Rebecca Lynn Baker
San Jose State University
Professor Elizabeth Wrenn-Estes
LIBR 281-10
April 25, 2014
Friday, April 25, 2014
Introduction
Storytelling is one of the oldest human traditions, born at the inception of language and spanning across all cultures, countries, and generations. In the words of Rives Collins, co-author of The Power of Story: Teaching through Storytelling, "Storytelling is among the oldest forms of communication. Storytelling is the commonality of all human beings, in all places, in all times" (2005). Telling stories is a basic human need, and coupled with music and poetry, becomes a very powerful tool. Music and verse have been used to tell stories of humanity throughout history because they evoke emotion within the listener.
Historical Background
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| Courtesy www.accessgambia.com |
Around the 8th century B.C., performing storytellers known as
rhapsodes, would recite epic poetry, including poems written by Greek poet,
Homer. While rhapodes would be seen holding the lyre as they recited poetry,
they are not thought to play the instrument, or even sing the lyrics. It is
believed that the performers would simply recite the poetry from memory
(Schultz, 2014).
Poetry has also been used throughout spoken history as a means for
humans to share stories. Myths and legends were often memorized, written into
narrative poetry, and performed for people of nobility. Celtic poets, or bards,
would travel from place to place, where they would be hired to perform these
poems (Olson, 2012). Famous bards, such as William Shakespeare and Robert Burns
brought notoriety to their respective nations through original poetry,
collections of ballads, and dramatic performance.
Some of the first stories that were told intentionally as a means of
recounting events were performed as chants set to the rhythm of tribal work (as
cited in Greene, 2010). These early stories celebrated members and activities
of the tribe, and were often accompanied by ceremonial dancing.
Storytellers who told their tales through song often traveled from place
to place sharing their stories along the way. These musicians were known by
different names among different cultures, including griots, troubadours, and
minstrels. Modern musical storytelling genres were born from these travelling
storytellers—from folk music, to rap, and every other musical storytelling genre
in between.
Travelling Storytellers
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| Griots from West Africa courtesy enwikipedia.org |
Griots
West African bards of the fourteenth century,
known as griots, were travellers who were known for entertaining through story,
song and dance. Griots had the important role of preserving their people's
history through storytelling, and also acted as advisors to nobility (Lott,
2002). Today, the title of "griot" still exists, but roles are
defined by the society of the region. Griots are still born into their roles;
however, today, some opt out of the role. (Hale, 1997). Many griots continue to
perform and have had an impact on different genres of music as they connect to
the art of storytelling, including hip-hop and modern rock.
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| Courtesy lerapenfrance.fr |
Troubadours, Minstrels and Bards
Professional storytellers of the Middle Ages
also traveled among tribes, towns, and villages. These Celtic storytellers were
known as troubadours, minstrels, or bards. The travelers performed much of
their stories accompanied by music, which made them popular for the purpose of
entertaining those of nobility, who would hire them to perform (Woodard, 2002).
A majority of the troubadours' songs were ballads about love, religion, tragedy,
and political agenda (Farmer, 2012).
The invention of the printing press around 1450 began to take the
focus off of the oral tradition of storytelling, and was eventually followed by
the invention of radio, recorded music, and television. While these inventions
and discoveries may have temporarily shifted the focus from the oral tradition,
the art of storytelling has evolved and remained over generations in different forms.
Irish oral tradition was still preserved
through bards in the 1600s. Songs, stories, and poems were used to retell and
pass down history. When England defeated Ireland, England established military
rule within Ireland. During this time, the Irish actively resisted the English.
The Irish bards and storytellers played an active role in the resistance
through reciting stories and singing songs that reached out to their fellow
countrymen to rise up against the English (Holliday, 2004).
Hira Gasy
In Madagascar, during the 1700s, a form of
musical storytelling called Hira Gasy, was being performed (Raveloson, 2012).
King Andrianampoinimerina instructed
musicians to travel from community to community, speaking the text of his
speeches accompanied by music. The King’s intent was that the entertainment factor
of the Hira Gasy would help spread his ideas to all his people. The Hira Gasy
also featured dance moves and hand gestures with Asian martial art influences.
Today, the Hira Gasy is still told in Madagascar, and usually depicts tales of
love, political beliefs, morality, or philosophic thought (Raveloson, 2012).
Storytelling through Dramatic Performance and Poetry
The Rise of Shakespeare
During the 1600s, William Shakespeare, who
had been a well-known actor with a travelling company of actors in England,
began his own company, and began writing plays which were performed at public
theatres in England. These plays were based on stories including traditional
folklore, historical events, and events of the day (Hughes, 2009).
Shakespeare's work became so nationally and internationally known that he would
later became known as the "Bard of Avon", as well as the “National
Poet of England”, for his work as a professional poet. Shakespeare changed the
face of storytelling to include dramatic performance during the 17th century.
