What Elements of Jazz Are Prominent in European Music?

By Nicolas Arteaga, eHow Contributor

Jazz originated in New Orleans around the turn of the 20th Century. New Orleans at this time was a unique mixture of various groups of African Americans and Europeans, especially Spanish, French and Italians. The music that these various racial and ethnic groups brought all went into jazz. With the advent of the recording industry many more types of European music became incorporated into jazz.


Improvisation
Improvisation is often associated with jazz although improvisation occurs in both classical European music and various types of European folk music. Baroque music often contains basso continuo parts. The basso continuo consists of is a bass with chord symbols. The player must interpret the chord symbols while the rest of the ensemble plays the music as written. Much of European folk music is modal in nature, which enables musicians to improvise more freely.

Syncopation
Syncopation is a fundamental component of jazz. Syncopation, where accenting notes don't falling on the strong beats, occurs in virtually all types of jazz. All types of classical music, from medieval church music to the 21st Century classical music, contain syncopation, although it is not as fundamentally important to classical music as it is to jazz. Syncopation can also be found in many types of European folk music, for example the music of the Hungarian gypsies.

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