Sigma Alpha Iota

20 Winter 2024 • sai-national.org SAI Philanries, Inc. Fraternity Education HEARING continued from page 11 Continuing our studies of Music of the Americas, our next presentation was by our sister Roxann Ferguson titled "A Glimpse into the Roaring 20's." is was a perfect presentation to continue our year with, as we had just learned the previous month about the roots of jazz music in American Slave music, and how jazz rose to popularity in the 1920s. As America was coming out of WWI, we saw unprecedented economic growth and prosperity which gave rise to consumer culture. is included technological innovations like the telephone, radio, and phonograph, as well as the large-scale adoption of automobiles, household electricity, and movie-going. Originating in the late 19th and early 20th century, Ragtime was the immediate predecessor of jazz music, which was stylized by a single piano player. By 1917 this style of music began to be associated with the catchall term "jazz," which was used to describe the peppy and upbeat music of the era. Aer the war ended, people began to turn to this music as an escape from the ongoing Spanish Flu pandemic. It was also during this time that the prohibition era began ( January 17, 1920) and women were granted the right to vote (August 18, 1920). Looking for any way to celebrate and rebel throughout the 20s, people fled to speakeasies to hear jazz music, drink, and party the night away. Roxann discussed in her presentation some of the most influential musicians and composers of this era: Victor Herbert, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and George Gershwin. Herbert, though not a jazz musician, helped enact the Copyright Act of 1909, securing the rights of composers to charge royalties on sound recording sales. He also was a founding member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, better known today as ASCAP. His works include the famous operettas Babes in Toyland (1903) and Naughty Marietta (1910), which helped lead the way into the jazz era. e next composer, Irving Berlin, le home at the age of 14 and began to perform on the streets of New York City, eventually becoming a singing waiter in downtown restaurants. He taught himself how to play piano and would improvise songs during his performances. In 1909 he took a job with Tin Pan Alley Music Publishing and quickly became one of America's most famous composers and lyricists, giving us famous songs such as Blue Skies (1926), Cheek to Cheek (1935), and his most iconic piece, White Christmas, written in 1942 for the movie Holiday Inn. Composer and lyricist, Cole Porter, almost wasn't a musician as he originally studied Law at Yale and Harvard at his grandfather's wishes. But in 1913 he secretly switched to the music department at the suggestion of the dean of the law school and his mother. When the U.S. entered WWI in 1917, Porter went to Paris to work with a relief organization. Porter studied orchestration and counterpoint while in Paris, and in 1928 had his first hit with the musical Paris, which brought us the song Let's Misbehave. His other major successes include Anything Goes (1934) and Kiss Me, Kate (1948). And finally, we discussed composer George Gershwin, as no lesson on American Jazz music would be complete without it. Gershwin was another artist who became famous as a song plugger in New York's Tin Pan Alley. He published his first song at 17 and earned less than five dollars for it. Just three years later in 1919, his song Swanee flew to national acclaim, making him one of America's most famous composers. ough he only lived until 38, passing from an undiagnosed brain tumor, he brought America and the world some of the most famous musical works in history, including Rhapsody in Blue (1924), An American in Paris (1928), and Porg y and Bess (1935). Roxann ended her presentation by singing some of these composers' famous works, accompanied by another sister, Karen Tobias. Our next presentation this year was given by member Wendy Wiegers and just in time for anksgiving, presented a program titled "Following the Dream: e American Hymn Sung and Sewn." Wendy's presentation to us was very special as this was a portion of her Master's thesis at VanderCook College. Her thesis asked the question, "When did American Women begin composing hymns or writing hymnal texts?" She hypothesized that starting with the Pilgrims and continuing for several hundred years, women were too busy providing the necessities for survival. is, along with beliefs that were guided by strict translations of "God's Word" that women should remain silent in the church, meant there was no time for them to write these hymnals. At the time, women would "patch" their worn-out bedding with spare strips of fabric and they realized that when doing this, they could create patterns and quilts that told stories. ese quilts became women's hymns of praise or political ideas. One of the first Pilgrim patterns was called "Jacob's Ladder" with squares ascending like steps to Wendy Wiegers displays a patchwork quilt as part of her presentation Wendy Wiegers displays a patchwork quilt as part of her presentation "Following the Dream: The American Hymn Sung and Sewn." "Following the Dream: The American Hymn Sung and Sewn."

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