Thursday, June 16, 2022

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Negro Folk Music USA.

Today's post for this week of musical books features a book by an author who will be familiar to readers of this blog: Harold Courlander! The book is Negro Folk Music USA.


The book is organized into the following chapters: The Setting ~ Negro Folk Music in the United States ~ Anthems and Spirituals as Oral Literature ~ Cries, Calls, Whooping, and Hollering ~ Sounds of Work ~ Blues  ~ Ring Games and Playparty Songs ~ Louisiana Creole Songs ~ Performers' Corner: Ballads and Minstrelsy ~ Dances: Calindas, Buzzard Lopes, and Reels ~ Instruments: Drums, Gutbuckets, and Horns.

Courlander's own research specialty was ethnomusicology (you can read more about him at Wikipedia), and you will so many songs in this book, some with music, some just with the lyrics. Here's Lord, My Worry.



In addition, there is also a biography of Courlander by Nina Jaffe that you can find at the Internet Archive: A Voice for the People: The Life and Work of Harold Courlander.


And for  a great survey of African American music, his book is just a click away at the Internet Archive!

by Harold Courlander




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