Characteristics Of Symphonic Jazz

Abstract

: The origins of symphonic jazz are a synthesis of Afro-American culture, popular music from the beginning of the 20th century and European classical music. Just like the European composers who assimilated folk melodies in creating new compositional languages in the spirit of artistic nationalism, American composers integrated the synthesis of African-American music and popular music in symphonic works, ways in which they defined a new genre - symphonic jazz. This genre was defined and promoted in the 1920s by musicians like George Gershwin and Paul Whiteman, but the interest for the confluence of jazz and classical music had been initiated by European composers, particularly French composers, at the end of 19th century. When looking at European confluent works, the influences of American music was not as substantial as in symphonic jazz, mainly because in those times European composers did not have access to live jazz music. In European confluent works there are influences of pre-jazz music, like blues and ragtime, as pentatonic scales related to the blues scale and especially specific rhythms. Symphonic Jazz used the romantic orchestra, combining also vernacular African-American instruments, or integrating in instrumentation different new effects, to suggest an image of the 20th century urban American society. Of course, some American composers found inspiration in the jazz big bands of the beginning of the 20th century, by this turning to their typical economy of instrumentation. Symphonic jazz works are usually presented in classical or romantic ample forms, which contain smaller forms, inspired by the typical American song form or blues form. This genre had a big impact in creating the idea of musical modernism, by combining subcultural music with classical music.