For a century, the Appalachians were a barrier to the westward expansion of the British colonies. The continuity of the mountain system, the bewildering multiplicity of its succeeding ridges, the tortuous courses and roughness of its transverse passes, a heavy forest, and dense undergrowth all conspired to hold the settlers on the seaward-sloping plateaus and coastal plains. Only by way of the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys, and round about the southern termination of the system were there easy routes to the interior of the country, and these were long closed by powerful Native American tribes such as the Iroquois, Creek, and Cherokee, among others. Expansion was also blocked by the alliances the British Empire had forged with Native American tribes, the proximity of the Spanish colonies in the south and French activity throughout the interior.

In eastern Pennsylvania the Great Appalachian Valley, or Great Valley, was accessible by reason of a broad gateway between the end of South Mountain and the Highlands, and here between the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers settled many Germans and Moravians forming the Pennsylvania Dutch community, some of whom even now speak a unique American dialect of German known as the “Pennsylvania German language” (also known as “Pennsylvania Dutch”). These were late comers to the New World forced to the frontier to find cheap land. With their followers of both German, English and Scots-Irish origin, they worked their way southward and soon occupied all of the Shenandoah Valley, ceded by the Iroquois, and the upper reaches of the Great Valley tributaries of the Tennessee River, ceded by the Cherokee.

By 1755, the obstacle to westward expansion had been thus reduced by half; outposts of the English colonists had penetrated the Allegheny and Cumberland plateaus, threatening French monopoly in the transmontane region, and a conflict became inevitable. Making common cause against the French to determine the control of the Ohio valley, the unsuspected strength of the colonists was revealed, and the successful ending of the French and Indian War extended England’s territory to the Mississippi. To this strength the geographic isolation enforced by the Appalachian mountains had been a prime contributor. The confinement of the colonies between an ocean and a mountain wall led to the fullest occupation of the coastal border of the continent, which was possible under existing conditions of agriculture, conducing to a community of purpose, a political and commercial solidarity, which would not otherwise have been developed. As early as 1700 it was possible to ride from Portland, Maine, to southern Virginia, sleeping each night at some considerable village. In contrast to this complete industrial occupation, the French territory was held by a small and very scattered population, its extent and openness adding materially to the difficulties of a disputed tenure. Bearing the brunt of this contest as they did, the colonies were undergoing preparation for the subsequent struggle with the home government. Unsupported by shipping, the American armies fought toward the sea with the mountains at their back protecting them against British leagued with the Native Americans. The few settlements beyond the Great Valley were free for self-defense because debarred from general participation in the conflict by reason of their position.

Before the French and Indian War, the Appalachian Mountains lay on the indeterminate boundary between Britain’s colonies along the Atlantic and French areas centered in the Mississippi basin. After the French and Indian War, theProclamation of 1763 restricted settlement for Great Britain‘s thirteen original colonies in North America to east of the summit line of the mountains (except in the northern regions where the Great Lakes formed the boundary). Although the line was adjusted several times to take frontier settlements into account and was impossible to enforce as law, it was strongly resented by backcountry settlers throughout the Appalachians. The Proclamation Line can be seen as one of the grievances which led to the American Revolutionary War. Many frontier settlers held that the defeat of the French opened the land west of the mountains to English settlement, only to find settlement barred by the British King’s proclamation. The backcountry settlers who fought in the Illinois campaign of George Rogers Clark were motivated to secure their settlement of Kentucky.

With the formation of the United States, an important first phase of westward expansion in the late 18th century and early 19th century consisted of the migration of European-descended settlers westward across the mountains into the Ohio Valley through the Cumberland Gap and other mountain passes. The Erie Canal, finished in 1825, formed the first route through the Appalachians that was capable of large amounts of commerce.

The South is older than the West

I first came to know the South through Gone with the Wind and Angel Heart.

Several decades later having seen both films several times, I was watching News coverage prior to the election of Obama, and an African-American musician said ‘What you have to realise about the South is that it is Afro-Celt (or African-Celtic).’

I remembered that Scarlett’s father is Irish and that I’ve noticed how a tempestuous redhead features in many Westerns (The Redhead from Wyoming for example). And I remembered also I’d once read a paper by Derek Gatherer, one of the pioneers of memetics theory, about the transition of African-American musical forms. From then on, I gradually began to understand the cultural swirl-pool radiating out from New Orleans in the former French and Spanish colony of Louisiana into the Appalachian Mountains. And to understand the formative role of Southern music in the development of culture in The West.

“Alan Lomax (1993) advances the hypothesis that the blues scale is a relatively recent development, indigenous to the Mississippi Delta region, and appeared as an emotional response to social conditions around 1900. Lomax claims that earlier forms including work-songs and spirituals do not use the blues scale but wide-ranging intervals, similar to those of African music. The first blues recording was “Memphis Blues” composed by W. C. Handy (1873-l 958) and performed by the Charles Prince Orchestra in New York City on July 24, 1914 (Vail, 1993).

(a) Swing (synthesis) emerged out of the opposition of New Orleans (thesis) and Chicago (antithesis) in the 1920s.
(b) Swing (thesis) was opposed by the more traditional Blues-oriented Jump style (antithesis) in the 1930s from which emerged Bebop (synthesis).
(c) In the late 1950s and early 1960s Hard Bop (thesis) was opposed by Free (antithesis), producing Freebop (synthesis).
(d) In the late 1960s Freebop (thesis) was opposed by Rock/Soul (antithesis) resulting in Fusion (synthesis).
(e) In the early 1980s Fusion (thesis) was opposed by Post-Bop (antithesis), producing M-base (synthesis).

