Death letter blues son house download

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Please see our privacy policy. Our privacy policy has recently been updated. By clicking Accept or "X" , you hereby accept and agree to the updated privacy policy. Buy Now. Artist: Son House. But between stanzas 6 and 7 there is a marked shift in the mode of narration. In- sofar as it offers a kind of judgment to the listener, it exists solely at the level of the instance of narration.

In other words, the temporal moment of narration has shifted. Against our expectations, the present moment of narration shifts forward in time as the song progresses, producing a new kind of temporal instability. Further underscoring this instability is the move in stanza 9 to a set of lyrics more often associated with another song. In this respect, the stanza does not belong to the level of the story, but rather to the level of narration that corresponds to the moment of utterance and performance.

As we just saw in stanza 9, they call attention to the level of narration and performance rather than to the events narrated in the story. As a feature of folk blues created using traditional composition techniques, the citation of a particular stanza has the potential to shift the frame of reference for the utterance.

In this case, the narrated events concerning the death of the loved one, her burial, and the realization of love and loss are disrupted by the stanza referring to the walking blues, shifting the frame of reference from the narrated events in the past back to the present moment of performance.

Indeed, this type of significant shift underscores the more subtle types of oscillations and collapses that had been at work in the earlier stanzas of the song.

The Production of Meaning through Citation As Evans has documented, folk blues are constructed out of traditional materials and many songs seem to consist of what he terms a core: one or two stanzas, a guitar part, and a melody.

In particular, the stringing together of materials may be examined through the lens of temporality to focus on the production of meaningful narrative utterances. This shift calls attention to the frame of utterance and the context of the dis- course by underscoring the associative quality that links it to the previ- ous stanza.

Indeed, the shift moves attention away from the coherent thematic narrative of the song and toward its compositional strategies, inciting the listener to recognize other elements of the song that belong to the traditional stock of materials. But this is not surprising; the verses are traditional. While the verse itself interrupts the flow of the narrative, the movement of the text highlights the other shared ma- terial: the guitar part. The compositional techniques of the folk blues produce the kinds of similarities that I have just documented and these are by no means in- tended to be exhaustive.

But how do we interpret these common formal and lyrical elements? What kind of meaning is produced through the use of common stock materials and, specifically, how does the use of com- mon material impinge on the representation of time?

In other words, each use of a particular stanza or guitar part makes reference back to the common tradition as well as to other uses of this particular element in the construction of other songs. We might call these cross references intersongs or a kind of linking of material across different works. In other words, stanzas that stand out—as we saw above with stanza 9—call attention to the intertextual nature of the blues by making strong reference to the tradition and the stock of common materials.

Thus, the move from stanza 8 to stanza 9 can be understood as a jump outside even the narrative frame of utterance that encloses the narra- tion of events in the song. By making reference to the broader tradition through citation and cross reference, stanza 9 calls attention to its status as a conventionalized element of blues discourse. In such a move, the performer winks at the audience by signaling his awareness and also our awareness of the stock of materials.

This ironic shift of focus—from narrative events and narrative frame to commentary on the discursive tradition to which the stanza belongs—produces a new level of discourse within the song. This level represents a type of meta-musical commentary. I do not wish to restrict the form of commentary to the lyrics, since we have seen the importance of the repetition of guitar part and melody to the workings of cross-reference.

The meta-musical commentary potentially forms another frame outside of the frame of narration, for this type of ut- terance does not necessarily belong to the level created between singer and listener and embedded in the moment of utterance. Rather, the meta- musical reference to tradition moves the temporal frame to reference the larger tradition in which it is only one instance, one utterance, one song.

The oscillation of narrative levels between frame and narrative events, the shifting present of narration, and the almost postmodern citation of the form achieved through the intrusive effect created by the use of traditional materials all produce a sense of heightened awareness of the tenuousness of meaning and stability.

Parallel to the lesson gleaned from the events narrated in the song, the formal characteristics of the narrative structure of the lyrics create a sense of contingency and randomness, even anxiety with respect to meaning. The acceleration of the tempo of the song throughout the performance creates a sense of urgency that contrasts with the predictability of the progression and riff. Indeed, the repetition coupled with the acceleration produces an insistent, relentless quality to the music.

Likewise, the use of hesitation and delay in the vocal performance, as well as an almost percussive style of singing, forms a contrast with the repetitive formal structure. And, as cited above, string snapping and slight deviations in the guitar part also minimally interrupt the monotony with seemingly random forms of variation.

The singer seems simultaneously to create immediacy and a self-conscious distance from the moment. Tradition and Judgment Day The evocation of Judgment Day as part of the traditional material seem- ingly posits an imagined end to the kinds of tensions and oscillations that dominate the representation of time in the song.

Like these moments, Judgment Day will happen, seemingly out of nowhere. In other words, the unchanging, static background of human time will be interrupted by Judgment Day, which will bring temporality, as we know it, to an end. However, once Judgment Day occurs, there is a final accounting and revelation that re- stores meaning to human life through divine justice. In other words, repetitive and monotonous forms of time share a feeling of timelessness with the eternal present of Judgment Day.

Or, perhaps there is no comfort in the uncertainty of the Final Judgment. Pushing farther still, the narrative end of time requires a faith in a final reckoning, a final form of divine justice.

The oscillation between the instance of narration and the narrated events, the movement of the present of narration and the creation of a meta-textual frame, serve to collapse temporal distinctions in a way that does not in- spire faith in a divine form of transcendence, but rather calls attention to slippages of meaning created through temporal displacements.

Joseph J. Even if the exact timing of when the end- ing will come remains mysterious, the concept of Judgment Day puts an end to temporally vectored human existence. As a narrative, it provides comfort in knowledge of an end to the story that is human life. But can we assume that we all desire the end? Considered from the standpoint of narrative, the end represents the cessation of the story.

And while we desire to know what will happen, we also want the story to continue. We do not necessarily want to see it end. Indeed, the narrative end signals our death as readers and listeners. Parallel to the theme of Judgment Day, the end brings the end of existence as we know it. From the perspective of narrative desire, we may desire the continuation of the narrative more than we desire its end. Indeed, we may desire to prolong the middle and stave off the end.

Mastery over the middle enables a feeling of control over the predictable and routine and maybe even over certain chance occurrences , while the finality of the end death or the end of the story entails the cessation of our being and radical uncertainty. Repetitions enable the prolongation of the middle of the story and are perceived as being within our control, whereas the end signals our own end.

Stav- ing off the end through repetition, thus, affords a feeling of control and mastery, and even meaning, through narrative construction. Stanzas that repeat initial phrases stanzas 8 and 9 highlight storytelling as a form of repetition.

Likewise, the outlined narrative frames call attention to the performance of the song as an iterative repetition. Together, these formal elements combine to create a tension between the unchanging background of repetition and continuity and a complex network of relations within repetition that are themselves dynamic.

I would argue that the evocation of Judgment Day creates a tension with this dwelling in the present. Perpetuating the nar- rative of the song and staving off death and final judgment depends upon enacting a parallel form of secular temporal collapse highly dependent on repetition and paradoxical temporal relations.