It is at this same time that the literary (written) tale begins to take over
from the oral tradition of the bards of the past. By the end of the century,
literary fairy tales became accepted as its own genre (Sorensen, 2004).
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| Courtesy moodle.monashores.net |
The Fireside Poets
During the mid-1800s, a group of American poets became well-known
for their poetry due to its timely content and ease of recitation. The
“Fireside Poets”, as they became known, commonly used poetic devices such as
rhyme and rhythm in their poetry, making the words easier to memorize and
retell. The poems, written by poets Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell
Holmes, John Greenleaf Whittier, James Russell Lowell, and William Cullen
Bryant, were based on legend, family life, and politics, with some of the most
popular poems being longer narrative-style poems (Creech, 2014). Families would
often share the poems while sitting together around the fire, thus contributing
to the collective name of the group.
Twentieth Century Poetry
Spoken-Word Poetry
Spoken-word poetry is “poetry that is written on a page but
performed for an audience” (North, 2008). This type of performance poetry uses
rhythmic language and imagery to tell the performer’s story. Stories may be
true from the perspective of the storyteller, or may be stories from the
perspective of a character created by the storyteller poet.
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| Courtesy caughtinthecarousel.com |
Beat Poetry
“Beat” poetry, which was coined by poet, Jack Kerouac, started out
referring to the “weariness” of society, and later became connected to the musical
rhythm of the poetry (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2013). Beat poetry was performed
by a poet known as a “beatnik”, who read their poems aloud, and often used
rhythm instruments and jazz music as accompaniment. Beat poetry did not use
conventional structure, but actually fought against it (Uttley, 2010). A
travelling poet for many years, Kerouac became known as the leader of the beat
movement, and eventually published, On
the Road, the book that would
become known as the bible of the beat generation. This was the beginning of “spoken-word”
poetry coming into its own.
Kerouac recorded some of his poetry, which incorporated jazz, such
as this one below.
Maya Angelou
A very different poet from that of the beat
poets, Maya Angelou, began as an actress, singer, and dancer. Unlike the beat
poets’ view of freeing oneself from the rules of society, Angelou was a part of
the civil rights movement, working alongside Martin Luther King, Jr.
(Mayaangelou.com, 2014). Angelou, born
as Marguerite Johnson, travelled the world as a young person, studying
languages and cultures, and gaining education as she travelled. Maya gathered
her experiences and published her first book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which was an autobiography of her
life. Because of this powerful work, she has been invited to recite the stories
of her life. Angelou sees her success as a storyteller due in large to her
understanding of mankind, “seeing us as more alike than we are unalike… if you develop the
art of seeing us as more alike than we are unalike, then all stories are
understandable” (Beard, 2013).
Angelou was invited by President Bill Clinton
to compose and recite a poem during his inauguration in 1993.
“On the Pulse of
the Morning”
Rap, Hip-hop, and
Spoken-Word Poetry
Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons is known as the godfather of hip-hop, but not for
his own performance contributions to the art. Simmons has pioneered the genre
through discovering, managing, and producing hip-hop and poetry artists,
bringing the craft of the spoken-word to the mainstream of modern culture.
Simmons co-founded the hip-hop recording label, Def Jam with business partner
in 1984, which launched the careers of many of today’s best-known hip-hop artists,
and in 2001, the hip-hop mogul co-founded the HBO television show, “Def Poetry
Jam”, which showcased spoken-word poets in poetry slam style each week
(mtv.com, n.d.).
Hip-Hop and Rap
Hip-hop has its roots in the travelling Griots of West Africa from
the 14th Century, the Negro spirituals of the 1800s, and in the
rocksteady beat of ragaee music from the 1960s (Neer, 2007). Hip-hop, in its
more modern form, began in the 1970s in the South Bronx. Hip-hop is a cultural
movement that combines rap, politics, urban living, and ethnicity (Smily,
2013).
In the 1970s, Disc Jockeys began playing with the music through
using turntables to add sounds to songs. This evolved into DJs contributing
poetry over the songs. This was the beginning of rap in the United States. Rap
provided a platform for African American and Latino poetry in the 1980s. In the
1990s, rap took a darker turn, with more negative lyrics based on street
violence and drug use. (Mork, 2013). Rap has since taken another turn, and
includes more humor and less hate. Rap has broadened its scope to include
stories from all different cultures, racial backgrounds, and now includes
religious subgenres.
Rap artists known especially for their storytelling talents
include rappers such as DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince (Will Smith); Slick Rick (Richard Walters); and Eminem (Marshall Maters).
DJ Jazzy Jefft & The Fresh Prince won the first Grammy ever for Best Rap Performance in 1989 for "Parents Just Don't Understand".
DJ Jazzy Jefft & The Fresh Prince won the first Grammy ever for Best Rap Performance in 1989 for "Parents Just Don't Understand".
