African American Music In August Wilson's The Piano Lesson

In August Wilson’s novel, The Piano Lesson, African American music played a major role. Throughout the play the characters would sing many different genres of music. They sang songs that were from the blues era, and they included some jazz within the play. August Wilson, the author of The Piano Lesson, illustrates the importance that African American music and the instruments that they played had upon their culture.

The play The Piano Lesson, has several historical elements that have important meanings to the family. The characters in this play shows that no matter what has happened in the past to their ancestors that they will keep their tradition. Bernice keeping the piano that was traded for her grandmother shows that she cares a lot about

her family history. The carvings on the piano reminds her of the things that they went through just for a piano (Wilson 1228). The carvings are people that were from her family that were either traded for something or were taken by another slave owner (Wilson 1228). The music that is played and sung by the characters are sung to change the mood from hectic to more of a humble peaceful mood.
During the play, the family plays a major role. The family owns a piano that holds a lot of memories. Memories of their ancestors that were traded off for the instrument and the carvings that are imbedded on it (Wilson 1228). Since nobody played on the piano besides Maretha, her mother’s brother, Boy Willie comes to town to try to sell it (Wilson 1210). Boy Willie intention is to come to town to sell watermelons with his friend Lymon (Wilson 1206). He then realizes that the piano is just a waste and starts to consider selling it for some land. Boy Willie told Bernice and Doaker that Sutter body was found in his well and that the ghost of the yellow dog was responsible (Wilson 1208). Bernice comes running down the stairs in fear. She tells them that Sutter’s ghost was standing at the top of the stairs (Wilson 1211). Sutter was the slave owner of their ancestors (Wilson 1227). Sutter was the person to trade their ancestors so that his wife could have a piano (Wilson 1227).
In the West Six Media video they comment, “before there was an instrument called the piano, there was an instrument similar to the piano called the harpsichord”. The strings on the harpsichord were plucked to play a softer or a louder tone (West Six Media). In 1709, Cristofori introduced the piano to the prince (West Six Media). The first piano which was built in 1920 is still on display in Maryland (West Six Media). They tested the string on the piano but hitting them with a hammer instead of plucking them like the previous instrument (West Six Media). The piano is constructed just like the harpsichord, and the sound from both instruments are also similar from the sound 180 years ago (West Six Media). However, the sound from the piano and the harpsichord has nothing to do with the sound board (West Six Media). The piano had more of a vibration from the strings rather than the harpsichord which has plucking of the strings (West Six Media). The first greatest piano teacher was Musio Celmso who was born in Rome (West Six Media). He created piano book so that people could learn how to play it, and his challenging work is still used during the modern time. He made a fortune from the work that he had created.
Throughout the play, The Piano Lesson, American culture music are demonstrated.

The characters in the novel played all genres of music off a piano which they sang along to. In many scenarios, Winning Boy would begin to play music off the piano and began to sing which made the others join in with him. The first genre of music that he played was blues. The blues song that Winning Boy played was more of a slow tempo song. Although Elijah Wald, the author of, The Blues: A Very Short Introduction, makes a statement that blues was more of a slower tempo type music during the earlier years and the tempo began to speed up as years passed by (Wald 2). The tempo was not so slow that it would have been considered a sad song (Wald 2). Wald states, “This twelve-bar blues is ideally suited to the West African traditions of a call-to-response, in which a lead of voice or instrument states a phrase that is answered by other voices or players” (Wald 2). The statement explains that the genre blues started in Africa (Wald 2). Africans started the blues movement within this music and later during the years the music was recreated by people of other ethnics (Wald 2). The main African American style which would be described as a fusion of blues was brought by the ex-slaves right after the emancipation (Wald 82). It was not until the 1920s when African Americans were allowed to record any of their blues records (Wald 83). Blues could have been presented with many different rhythms. The rhythms could range from slow to moody to an even faster piece (Wald

83).
Winning Boy enters the play again with another song, but this time the genre was different. The song that he begins to sing had more of an upbeat rhythm that made people want to dance. Within that moment, they were introduced to the genre, jazz. During the 1920s, many of the blues musicians were questionable because they were also good at jazz (Wald 85). Blues and jazz were connected, but as years went by, African American jazz musicians wanted to forget the link between the two (Wald 90). Many people know that the birthplace of the genre jazz is New Orleans. Gioia makes a statement saying, “Yet jazz bands were more commonly found in the cabarets and dance halls in the district, rather than in the bordellos themselves” (Gioia 34). People thought that the jazz music had a connection with the house of God (Gioia 34). The Bapist Church rhythms were comparable to jazz, and their singing was more of a blues harmony (Gioia 34). When Winning Boy entered the room singing a jazz song, everyone calmed down (Wilson 1229). Maybe church music and jazz are connected, which was the reason for everyone to calm down and sing along.
In the early nineteenth century, the identity of the trumpet began to change due to the technology received in the nineteenth century (Wallace, John et al 1). Wallace and John states, “the trumpet was considered an aristocrat, the cornet a proletanan” (Wallace, John et al 1). During the early years, people made trumpets out of anything. They were made from wood, bamboo, mammal horns, and even crustacean shells (Wallace, John et al 5). The trumpet would be considered as an early man-made object (Wallace, John et al 5). In the early years, a single trumpet could have been constructed just from a single piece of pipe. (Wallace, John et al 12). African chiefs and kings began to use the metal trumpets although those were constructed as side blown trumpets (Wallace, John et al 12). The instrument has a wind lip vibration that creates aa sound of sequence that comes from the players body. (Wallace, John et al 36). When playing a trumpet, the players lips are the major key. The way that their lips are on the instrument will reflect on the outcome of the sound that you will receive. (Wallace, John et al 36). The vibration from the air, which comes from the players lungs, form a standing wave within the instrument. The trumpet has two cylindrical yards (Wallace, John et al 36). The first part of the two-cylindrical yard is the tapered end where the mouthpiece belongs, and the third yard consists of two parts the conical bell pipe and a flare bell. (Wallace, John et al 36).
Jazz and Blues are the type of music that people would use to calm themselves down. The method that they are performing with the music to calm them down is coping. For example, on page one thousand two hundred and thirty-two Bernie and her brother Boy Willie get into a headed altercation (Wilson). Bernice tells Boy Willie, “You killed Crawley just as sure as if you pulled that trigger” (Wilson 1232). Boy Willie, Lymon, and Crawley were hired by a man named Jim Miller to go pick up some wood (Wilson 1233). While doing the job, the three men saw three other men and thought that they were trying to get to their wood (Wilson 1224). Although that was not the case, Boy Willie, Lymon, and Crawley saw that the men were with cops, and Crawley wanted to take actions into his own hand (Wilson 1224). Crawley went to get his gun and began to fire the weapon at the men and at the police (Wilson 1224). As the altercation continues, Winning Boy comes in the door and begins to sing (Wilson 1229). When he began to sing, the tension went away, and Bernice began to think that they did that on purpose (Wilson 1230). The singing made things go back to normal all of the negativity went away within da matter of seconds.