CHAPTER 11 | THE BLUES 259
measure: 9 10 11 12
Harmony: VV II
Te x t : Cause my baby he done lef’ dis town.The three equal phrases of a twelve-bar blues chorus typically accommodate a
three-line lyric, one line for each phrase (although other lyrical patterns are not
unusual). In its archetypal form, a blues stanza repeats the opening line of text
for the second phrase, then introduces a new, rhyming line in the third phrase
that completes the idea. In other words, the stanza is a couplet with the fi rst
line repeated. Some writers describe this lyrical structure as A AB; care must be
taken, however, not to confuse this description of lyrics with the similar use of
letters to denote musical forms such as aaba.
Blues melodies generally deliver the words in the fi rst half of each four-bar
phrase, leaving the second half open for an instrumental response, sometimes
called a fi ll. The result is the call-and-response dialogue found in many types of
African American music.
Blues melodies also make prominent use of blue notes, lowered or “bent” ver-
sions of the third and seventh (and occasionally the fi fth) scale degrees in the major
scale. “St. Louis Blues” begins on the unaltered third degree of a major scale, but
“sun” in bar 2 is sung to a blues third, a half step lower; the lowered pitch can signify
both the setting sun and the persona’s melancholy as the sun sinks from sight.
Blues melodies tend to be sung to a standard series of chords, a blues
progression built, in its simplest form, on three chords: tonic (I), subdominant (IV),
and dominant (V), distributed across the three phrases as I——— / IV— I— / V— I—.
The placement of these chords at the beginning and middle of each phrase is cru-
cial, but other chords are often inserted elsewhere to elaborate on the basic pro-
gression. One common variation is the addition of a subdominant chord in bar 2;
sometimes that chord is added in bar 10 as well. Another common alteration is
the addition of a dominant chord in the last bar, which has the effect of propelling
the music into the next chorus; because it creates the sensation of demanding “one
more time,” the dominant chord in the last bar is sometimes called a turnaround.
The fi rst and second stanzas of “St. Louis Blues” are set to identical music
in Handy’s sheet music. The fourth stanza uses the same blues progression and
twelve-bar phrase structure, but with a new melody and a busier texture. Yet
“St. Louis Blues,” like “Memphis Blues,” is more than just a succession of blues
choruses. The third of the song’s four strains is sixteen bars long and enlivened
by a Latin rhythm associated with the tango. In 1914, the year Handy published
“St. Louis Blues,” the tango was enjoying popularity in the United States, thanks
largely to its promotion by exhibition dancers like Irene and Vernon Castle.
“St. Louis Blues” was a signature blues number, gaining worldwide popular-
ity, and earning its composer royalties for the rest of his long life; it has been
recorded countless times since its fi rst recording in 1920.RACE RECORDS AND CLASSIC BLUES
The early years of the century saw the fl edgling phonograph industry undergo-
ing its fi rst “format war”: the battle between cylinders and discs. By 1920 the lat-
ter had decisively edged out the former, though the Edison company continuedblue notesblues progressionturnaround172028_11_254-279_r3_ko.indd 259 23/01/13 8:42 PM