THE WORLD OF THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK

Abstract

This chapter introduces Tin Pan Alley, early twentieth-century popular music publishing. Its mature style paired witty, conversational but courtly lyrics with concise, dramatic melodies conducive to jazz performance. The standard refrain structure (ABAC) often had a rhythmic quickening and rhymed couplet near the end. The study’s corpus is eight songs, much performed yet little appreciated, analyzed, or researched. Innovation in the genre was communal. Song histories reveal many obscure people shaping each work’s elements, challenging the auteurist approach. Collective innovation factors include: generalized genres; specific cycles; and performance tradition, oral and aural. These ballads reveal the growth of the personal, intimate, and internal in jazzy songs. The discussion introduces, defines, and traces early history of two terms, the “torch song” and “crooning.” A sketch of related contemporary trends includes: the transformation of blue ballads into blues proper; spirituals popularized by soloists; cabarets and small theatres; psychoanalysis; and telephone, radio and the electronic microphone, relating to R. Murray Schafer’s concept of schizophonia. The “crooning” label highlights the connection of popular ballads and the lullaby, linking to psychology, particularly the work of Dr. John Diamond. Pivotal crooners include Tommy Lyman and Bing Crosby.