The Music of Black Americans: A HistoryBeginning with the arrival of the first Africans in the English colonies, Eileen Southern weaves a fascinating narrative of intense musical activity, which has not only played a vital role in the lives of black Americans but has also deeply influenced music performance in the United States and many other parts of the world. Dr. Southern fully chronicles the singers, instrumentalists, and composers who created this rich body of music and skillfully describes the genres and styles that characterize it from its earliest manifestations among a people in slavery to the rap beat of the late twentieth century. Along the way, she covers numerous topics - such as Colonial-Era music, Revolutionary War performers, church music, minstrelsy, ragtime, swing, concert music, soul, pop, and opera - bringing them to life and placing them in their historical and cultural contexts. |
Contents
PART | 1 |
The Colonial Era | 23 |
PART | 59 |
Antebellum Urban Life | 97 |
Antebellum Rural Life | 151 |
The War Years and Emancipation | 205 |
PART THREE | 219 |
The New Century | 265 |
HARLEM AND THE NEW NEGRO | 442 |
WRITINGS ABOUT MUSIC | 451 |
The MidCentury Decades | 466 |
Singers Instrumentalists and Composers | 523 |
OTHER FORMS OF THEATER MUSIC | 564 |
ASPECTS OF THE NEW MUSIC | 572 |
CONCERT ARTISTS | 578 |
OPERA COMPANIES | 584 |
THEATERS AND THEATER MUSIC | 296 |
MUSICALS ON AND OFF BROADWAY | 303 |
EARLY RECORDINGS OF BLACK MUSICIANS | 309 |
The Jazz Age | 365 |
The Harlem Renaissance and Beyond | 404 |
MUSICAL ORGANIZATIONS | 418 |
COMPOSERS AND COMPOSER EDUCATORS | 424 |
BLACK MUSICALS ON BROADWAY | 435 |
CABARET DIVAS | 594 |
WOMEN IN BLACK CHURCH MUSIC | 603 |
CODA | 609 |
| 617 | |
| 626 | |
| 633 | |
| 645 | |
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Common terms and phrases
activities African African-American American band became began best known black composers black music black musicians blues Boston Broadway called career celebrated Chicago choir choral chorus City College colonies Colored compositions congregation Conservatory dance debut decade developed drums Duke Ellington early Eileen Southern ensemble entertainment Eubie Blake Europe example Festival fiddle Fisk Jubilee Singers folk music folksongs gospel gospel music groups guitar Hall Harlem hymnal hymns improvisation included instruments James James Reese Europe jazz John Johnson Jubilee Singers later melodies Methodist minstrel National Negro nineteenth century Opera Company organized Orleans performance period Philadelphia pianist piano plantation played popular Porgy and Bess produced psalms published quartet ragtime recording religious repertory rhythm sang School Scott Joplin singing Slave Songs solo soloist songwriters sound South spirituals stage style sung Symphony Orchestra syncopated theater tion tradition Treemonisha troupe trumpet tunes United vaudeville violin voice W. C. Handy William write wrote York
Popular passages
Page iii - BY THE rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.