Preview

Stevie Wonder, Groove and Flow Decitation

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
77907 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Stevie Wonder, Groove and Flow Decitation
©Copyright 2003 Timothy S. Hughes

Groove and Flow: Six Analytical Essays on the Music of Stevie Wonder

Timothy S. Hughes

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

University of Washington 2003

Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Music

University of Washington Graduate School

This is to certify that I have examined this copy of a doctoral dissertation by

Timothy S. Hughes

and have found that it is complete and satisfactory in all respects, and that any and all revisions required by the final examining committee have been made.

Chair of Supervisory Committee:

Jonathan Bernard

Reading Committee:

Jonathan Bernard Lawrence Starr Thomas Collier Date:

In presenting this dissertation in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctoral degree at the University of Washington, I agree that the Library shall make its copies freely available for inspection. I further agree that extensive copying of the dissertation is allowable only for scholarly purposes, consistent with “fair use” as prescribed in the U.S. Copyright Law. Requests for copying or reproduction of this dissertation may be referred to Proquest Information and Learning, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346, to whom the author has granted “the right to reproduce and sell (a) copies of the manuscript in microform and/or (b) printed copies of the manuscript made from microform.”

Signature

Date

University of Washington Abstract Groove and Flow: Six Analytical Essays on the Music of Stevie Wonder Timothy S. Hughes Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Jonathan Bernard Music Theory

This dissertation is a collection of analytical essays on songs made by Stevie Wonder between 1972 and 1974. The essays focus on two interwoven aspects of soul and funk music, as they are employed by Wonder: the use of repeated musical figures, particularly grooves, to generate a sense of



Bibliography: Dick Hebdidge, Cut ‘n’ Mix: Culture, Identity and Caribbean Music (New York: Routledge, 1987), 11 See the full citations in note three above. All five songs are also available in the boxed set At the Close of a Century, Motown 012 153992-2 (1999).

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Berendt, Joachim-Ernst, and Günther Huesmann. The Jazz Book: from Ragtime to the 21st Century. Chicago, IL: Lawrence Hill, 2009. Print.…

    • 2352 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Stevie Wonder is one of the most commercially and critically successful artists of all time, recording over thirty top ten US chart hits. His influence on many music genres is in its abundance. In the 1970’s he released a large amount of work that is still heard today and still covered today by many artists. He played many instruments including piano, numerous synthesizers, drums and bass guitar. His voice and vocal melody lines were rated amongst the best, with his style, delivery and lyrics still trying to be emulated today.…

    • 2927 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Stevie Ray Vs Jimi

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Stevie Ray Vaughan’s technical skill was nothing short of extraordinary. He was hugely influential in restoring the popularity of blues rock in the late 70s, and throughout the following decade, when the world was polyester clad and disco dancing to KC and the Sunshine band. Stevie charmed the masses, playing fast and clean. He would use heavy distortion and tremolo (a distortion created by fast repetition of the same note) from time to time but his true magic came from his nimble fingers. When he covered the Hendrix song,“Little Wing”, he played with such precision; no one would mistake him for Jimi. When Stevie performed at the MTV Unplugged, he electrified the audience with his…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Motown Book Review

    • 1518 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Chapter 4 in the book Dancing in the Street: Motown and the Cultural Politics of Detroit by Suzanne E. Smith focuses primarily on Motown’s popularity and “the question of the relationship of the negro artist and his or her art to black struggle”(Smith, 139). Langston Hughes believed that “all forms of black culture, including popular music, confronted these issues (black struggle) in some way during the civil rights years, and Motown music was no exception”(Smith, 139). Throughout the chapter, the author discusses the evolution of Motown during an extremely pivotal time in the country, and the artists associated with this genre.…

    • 1518 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Music is an intrapersonal, adaptive, global, and ever evolving form of art. Considering that music is adaptive, it is a reflection of cultural, political, and social events of a time period. Contemporary music compares to vintage music by virtue of derivation. In the instance that American artists and genres derive from earlier forms of European music, there are several similarities yet stark differences that aid in the progression of layers and depth in musical performance. In efforts to illustrate the similarities and differences of old and new American and European music, modern day artist Esperanza Spalding’s jazz musical qualities are exceptionally compared to the qualities of classical music.…

    • 372 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This report will be about the life of one of the world’s most famous and memorable composers, Michael Jackson. His musical career will be looked into from start to finish. Along with mentioning his background/history, we will identify his musical influences as a composer. It is important to know what the trend was and what was popular around the time of Michael’s musical journey. These factors may have impacted his composing. Of course taking a deeper look into his musical pieces would give us insight on how he truly was as a writer. I will conclude by expressing how this artist was viewed by the public and also what I personally believe.…

