... expression itself This is indicated by the last line of the poem, where the speaker notes that the piano player "slept like a rock or a man that's dead." The key word here is "or," for it denotes the imprecision of the speaker's understanding. What the blues articulates is the simultaneous ... presence of the "tragic and comic aspects of the human conditions." Thus, the blues in the poem is not the conventional "either/or" condition configured within the Cartesian construct. Rather, the piano ... . The poem's last line, then, ignores the blues performer's ability to articulate pain and ...

• Word Count: 547
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... scheme in three four-bar segments--each one part vocal, part instrumental response--using a I-IV-V chord progression, including chords with flatted "blue" notes, usually thirds and sevenths. ...a musical state of mind. All true, none of them true enough. The origins of the blues precede recorded music ... the human voice--and the banjo. The form began coalescing just around the turn of the century, with the more familiar guitar and piano gaining currency. Musicologists' best guesstimates place the blues as chiefly arising in three regions: Texas, Georgia/the Carolinas, and, most notably...

• Word Count: 1753
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate