The first meaning of blues refers to a musical selection or performance that conveys a feeling of melancholy, regret, longing or similar emotion to the listener. Hearing it, you might say that the performer has the blues and, indeed, you might be moved some way toward that position yourself if the rendition is sufficiently convincing.
The second meaning of blues describes a tune which has a certain type of musical structure. Typically, that structure is a variation on a three phrase, twelve bar chorus, if played in double time, twenty four bars.
However, eight bar blues are quite common, as are sixteen bar blues. A sixteen bar blues may have a few extra bars added to its final phrase, called a turnaround or sweet mama ending.
Among Blues aficionados, longer works, even when bluesy in feeling and performed by acknowledged Blues performers, are not conventionally thought of as blues. Thirty two bar numbers, though often found in the repertoire, tend to be regarded instead as pop songs.
When this second meaning is used, the performance need not create a blue mood. The boisterous set closer Weary Blues, for example, or the bouncy Canal Street Blues, qualify as blues because they are constructed according to the conventions of blues composing.
The third meaning of blues, i.e., as a term that refers to a specific musical genre just as Dixieland refers to jazz using a pre swing jazz musical vocabulary. We’re talking about the music you will find if you enter your local record store and browse through the section labelled Blues... The Blues section will include two rather different sounding types of music. One is referred to as acoustic, pre-war, or country Blues, while the other is, naturally, electric, post-war, or urban Blues.
The second meaning of blues describes a tune which has a certain type of musical structure. Typically, that structure is a variation on a three phrase, twelve bar chorus, if played in double time, twenty four bars.
However, eight bar blues are quite common, as are sixteen bar blues. A sixteen bar blues may have a few extra bars added to its final phrase, called a turnaround or sweet mama ending.
Among Blues aficionados, longer works, even when bluesy in feeling and performed by acknowledged Blues performers, are not conventionally thought of as blues. Thirty two bar numbers, though often found in the repertoire, tend to be regarded instead as pop songs.
When this second meaning is used, the performance need not create a blue mood. The boisterous set closer Weary Blues, for example, or the bouncy Canal Street Blues, qualify as blues because they are constructed according to the conventions of blues composing.
The third meaning of blues, i.e., as a term that refers to a specific musical genre just as Dixieland refers to jazz using a pre swing jazz musical vocabulary. We’re talking about the music you will find if you enter your local record store and browse through the section labelled Blues... The Blues section will include two rather different sounding types of music. One is referred to as acoustic, pre-war, or country Blues, while the other is, naturally, electric, post-war, or urban Blues.
- Released on: Everything's Coming Up Roses - The Musical World Of Stephen Sondheim album
- Genre: Jazz, Easy Listening
- Written by: Stephen Sondheim
- Released: 1976
"Roy Budd's first film score was for the American western Soldier Blue in 1970, but most of his film work was on British productions. He is best known for his score for the 1971 British cult film Get Carter."
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