Self-study
P1
The term "blues" is conventionally used to refer to a state of sadness or melancholy, but to conclude from this that the musical genre of the same name is merely an expression of unrelieved sorrow is to miss its deeper meaning. ███
Intro to Topic ·
Blues (musical genre) is more than sorrow
Blues and Spirituals ·
Similar: both elicit a spiritual transformation
Blues has been called "secular spiritual."
Main Point ·
Both tap into African American culture
I suspect this is the main point. But will have to see if rest of passage supports this.
P2
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Premise ·
AA folk tradition doesn't separate secular and religious
Premise ·
Blues and spirituals try to transform sorrow into elation
Premise ·
Both forms may be linked to AA and West African culture of creating "ecstasy"
Author is theorizing here. Notice "may be linked."
P3
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Musical Mechanics ·
Blues transcend negative experience with mastery of performance
Author is talking about how blues is able to achieve the effect that it does.
Example ·
Singer is poor but performs well
By boasting, the singer is able to transcend the negative experience of being poor.
Passage Style
Single position
12.
Which one of the following ██ ████ ███████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████████ █████ ███ ██████ ███████████ ███ ███████ ████ ███████ █████████ ██████████
a
Two species of ██████ █████ ███ ███████ ███████████ ████ ████ ███████ ████████ ████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ██ ███ ██ ███ █████ █████████ ████ █ █████ ████████ █████ ███████ ███ ███████████ █████ █████████ ████ ███████
The author does not suggest that blues and spirituals are “largely dissimilar.” The author focuses on how they share strong similarities.
b
Two species of ██████ █████ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ ████ █████████ ████ █ ██████ █████████ ███████████ ██ ████ ███████████ █████████████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ██ █ ██████ █████ ████████ █████ ███ ███ █ █████████ ███████████ ██ ████ ███████████
The author doesn’t suggest that West African religious practices, blues, and spirituals share different structures. The author’s focus is on the similarities between these things.
c
Two types of ██████ █████ █████████ ████ ████ ████████ ██ ██ ██████████ ██████ ██ ████████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ████████████ ██ █████ ██████ ██████████ ███ █████ ████████ ██████████ ████████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ████████
The author does not advocate that blues and spirituals should be reclassified. She’s simply pointing out similarities between them and drawing attention to their potential origin in African American and West African culture.
d
Two species of ██████ █████ ███ ████ ████ ██████ █████████████ ███ ████ ████ ███████ ██ █ █████ ████████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ██ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ███████ ███████ ████ ███ ██ ███ ███ ████████
The author doesn’t suggest that West African religious practices may have evolved from one of blues or spirituals. We want an answer that says two similar things may have evolved from a third. This says a third thing may have evolved from one of two similar things.
e
Two species of ███████ █████ ████ █████████████ ████████ ████ █ █████████████ ███████ ████ ██████████ ████ ███ ██ ███ ██ █████ ████████ ██ █ ██████ █████ ████████ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ ██ █████
This is the most analogous. Blues and spirituals are superficially different (as shown in the first half of P1), but are similar in more important ways (as shown in P2). These similarities may be due to their relation to ancestral West African religious practices, as described in P2.