The Music of Black Americans: A History

by Eileen Southern

Book Overview

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393952797
• ISBN13: 9780393952797
• Release Date: January 1983
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 602 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

All Praise for Eileen Southern

"The Music of Black Americans: A History shares some of the most important, yet fascinating events of black America".

Great source on the subject!

I am using this book for my masters thesis and I must say that I am very pleased. Ms. Southern did an excellent job researching the subject and the book is put together well. There is so much information involved!!! She starts from the VERY beginning and smoothly takes you through the ride of African-American music. Each section is very thorough. This text is perfect for anyone who is researching the subject or just wants to gain knowledge on this rich music. A+++

Recensione in italiano

Cosa consigliare ad un appassionato di musica afro-americana che, conoscendo un po' di inglese, decidesse di leggere qualcosa per cui valga veramente la pena di fare un po' di fatica?Personalmente non avrei molti dubbi: credo che l'opera più completa che esiste sul mercato e che associa alla competenza una buona leggibilità anche per chi non è di madre lingua sia proprio questo.Eileen Southern è Professor Emerita di Musica e Studi Afro-americani alla Harvard University di Boston, fondatrice ed editrice della rivista The Black Perspective in Music, che è stata pubblicata dal 1973 al 1990, e autrice, coautrice ed editrice di numerosi volumi sulla musica e la cultura afroamericana.Il libro in questione, di 678 pagine, ripercorre tutta la storia della musica afroamericana dalle origini (1619) fino all'ultimo decennio del XX secolo. L'opera è suddivisa in 14 capitoli ed è completata con un'accurata bibliografia e discografia e un indice dei nomi e dei temi.Il linguaggio è piano e comprensibile anche a chi non abbia una quotidiana familiarità con l'americano scritto.Il libro della Southern affronta tutti i diversi generi musicali dei neri americani, dal canto in congregazione alla musica urbana del primo ottocento, dai worksongs ai traveling road shows, dal blues al ragtime, ecc.. Il taglio critico trasversale, che analizza l'emergere della musica nera all'interno della più ampia realtà sociologica e culturale dell'America Settentrionale, consente di cogliere con chiarezza le fasi dell'evolversi della cultura afroamericana, non solo musicale. Si tratta di un'opera più descrittiva che interpretativa, in tal senso più adatta a chi, volendo avviare la propria conoscenza del fenomeno musicale afroamericano, non è interessato all'analisi del significato profondo della musica e dei testi e a conoscere i diversi modelli interpretativi proposti dagli studiosi.Fondamentale!

An invaluable reference work --

Have you ever heard about The National Negro Opera Company? Founded by Mary Cardwell Dawson, the company made its debut in Pittsburgh in 1941. This is but one of the fascinating things you can discover in this marvelous book. If you have an interest in music of whatever variety, your library is incomplete without this book.This 3rd edition was done in 1997, thus it is quite up-to-date in its coverage of classical, jazz, rock, pop, gospel, swing, ragtime or blues. If it is music as practiced, performed or composed by people of color, this is where you'll find valuable information about it. Beginning with Africa and continuing to the present day, the four sections detail this rich history: Song in a Strange Land (1619-1775); Let My People Go (1776-1865); Blow Ye the Trumpet (1865-1919) and Lift Every Voice (1920-1996). The latter section is particularly informative reading with sections on Jazz, The Harlem Renaissance, and the Mid-Century Decades. It is these years in which artists of color finally took their well-deserved place on the musical stages of the world. Of course, they had been visible in their own world, and the popularity of such major composers as Scott Joplin and Duke Ellington allowed them to more or less effortlessly cross-over to the 'white' world. Lena Horne, the Mills Brothers, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway were--and still are--names to be reckoned with in any list of fabulous performers. And then there was Marion Anderson who finally made her way to the Metropolitan Opera at the very end of her career, making way for Robert McFerrin, Leontyne Price, Jessye Norman, Simon Estes and George Shirley, who were very much pioneers in their respective repertoire. Today, thankfully, artists of color are not at all rare on the concert and/or opera stages of the world. But lest we forget the individual trauma these artists suffered in order to be able to compete in this way, we need to remember the past while we are glorying in the present. This book will, if you let it, open your mind and your ears to wonderful, glorious sounds, without which our world would be a much quieter and poorer place. The author of this book is the renowned Eileen Southern (Professor Emerita of Music and Afro-American Studies at Harvard University) who is herself a musician as well as a writer, and is eminently qualified to illuminate The Music of Black Americans to the world in general. Pages 613 through 646 comprise a rich bibliography and discography; the index takes up 41 pages. NO music lover should be without this invaluable reference work.

"the definitive authority on Black American Music"

I have used this text in teaching African and African-American music, since the first edition. It is by far the most "definitive" book on the subject.Dr. Southern's insistence upon "historical dates and periods" to accompany the development and proliferation of African derived music, keeps the music connected to the economic,political, and social "conditions" that brought it about. I agree with Samuel Floyd, her work is a "quiet revolution."