The Harlem Renaissance was a new literary culture by African Americans. It started in the 1920's and became very popular during that time until the 1930's. It consisted not only of poems, short stories, and books, but also music. The most popular music that came out of this was jazz music. Music alone acts like a story, but especially jazz music. Jazz music can paint a picture for the listener and the player. One can simply listen to the song, and interpret what the composer is trying to get across.
In English class, we listened to a certain jazz song and tried to picture what the song was "painting." This is my painting. This is my interpretation of the jazz song.
The song was like many solos combined into the song, along with an introduction and conclusion played by all of the instruments. It started off slowly, and I pictured people sitting at a dimmed restaurant. There is a low murmur of voices in the background. When the saxophone starts, I picture a sad person telling a story to someone. Putting in many details about their own life. Then as more instrumentalists solo, such as the piano, trumpet, and trombone, I picture more people telling their stories. The faster the solo, the happier their story seems to be. But with each happy story comes a sad story. At the end of the song, all the instruments play slowly and sadly. This makes me think of people agreeing on sad times. Consolling each other about their lives. Then the song ends with the drummer, playing lightly on a cymbol, and playing very quietly. Again, the restaurant is filled with the low murmuring of voices, just like the beginning.
There are many ways to paint a picture from a song. One may think about people dancing. One may think about a certain landscape or environment. There are many different interpretations of the song, many different paintings. However, this is my interpretation, my painting of the song.
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