In the majority of these cases, the thesis-antithesis polarity is between the European and African elements in the music. For example, New Orleans, Jump, Free, and Rock (that of Jimi Hendrix, 1942-1970, rather than the Beatles) sit on the African side, with their emphasis on direct expressive
force. Chicago, Swing, Hard Bop, and Fusion have a high content of self-conscious ntellectualization.

A Hegelian might posit that the inherent contradiction (all ideas contain their contradictions, according to Hegel) in African-American music is the inevitable tension between African and European roots. These elements are seen as incompatible but inseparable. This continual shearing force will tear apart any attempt at long-term synthesis, thus ensuring a rapid evolution.

Rock music, in Britain at least, appears to suffer from a comparable tension between intellectualizing and emotional elements. In this case, the contradiction is less between African and European as between middle-class and proletariat. The post-war New Orleans revival in the UK created a climate in which all kinds of American music were avidly discussed and consumed. This climate created The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, who recycled the British interpretation back into American music. But, the middle-class intellectualizing tendency produced Progressive Rock (e.g., Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream) in the 1960s and Acid House/Rave/Techno (e.g., Soul 2 Soul, The Orb) in the 1980s both of which emphasized technical sophistication, instrumental experimentation, extended improvisation in performance and increasingly large-scale composition.

Almost all of the pioneers of New Orleans jazz are dead, and most of the original Bebop generation, with a handful of exceptions. There are as yet few debates concerning authenticity in Bebop, but they will become increasingly important to a diminishing band of enthusiasts, as they already are for New Orleans and Country Blues performers, who have no direct personal contact with the founders of their styles. Likewise, the deaths of the majority of the 60s Rock generation by the year 2020 may finally cut the ties with the 20th century and Rock will acquire the same quaint irrelevance possessed by Dixieland jazz today.

Opposition has been provided by Punk (e.g., The Sex Pistols, The Stranglers) in the 1970s and Britpop in the 1980s (e.g., Blur, Oasis), with their emphasis on “traditional” guitar-group instrumentation, and short, direct, and often angry songs. However, the dialectic in Rock has not produced any convincing syntheses-the supremacy being passed from the intellectual to the visceral and back again in decade-long cycles. One might speculate that this is because there are really two musics here and that a permanent split has already occurred. European popular music may gradually shed its non-European influences, but African-American music is permanently hybrid and so the dialectic must continue (although, as pointed out in the final section of main body of the present article, there is little evidence of any dialectic process in action at the present time).

European classical music appears to develop in much slower cycles in which complexity increases to the point where the audience, and many of the musicians, can no longer comprehend the music. The consequent process of rejection leads to a vacuum where a simpler musical style can enter. The first cycle of this kind began with Gregorian chant, which developed through organ and early polyphony to the Ars Nova of the early 14th century. This polymodal style (typified by the complex compositions of Guillaume de Machaut) gave way to a simpler style as the diatonic key system was established.

The second cycle developed into the polyphonic complexity of Late Baroque, which then collapsed and was replaced by the simpler monophonic sound of Early Classicism. Just as the end of the Mediaeval era had been heralded by the introduction of diatonic scales, the end of the Baroque era was consequent on the even-tempering of keyboards. Classicism developed through Romanticism and Serialism to the Darmstadt School. This cycle collapsed by the mid-1960s and has been succeeded by Minimalism.

The transition between cycles is always acrimonious. Late Baroque composers such as Handel heaped the same kind of abuse on their “simplistic” successors such as Gluck, as the last of the 20th century’s complex avant-gardists reserve for the likes of Philip Glass. Gluck and his contemporary C. P. E. Bach are regarded as musicologically important but unimpressive as artists. However, they were soon succeeded by the genius of the Viennese composers (Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, and Beethoven).

European classical music became increasingly involved in its own past in the early 19th century. Until then the majority of performances had been of contemporary works, often poorly rehearsed and ill-received by boisterous audiences. The rediscovery of the works of J. S. Bach and the realization that European music had a deep and rich history, coupled perhaps with the rejection of the avant-gardism of the Late Romantics, turned European concert music into an increasingly sedate and respectful contemplation of “classics.” Today, few orchestras are willing or able to attempt new compositions.

Whatever one thinks of contemporary Minimalism, if classical music follows a similar cycle yet again, a golden age is in store.

It is also perhaps worth noting at this point that schools of classical music are frequently given the same names as schools of painting. Just as there are Romantic, Impressionist, Expressionist, and Minimalist painters, so there are the identifiable composers of the same type. Music always seems to lag behind the visual arts in this respect. The Impressionist composers (e.g., Debussy, Ravel, etc.) followed the Impressionist painters by some 30 years or more. Likewise, Minimalism in painting was already over by the time the corresponding musical school appeared. Whether this indicates that visual arts are the driving force of Western culture and music follows tardily behind, or whether it is due to the lower cultural profile of composers relative to painters, is worth debating. As far as I know, nobody has done so, possibly because art critics are rarely interested in music.”