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Sydnee Goode

Dr. Wadsworth

Music Theory IV

26 April 2021

Listening Journal #5

Wynton Marsalis’ “Work Song” from Blood on the Fields premiered on April 1, 1994 in

Alice Tully Hall. “Work Song” is the seventh song of twenty-seven in this historic jazz oratorio

about slavery and freedom. In 1997, Blood on the Fields became the first jazz composition to

receive the Pulitzer Prize in Music. This work was composed because Marsalis wanted to reflect

on the roots of American music to provide a shocking image of slavery and the Black

experience.

There are many interesting facts about the composer, but there were two that caught my

attention. One interesting fact that I learned about Wynton Marsalis is that he became the

youngest musician ever to be admitted to Tanglewood’s Berkshire Music Center and was

awarded the school’s prestigious Harvey Shapiro Award for outstanding brass student. Both of

these achievements occurred when he was seventeen years old. Another interesting fact that I

learned about Wynton Marsalis was that he founded the famed Essentially Ellington High School

Jazz Band Program. This jazz band program has reached more than 275,000 students in more

than 4,000 high schools across North America. There are various techniques used within this

piece. Marsalis included polyrhythms, syncopation, dissonance, and countermelodies. Another

cool technique within this piece is that a solo trumpet keeps a steady pulse while the rest of the

orchestra and the soloists erupt in the sound of the blues, field hollers, and spirituals. I like these
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techniques because they allow listeners to hear the various elements of Black music and the

struggle for freedom.

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Works Cited

https://wyntonmarsalis.org/images/press/WMfactsheet.pdf

https://www.playbill.com/article/blood-on-the-fields-two-decades-later

https://wyntonmarsalis.org/discography/title/blood-on-the-fields

https://youtu.be/3OH8qpvLDt4