Slick Rick told a cautionary "bedtime" tale of crime in the 1988 song, "Children's Story".
Rap artist, Eminem, tells a haunting story of an obsessed fan in his 1999 song, "Stan".
Storytelling through Music
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| Courtesy apworldhistory-rochester-k12-mi-us.wikispaces.com |
During the mid-nineteenth century, oral tradition was still prominent
in the United States, especially for slaves. Most slaves of the late 1800s could
not read or write, and so most of what slaves learned was from each other—and
from listening and repeating to others. It was through this type of
communication that Negro spirituals were born (Smith, 2008). Slaves would make
up lyrics to these songs to tell their stories and the stories of the other
slaves around them. Their heritage was preserved for future generations through
these songs. But, spirituals had an underlying use, as well. They were often
used to embed code through words that the slaves could follow, but in a way
that slave owners could not understand their true meaning. Through “sorrow
songs” slaves could tell the true story of the treatment they received at the
hands of their owners without their owners realizing what was being said about
them (Smith, 2008). Spirituals were also used to secretively transfer
information along the Underground Railroad through the same kind of special
coding that could not be perceived by slave owners. Many of these songs have
been passed down through multiple generations and are still known today.
Folk Music
Folk music is deeply rooted in the oral
storytelling tradition of the common man. With politics, civil rights, and
romantic stories at the heart of the genre, folk music naturally tells the
story of the people which it represents. During the twentieth century, the folk
song was used to fight social injustice many times—from child labor laws, to
the Great Depression, to the Civil Rights Movement (Ruehl, n.d.). Folk songs
have been preserved by poets and musicians who have found value in the history
which is a part of the folk song.
Carl
Sandburg
Carl
Sandburg is known as the "Poet of the People" (Niven, 2003), but he
was also a musician from a young age. As he become known for his poetry in the
1920s, Sandburg would travel across the country-- much like a minstrel of the
past. As he traveled reciting his poetry, he would also collect folk songs, and
as he collected them, he would perform them along with his poetry (Niven,
2003). Not only did Sandburg collect folk songs as he travelled, but he also
collected stories from people he met along the way. This impacted his poetry in
a big way, and he began writing poems that also told stories. Sandburg pulled
from his own memories as a boy on a prairie and "poured the experiences of
real life into his poetry" (Niven, 2003).
Woody
Guthrie
In
the late 1930s and early 1940s, Woody Guthrie was a troubadour musician who
travelled across America "soaking up songs" (Partridge, 2002). He
collected songs from mountain musicians, chain gangs, seamen, cowboys, and
everyday hard labor workers. He used all of the songs he was exposed to as
inspiration for writing his own songs, and in 1940, Guthrie wrote the song
"This Land is Your Land", portraying the beauty of the country he had
travelled through, paired with the struggles of the people he had met along the
way during the Great Depression. Guthrie's whole purpose was to sing songs
which would "...make you take pride in yourself" (Partridge, 2002) --
a characteristic that made Guthrie a great musical storyteller.
Pete
Seeger
Other
folk musicians have been inspired by Guthrie's way of telling stories of “the
people” through song, including Pete Seeger. In 1940, at the age of twenty,
Seeger met Guthrie backstage at a benefit concert. Seeger and Guthrie began
travelling and performing together. In Seeger’s words, this began his “big, big
education in learning about America” (Appleseed Recordings, 2012). This
education led Seeger to follow in Guthrie’s footsteps, as a folk singer, song
collector, storyteller, and champion for the average man (Pareles, 2014).
Seeger saw folk music and storytelling as a means of connecting community, and
through connecting community, creating change. One of the songs about change
that Seeger is best known for is one that he learned from a fellow folk
musician. Seeger’s “We Shall Overcome”, which would later become known as the
anthem of the civil rights movement, was a song that he had learned from a folk
school cultural director. Striking tobacco workers had introduced the original
hymn, “I’ll Overcome Someday” to the director, and the director taught the song
to Seeger, who simply changed a couple of the words before recording the song
himself (Molloy, 2014). This was a great example of Seeger’s belief in the
power of community, song, and story to the human cause. In Seeger’s own words, “The key to the future of
the world is finding the optimistic stories and letting them be known”
(Pareles, 2014).
John
Jacob Niles
John Jacob Niles, a folk music collector and ballad
composer from Kentucky, was known for storytelling through a combination of
folk music and dramatic performance. Niles collected folk songs from the
mountains of Kentucky, and performed them through accompanying himself with the
state instrument, the dulcimer. The musician also valued the connection that
the mountain song had to the people who sang it, and used vocalizations to
connect to the emotions of the story being told through the song. Niles also
collected and recited poems collected from the mountains of Kentucky, and would
also act out the story physically while reciting the words. He understood the
connection between the story and the song, saying, “A ballad is a song that tells
a story—or take it from the other point of view, a story told in song” (PBS,
2011).
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