of Illinois Press)Google Scholar
Harman, G. 2002. Tool Being: Heidegger and the Metaphysics of Objects (New York, Open Court)Google Scholar
Harman, G. 2005. Guerrilla Metaphysics: Phenomenology and the Carpentry of Things (New York, Open Court)Google Scholar
Harman, G. 2011. The Quadruple Object (Winchester, Zero Books)Google Scholar
Harris, C. 2018. Bluegrass, Newgrass, Old-Time, and Americana Music (Gretna, Pelican)Google Scholar
Heidegger, M. 1962. Being and Time, transl. Macquarrie, J. and Robinson, E. (Oxford, Blackwell)Google Scholar
Huron, D., and Berec, J. 2009. ‘Characterizing idiomatic organization in music: a theory and case study of musical affordances’, Empirical Musicology Review, 4/3, pp. 103–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kisliuk, M. 1988. ‘“A special kind of courtesy”: action at a bluegrass festival jam session’, TDR, 32/3, pp. 141–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Latour, B. 2005. Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor–Network-Theory (Oxford, Oxford University Press)Google Scholar
Malone, B.C., and Laird, T.E.W. 2018. Country Music USA. 50th Anniversary Edition (Austin, TX, University of Texas Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mauss, M. 2011. The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies (London, Routledge)Google Scholar
Merleau-Ponty, M. 1962. Phenomenology of Perception (London, Routledge & K. Paul)Google Scholar
Moten, F. 2003. In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition (Minneapolis, MN, University of Minneapolis Press)Google Scholar
Nagel, T. 1974. ‘What is it like to be a bat?’, Philosophical Review, 83, pp. 435–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, H. 1973. ‘Meaning and reference’, The Journal of Philosophy, 70/19, pp. 699–711CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, H. 2011. ‘The meaning of “meaning”’, in Philosophical Papers, Volume 2 (pp. 215–71) (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press; originally published 1975)Google Scholar
Rinzler, R. 2004. ‘Bill Monroe – the daddy of blue grass music’, in The Bluegrass Reader (pp. 137–40), ed. Goldsmith, T. (Urbana, IL, University of Illinois Press)Google Scholar
Rockwell, J. 2009. ‘Banjo transformations and bluegrass rhythm’, Journal of Music Theory, 53/1, pp. 137–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rockwell, J. 2012. ‘What is bluegrass anyway? Category formation, debate and the framing of musical genre’, Popular Music, 31/3, pp. 363–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rooney, J. 2004. ‘Bossman Bill Monroe’, in The Bluegrass Reader (pp. 35–44), ed. Goldsmith, T. (Urbana, IL, University of Illinois Press)Google Scholar
Rosenberg, N.V. 2004 ‘Jimmy Martin: You Don't Know My Mind’, in The Bluegrass Reader (pp. 58–60), ed. Goldsmith, T. (Urbana, IL, University of Illinois Press)Google Scholar
Rosenberg, N.V. 2005. Bluegrass: A History, Twentieth Anniversary edn (Urbana, IL, University of Illinois Press; originally published 1985)Google Scholar
Rosenberg, N.V., and Wolfe, C.K. 2007. The Music of Bill Monroe (Urbana, IL, University of Illinois Press)Google Scholar
Rothman, S. 2004. ‘First Christmas without Bill’, in The Bluegrass Reader (pp. 308–11), ed. Goldsmith, T. (Urbana, IL, University of Illinois Press)Google Scholar
Russell, R. 2017. ‘Jam etiquette for pickers and grinners’, Southwest Bluegrass Association. https://www.southwestbluegrass.org/2017/10/23/jam-etiquette/ (accessed 28 September 2020)Google Scholar
Sartre, J. 2004. Critique of Dialectical Reason: Volume One, trans. Sheridan-Smith, A. (New York, Verso)Google Scholar
Smith, L.M. 2004. ‘An introduction to bluegrass’, in The Bluegrass Reader (pp. 77–90), ed. Goldsmith, T. (Urbana, IL, University of Illinois Press)Google Scholar
Smith, R.D. 2001. Can't You Hear Me Callin’: The Life of Bill Monroe Father of Bluegrass (Cambridge, MA, Da Capo Press)Google Scholar
Steingo, G. 2017. ‘Actors and accidents in South African electronic music: an essay on multiple ontologies’, Contemporary Music Review, 37/5–6, pp. 554–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sudnow, D. 1978. Ways of the Hand (London, Routledge)Google Scholar
Tsing, A.L. 2015. The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press)Google Scholar
The Beatles, ‘I've Just Seen a Face’, Help! Parlophone, PMC 1255. 1965Google Scholar
Blake, Norman, ‘Nashville Blues’ [video file]. https://youtu.be/17dAGRcWt6A (accessed 22 September 2020)Google Scholar
Country Gazette, ‘Cherokee Shuffle’, Strictly Instrumental. Flying Fish Records, FF 446. 1987Google Scholar
Grisman, David and Rice, Tony, Tone Poems: The Sounds of the Great Vintage Guitars & Mandolins. Acoustic Disc, ACD-10. 1994Google Scholar
Hicks, Bobby, ‘Whiskey before breakfast’, Fiddle Patch. Rounder Records, Rounder CD 0416. 1998Google Scholar
Monroe, Bill & His Blue Grass Boys. ‘Shenandoah Breakdown’, Nine Pound Hammer. Tomato, TMT-2154. 2005Google Scholar
Reischman, John and The Jaybirds. ‘Salt Spring’, John Reischman and The Jaybirds. Copper Creek, CCCD-0205. 2001Google Scholar
Williams, Josh, ‘Cherokee Shuffle’, Down Home. Pinecastle Records, PRC 1173. 2009Google Scholar
The Beatles, ‘I've Just Seen a Face’, Help! Parlophone, PMC 1255. 1965Google Scholar
Blake, Norman, ‘Nashville Blues’ [video file]. https://youtu.be/17dAGRcWt6A (accessed 22 September 2020)Google Scholar
Country Gazette, ‘Cherokee Shuffle’, Strictly Instrumental. Flying Fish Records, FF 446. 1987Google Scholar
Grisman, David and Rice, Tony, Tone Poems: The Sounds of the Great Vintage Guitars & Mandolins. Acoustic Disc, ACD-10. 1994Google Scholar
Hicks, Bobby, ‘Whiskey before breakfast’, Fiddle Patch. Rounder Records, Rounder CD 0416. 1998Google Scholar
Monroe, Bill & His Blue Grass Boys. ‘Shenandoah Breakdown’, Nine Pound Hammer. Tomato, TMT-2154. 2005Google Scholar
Reischman, John and The Jaybirds. ‘Salt Spring’, John Reischman and The Jaybirds. Copper Creek, CCCD-0205. 2001Google Scholar
Williams, Josh, ‘Cherokee Shuffle’, Down Home. Pinecastle Records, PRC 1173. 2009Google Scholar