Monday's installment of the weekly Blackwell Talks held in the Prince Edward Room of Blackwell Hall featured Dr. Chris Kjorness, adjunct music faculty, presenting his research entitled "The Influence of the Sears and Roebuck Catalog on the Development of Delta Blues." Through his interactive and humorous presentation, Kjorness was able to teach the audience a few things about how the guitar and banjo would play intricate roles in creating a new rhythm of music that would define a generation.
"I have a unique situation in that I'm a musician married to an economist," Kjorness said to begin his discussion. "It's been great because I've really been influenced by her in looking at music and market trends and how people make decisions that influence music."
Kjorness looked at a few different categories and timelines to help devour the growth of the Delta Blues. He looked at the slave music and described their acts as playing for those of higher status on plantations and for mixed audiences. They wore elaborate costumes and had exceptional showmanship.
By 1800, the guitar was primarily played at parlors even though the piano dominated most parlors. Then in the mid-1800s, the popularity of the guitar grew a bit but then fell back down after the banjo took its place at minstrel shows. The 1807s brought forth a time when banjo advocates argued for their instrument of choice to be seen as the elite instrument.
Soon times would change. In the Mississippi Delta region, cultivation and population came quick. There was very rich soil for the antebellum settlers. Black freedmen migrated there because of the compensation chances for labor as well as a promise of more civil rights. "We don't know a lot about what happened musically during this time," Kjorness said.
A 1901 study by Charles Peabody noted this unique new type of music as well as its improvisational text and dialects that seemed intentional. The emergence of the Delta Style came about at the Dockery Plantation in Mississippi, explained Kjorness. This area offered a high population of blacks and provided numerous performance opportunities to target a black audience. That would lead to the ushering in of the Sears and Roebuck Catalog.
The guitar first made its appearance in the catalog in 1894. Its price was set at a bit more than the banjo, but new additions to the first model would soon mean more guitars would be sold, and the instrument would become a hot commodity. Two of these additions that were intricate in populating guitars were the bridge and tailpiece, which allowed for steel strings to be added. During that time, the cost of the guitar was a mere $2.25, a price equal to about $53 in today's standards.
But why was the guitar the picking instrument of choice? Kjorness explained three main reasons: range, its melodic feature and the multiple textures. "You can play lower notes and higher notes. It was uniquely suited to become an accompaniment instrument," he added. Concerning the melodic feature, the guitar was able to produce blue notes and what Kjorness called "ornate, melismatic lines." Further, the guitar welcomed a new method of rhythm and a new style.
But even though many of Kjorness' questions have been answered, there is still some pending; such as, how did these instruments actually get into people's hands? Sure, the catalog and free rural mail delivery would soon come standard across the Delta region, but the mystery of exactly how the guitar got to the consumer has yet to be uncovered. Simply put, a lack of documentation and ethnographic records stand in the way of Kjorness and his answers.
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