Awards

• Winner of <DIV>Winner of the Chicago Folklore Prize.</DIV> 1979
• Winner of <DIV>Winner of the Simkins Prize of the Southern Historical Association, 1979.</DIV> 1979

Overview

Full Product Details

Author:   Dena J. Epstein
Publisher:   University of Illinois Press
Imprint:   University of Illinois Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 3.00cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.626kg
ISBN:  

9780252071508

ISBN 10:   0252071506
Pages:   464
Publication Date:   12 August 2003
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

Table of Contents

"Preface to the 2003 Paperback   xiii Preface to the 1977 Edition   xvii Prologue: The African Heritage and the Middle Passage   3 Part One: Development of Black Folk Music to 1800   19 1. Early Reports of African Music in British and French America   21 La Calinda and the Banza   30 Other African Dancing   38 2. More Black Instruments and Early White Reaction   47 Drums and Other African Instruments   47 The Balafo   55 Legal Restrictions on Instruments   58 3. The Role of Music in Daily Life   63 Funerals   63 Pinkster and Other African Celebrations in the North   66 Worksongs and Other Kinds of African Singing   68 4. The Acculturation of African Music in the New World   77 The Arrival of Africans and Their Music   78 Acculaturation in New Orleans   90 5. Conversion to Christianity   100 6. Acculturated Black Musicians in the Thirteen Colonies   112 The African Jig, a Black-to-White Exchange   120 Part Two: Secular and Sacred Black Folk Music, 1800-1867   125 7. African Survivals   127 Persisting Musical and Cultural Patterns   128 Black Music in New Orleans, 1820-67   132 8. Acculturated Dancing and Associated Instruments   139 Patting Juba   141 Drums, Quills, Banjo, Bones, Triangle, Tambourine   144 Fiddlers   147 Instrumental Combinations   155 9. Worksongs   161 Field Work and Domestic Chores   161 Industrial and Steamboat Workers   164 Boat Songs   166 Corn, Cane, and Other Harvest Songs   172 Singing on the March   176 Street Cries and Field Hollers   181 10. Distinctive Characteristics of Secular Black Folk Music   184 Whistling   184 Improvisation   184 Satire   187 Style of Singing   188 Other Secular Music   189 11. The Religious Background of Sacred Black Folk Music, 1801-67   191 Opposition to Religious Instruction of Slaves   192 Camp Meetings   197 Missions to the Slaves   199 Black Religious Groups   202 Opposition to Secular Music and Dancing   207 12. Distinctive Black Religious Music   217 Spirituals   217 Attempts to Suppress Black Religious Singing   229 The Shout   232 Funerals   234 Part Three: The Emergence of Black Folk Music during the Civil War   239 13. Early Wartime Reports and the First Publication of a Spiritual with Its Music   241 14. The Port Royal Experiment   252 Historical Background   252 Earliest Published Reports   256 Wartime Publication of Song Texts and Music   260 15. Reports of Black Folk Music, 1863-67   274 Criticism of ""This Barbaric Music""   274 Recognition of a Distinctive Folk Music   275 The Shout   278 Worksongs   287 Performance Style   290 Introduction of ""New"" Songs by the Teachers   296 16. Slave Songs of the United States: Its Editors   303 William Francis Allen   304 Charles Pickard Ware   310 Lucy McKim Garrison   314 17. Slave Songs of the United States: Its Publication   321 The Contributors   321 Problems of Notation   326 Assembling the Collection   329 Publication and Reception   331 Conclusion   343 Appendices 349 I. Musical Excerpts from the Manuscript Diaries of William Francis Allen   349 II. Table of Sources for the Banjo, Chronologically Arranged   359 III. Earliest Published Versions of ""Go Down, Moses""   363 Bibliography   374 Index   416"

Reviews

[A] definitive, indeed monumental study of black slave music in America. --Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr., Musical Quarterly Sinful Tunes ensures that we will never again be able to sing or listen to a spiritual in quite the same way. We can now see more clearly than ever before what has shaped it; we have been taken nearer the soul of the music. --Hugh Brogan, Times Literary Supplement Epstein has uncovered far more about early black music than anyone thought possible. Her luxuriant quotations and definitive treatments of a wide variety of musical subtopics make the book an essential reference volume and a marvelous storehouse of information. --John B. Boles, Journal of Southern History No previous scholar has told more about the manner of diffusion of African music and dance in the New World . . . . No one else has related with more telling effect the impact that Afro-American musical patterns had upon the sensibilities of the white public. --Lawrence W. Levine, Journal of American History

No previous scholar has told more about the manner of diffusion of African music and dance in the New World . . . . No one else has related with more telling effect the impact that Afro-American musical patterns had upon the sensibilities of the white public. --Lawrence W. Levine, Journal of American History Epstein has uncovered far more about early black music than anyone thought possible. Her luxuriant quotations and definitive treatments of a wide variety of musical subtopics make the book an essential reference volume and a marvelous storehouse of information. --John B. Boles, Journal of Southern History Sinful Tunes ensures that we will never again be able to sing or listen to a spiritual in quite the same way. We can now see more clearly than ever before what has shaped it; we have been taken nearer the soul of the music. --Hugh Brogan, Times Literary Supplement [A] definitive, indeed monumental study of black slave music in America. --Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr., Musical Quarterly

No previous scholar has told more about the manner of diffusion of African music and dance in the New World ... No one else has related with more telling effect the impact that Afro-American musical patterns had upon the sensibilities of the white public. --Lawrence W. Levine, Journal of American History Epstein has uncovered far more about early black music than anyone thought possible. Her luxuriant quotations and definitive treatments of a wide variety of musical subtopics make the book an essential reference volume and a marvelous storehouse of information. --John B. Boles, Journal of Southern History Sinful Tunes ensures that we will never again be able to sing or listen to a spiritual in quite the same way. We can now see more clearly than ever before what has shaped it; we have been taken nearer the soul of the music. --Hugh Brogan, Times Literary Supplement

No previous scholar has told more about the manner of diffusion of African music and dance in the New World ... No one else has related with more telling effect the impact that Afro-American musical patterns had upon the sensibilities of the white public. --Lawrence W. Levine, Journal of American History Epstein has uncovered far more about early black music than anyone thought possible. Her luxuriant quotations and definitive treatments of a wide variety of musical subtopics make the book an essential reference volume and a marvelous storehouse of information. --John B. Boles, Journal of Southern History Sinful Tunes ensures that we will never again be able to sing or listen to a spiritual in quite the same way. We can now see more clearly than ever before what has shaped it; we have been taken nearer the soul of the music. --Hugh Brogan, Times Literary Supplement [A] definitive, indeed monumental study of black slave music in America. -- Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr., Musical Quarterly

Author Information

Dena J. Epstein (1916-2013) was a retired assistant music librarian at the Joseph Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago, and a past president of the Music Library Association.

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