    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Smith does an excellent job and service to the story of Motown Records in her presentation of the Black Forum subsidiary. In Berry Gordy’s autobiography, this label, which featured recordings by Martin Luther King, Ossie Davis, Stokely Carmichael, and Langston Hughes, receives barely a mention in a single paragraph. However, given the title and its publisher, a large component of the audience consists of different facets of music historians, scholars, and students who already possess some knowledge of Motown. Smith’s sections on the history of Motown do not provide any new or compelling accounts that were not already available and rely heavily on secondary or already published autobiographies and interviews.…

    • 957 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The music has presented ever-changing throughout history. A variety of musicians has passed through each century leaving a lasting impression on the world. Each musician gave you a piece of him or her and how he or she saw the world of music and life through his or her eyes (Kamien, 2011). The write will elaborate on two well-known musicians of the 20th century, and then contrast and compare a 20th century musician song and a modern day song which both had aspects of controversial issues within each work.…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    John Coltrane

    • 2116 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Jazz, taking its roots in African American folk music, has evolved, metamorphosed, and transposed itself over the last century to become a truly American art form. More than any other type of music, it places special emphasis on innovative individual interpretation. Instead of relying on a written score, the musician improvises. For each specific period or style through which jazz has gone through over the past seventy years, there is almost always a single person who can be credited with the evolution of that sound. From Thelonius Monk, and his bebop, to Miles Davis' cool jazz, from Dizzy Gillespie's big band to John Coltrane's free jazz; America's music has been developed, and refined countless times through individual experimentation and innovation. One of the most influential musicians in the development of modern jazz is John Coltrane. In this paper, I examine the way in which Coltrane's musical innovations were related to the music of the jazz greats of his era and to the tribulations and tragedies of his life.…

    • 2116 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    When people talk about music, do they ever wonder where all these great expressions come from? Music is general is such a broad subject, but in the case of American music, there is one important root: The African American Spirituals. These Negro Spiritual songs like, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” "The Wings of Atalanta," "Been a -listening," and "The Dawn of freedom" express the sorrow and suffering of African American people to the world (Dilks, Hansen, Parfitt, 2011). In the late 18th and early 19th century these songs became popular and have influenced future American music genre (Jones, 2004)). This influence can be seen in blues, jazz, rock and roll, hip-hop, and rap.…

    • 1282 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ornette Coleman Paper

    • 1807 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Ornette Coleman is one of the most influential artists in jazz and considered an American icon and legend. There are not many musicians that emerge who dramatically changed the way we listen to music. Ornette Coleman was of the major innovators of free jazz as well as a great saxophonist and composer. Coleman’s bluesy, playful music revolutionized jazz by ignoring regular harmonies and rhythm. He even created his own theory “harmolodic” and applied it to rock instrumental in his group Prime Time. The musician’s new style helped to regenerate jazz by allowing for the genre to go into a new direction and be placed for his music to be placed in a group of major 20th century composers. This paper will discuss how Ornette Coleman borrowed from the world of jazz to influence concert hall compositions.…

    • 1807 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This paper is will try to show how the music that started with singing of old songs by the slaves to influences the music that the world listens to today. Shaping the music of Rock and Roll, Country and Western, and Easy Listening that influences every aspect of society’s everyday life are Blues and Jazz. In an interview many years ago on television, heard by this student, John Lennon said that the biggest influence in his musical life was the Blues. John Lennon started listening to the Blues before listening to any other type of music; the result of this influence on him can easily be seen. Because of the influence of the Blues, John Lennon was one of the biggest influences in music history with the Beatles and then on his own.…

    • 1698 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Motown Music

    • 428 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Musical Repertoire is a collection of music pieces played by an individual musician or ensemble, or composed for a particular instrument or group of instruments, voice or choir (Wikipedia).…

    • 428 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Squarcialupi Codex

    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Sadie, Stanley, ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd Edition. Vol. 18. London: Macmillian Publishers Limited, 2001.…

    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ragtime Music

    • 843 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Ragtime was a relatively brief-lived musical form, its popularity lasting for about twenty years, but it was an essential link between earlier forms of “Negro music,” European (“classical”) music, and jazz. It was defined at the time by its then-revolutionary use of syncopation, or it’s “ragged rhythm,” which refers to its rhythmically broken up melodies. Its rhythms made it lively and springy, and therefore ideal for dancing.…

    • 843 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics