Our Singing Country A Second Volume of American Ballads and Folk Songs COLLECTED AND COMPILED BY JOHN A. LOMAX Honorary Consultant and Curator of the Archive of American Folk Song of the Library of Congress AND ALAN LOMAX Assistant in Charge of the Archive of American Folk Song of the Library of Congress RUTH CRAWFORD SEEGER Music Editor New York The Macmillan Company 19 49 TO WILL C. HOGG Classmate and Friend Whose life was a ballad INTRODUCTION In any country it Is the people who make the differences. The landscapes with the thumb-mark and the heel-mark of the people on them are the land scapes you remember. In Chile it is not the mountains which make the unbelievable loveliness of that country but the rows of poplars standing under the stone of the Andes, leaf against granite. It is the same way in other countries. France with the fields so and the roads so and the villages square to them. England with the roofs set this way not in any other way. Persia with the water courses in the wild gardens and the peach boughs over the mud walls. Japan where the pines on the ridge-poles of the moun tains are warped by the wind but not by the wind only. It is the mark of the people on any country which gives it the feel it leaves in a mans mind. Even the sense of time in a country is the sense of the people in it now and before now. But it is not only the heel-marks on the hill-sides and the way the roads run that show the traces of the people. There are other marks in other mate rials and not least in the substance of words and the substance of music. Music and words will wear under the use of a people as easily as the earth will wear and the marks will last longer. Devoted writers write asthough the body of the people of a country made songs for themselves and poems for themselves the folk songs and the folk music. But to speak prosaically the people do not make songs and poems for themselves. The folk songs and the folk poems come from far back and like any song or any poem they have had beginnings in a single mind. What the people of a country do with the music they take over for themselves and the poems they take over for themselves is to pass them along from hand to hand, from mouth to mouth, from one generation to the next, until they wear smooth in the shape the people this particular people is obliged to give them. The people make their songs and poems the way the people make a stone stair in an old building of this republic where the treads are worn down and shaped up the way their users have to have them. The folk songs and the folk poems show the mark of a people on them the way the old silver dollars show the mark of shoving thumbs but with far more meaning. They show the peoples mark more even than the line of the roads in a country or the shape of the houses hopeful or not so hopeful and they last longer. The people or the poets either who can leave their mark on the words or on the music of a country, leave it for a long time and in an honorable place. This second volume of American ballads and folk songs collected by vii Introduction John Lomax of Texas and his son Alan, the two men who created, under the brilliant direction of Herbert Putnam and Dr. Harold Spivacke, the Archive of American Folk Song in the Library of Congress, is a body of words and of music which tells more about the American people than all the miles of their quadruple-lane expresshighways and all the acres of their bill-board plastered cities a body of words and of music which tells almost as much about the American people as the marks they have made upon the earth itself. It is a book which many Americans will delight to open, and not once but many times. But behind this book is another body of material also a product of the work of Mr. Putnam and the Lomaxes which reveals with even greater precision the character and the distinction of the mark left upon their music and their words by the people of this country...

Providing a general overview of comic music, this reference outlines the history of important comic musical genres, considers interconnections among seemingly disparate humorous repertory, and includes an extensive bibliography and discography. The narrative challenges the notion that serious works are more important than comic works. Many supposed tragic works include comic elements and abstract genres, such as the symphony or string quartet. The narrative discusses almost 1,000 works, each cross referenced to publication information. The bibliography includes over 800 books, dissertations, reference sources, and articles. By tracing the development of major comic genres, this unique guide to comic music also examines how absurdity influenced the avante-garde developments of the 20th century.

This study of comic music will appeal to musicologists, musicians, and music students. The relationships drawn between familiar and obscure works allow for a fuller understanding of the aesthetics of comic expression. Cross-referenced throughout, this resource is a much needed and useful guide to further research.

The first and only collection of its kind, "Sacred Symphony" contains 100 transcriptions of muscial excerpts from the chanted sermons of contemporary black preachers. In his introduction to the pieces that follow, author John Michael Spencer argues that there is an observable correlation between the chanted sermons of today's black preachers and the antebellum spiritual. He shows that the pieces collected here, each of which spontaneously evolved during the course of a sermon or prayer service, are themselves spirituals containing similar musical components--melody, rhythm, call and response, counterpoint, harmony, form, and improvisation.

(Amadeus). In 65 perceptive pieces, including some of the work that earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1997, Page offers what he calls "a collection of illumined moments," now gathered in a single volume for the wider audience who will treasure their insights.

In his memoir, Dr. George E. Allen looks back at a career spanning more than five decades of teaching music to Philadelphia students. Early on in life, he learned about many styles of music, and he took his love of the art to college, where he earned multiple degrees before joining the Philadelphia School District. There, he earned the respect of students, fellow music teachers, and music administrators. It wasn't easy, but he did it his way and enjoyed positive results. He inspired the same type of dogged effort in his students, relying on a phrase that he placed at the beginning of all his syllabi: "It is better to know than to think you know." He first heard that on the phone from Ellis Marsalis, the father of jazz musician Wynton and a well-known musician in his own right. Allen adopted the phrase as one of his own mantras, never allowing his students to say "I think" or "I can't." Whether you are someone who loves music, an education professional, or someone thinking about becoming a teacher, you can find inspiration in Allen's love for music, education, and his students. It was time for me to begin serious work on writing about my experience as a music educator in Philadelphia because I did it differently with satisfying results.

The International Who's Who in Classical Music 2023 is a vast source of biographical and contact information for singers, instrumentalists, composers, conductors, managers and more. Each entrant has been given the opportunity to update his or her information for the new improved 2023 edition. Each biographical entry comprises personal information, principal career details, repertoire, recordings and compositions, and full contact details where available. Appendices provide contact details for national orchestras, opera companies, music festivals, music organizations and major competitions and awards. International Who's Who in Classical Music includes individuals involved in all aspects of the world of classical music: composers, instrumentalists, singers, arrangers, writers, musicologists, conductors, directors and managers. Key Features: - about 8,000 detailed biographical entries - covers the classical and light classical fields - includes both up-and-coming musicians and well-established names. This book will prove valuable for anyone in need of reliable, up-to-date information on the individuals and organizations involved in classical music.

This volume looks forward and re-examines present day education and pedagogical practices in music and dance in the diverse cultural environments found in Oceania. The book also identifies a key issue of how teachers face the prospect of taking a reflexive view of their own cultural legacy in music and dance education as they work from and alongside different cultural worldviews. This key issue, amongst other debates that arise, positions Intersecting Cultures as an innovative text that fills a gap in the current market with highly appropriate and fresh ideas from primary sources. The book offers commentaries that underpin and inform current pedagogy and bigger picture policy for the performing arts in education in Oceania, and in parallel ways in other countries.

Claudio Arrau was one of the most distinguished and influential concert pianists of the twentieth century. His particular approach to the creation of sound was legendary. Concert pianist Ruth Nye studied with Arrau in New York and maintained a very active professional and personal relationship with the maestro until his death some 30 years later. Ruth Nye's performance career continued for many years until she developed Dupuytren's contracture of the fifth finger of her left hand, which left her unable to play professionally. Ruth Nye, MBE, FRCM, is now one of the most highly regarded piano teachers in the UK. This is the story of her life and her musical philosophy.

Dave Lamb's collection of poetry and song lyrics, i'll be alright, contains love songs, fun songs, and poems of beauty and the heart filled with descriptions of life experiences to which everyone can relate. His songs have inspired listeners with passionate rhythm and heartfelt lyrics painting portraits of love, despair, anger, laughter, and solitude. Seasons of Life In the spring of life with all its bloom So much ahead, no wall of doom And in the spring you're blossoming You bring new buds of hope you think The summer time with all its splendor Life is filled with excitement and grandeur And in the summer you progress Do what you like improve your quest The fall of life comes far too fast The ride downhill runs like a dash And in the fall when leaves change color There's one gray hair after another The blustery winter wind blows cold Time will pass you by till old And in the winter feel the ice Time passes by with such a price

The first bibliography devoted to a single jazz genre or era, Fire Music is concerned with the music of the jazz avant-gardists such as John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, and Sun Ra. It makes accessible the most extensive and up-to-date scholarship of the New Jazz beginning in the 1950s. Included are materials on such topics as jazz collectives and the New York loft scene, as well as jazz in specific countries and regions and a lengthy section of biographical and critical studies on more than 400 artists and ensembles from around the world. Organized by subject and artist, the over 7,100 sources are further divided by type of materials, including films, video, and audio cassettes as well as books, dissertations, and journal and newspaper articles in all major Western languages. A New Jazz Chronology places events in the jazz world in a social, political, and musical context; and a section on African-American Cultural History and the Arts provides background materials. Appendixes offer general reference sources, a directory of archives and research centers, and lists that classify artists by country and instrument. Indexes of artists, subjects, and authors complete the work.

Van Morrison is primal but sophisticated; he's accessible but inscrutable; he's a complex songwriter and a raw blues shouter; he's a steady influence on the musical scene but wildly unpredictable as well, and it's these complex and often conflicting qualities that make him such a compelling subject for the Singer-Songwriter series. Journalist Erik Hage here eschews a cold, empirical study of structures and influence, and seeks instead more natural and intuitive means of appreciating all that is unique, eclectic, and surprising about Van Morrison's impressive output. In addition to covering almost all of Van Morrison's musical work and offering new readings of many iconic songs, Hage also provides a biographical introduction and a complete discography that can help listeners find new perspective on Morrison's body of work.

Even in his darkest and most naked moments-in "Astral Weeks" for instance-Van Morrison's songs can still suggest something uplifting. Sometimes these two poles are present simultaneously, and at other times they each find distinct expression in a different musical moment. Even on his first solo album, "Blowin' Your Mind" (which contained the iconic Brown-Eyed Girl) Van Morrison was wrestling with something thornier and deeper, as evidenced by the wrenching T.B. Sheets - a nine-minute opus about the discomfort of visiting a lover in a small room as she lies in bed, wracked with Tuberculosis. Those two songs, at artistic odds with each other and on the same album, are representative of the oppositional forces that fuel much of his work. Hage here provides a guide through all the layers of emotional meaning and musical resonance present in Morrison's work.

Genevieve Straus: a Parisian Life is the first biography in English of Genevieve Straus (1849-1926), a Parisian salon hostess and political activist. Joyce Block Lazarus explores myths surrounding Straus and offers an account of her life and accomplishments. Making use of historical materials, including previously unpublished letters, Lazarus shows that Straus was a female intellectual during an era when women were non-citizens. Scholars have well documented the Dreyfus Affair (1894-1906), but have overlooked archival documents which spotlight Straus's role as a political activist in the affair. In Genevieve Straus: a Parisian Life, Lazarus highlights Straus's thirty-four-year friendship with Marcel Proust and examines her influence on Proust's novel, In Search of Lost Time, finding echoes of Straus and her family in his masterpiece.

We communicate multimodally. Everyday communication involves not only words, but gestures, images, videos, sounds and of course, music. Music has traditionally been viewed as a separate object that we can isolate, discuss, perform and listen to. However, much of music's power lies in its use as multimodal communication. It is not just lyrics which lend songs their meaning, but images and musical sounds as well. The music industry, governments and artists have always relied on posters, films and album covers to enhance music's semiotic meaning. Music as Multimodal Discourse: Semiotics, Power and Protest considers musical sound as multimodal communication, examining the interacting meaning potential of sonic aspects such as rhythm, instrumentation, pitch, tonality, melody and their interrelationships with text, image and other modes, drawing upon, and extending the conceptual territory of social semiotics. In so doing, this book brings together research from scholars to explore questions around how we communicate through musical discourse, and in the discourses of music. Methods in this collection are drawn from Critical Discourse Analysis, Social Semiotics and Music Studies to expose both the function and semiotic potential of the various modes used in songs and other musical texts. These analyses reveal how each mode works in various contexts from around the world often articulating counter-hegemonic and subversive discourses of identity and belonging.

This work is a revealing chronicle of Hip Hop culture from its beginnings three decades ago to the present, with an analysis of its influence on people and popular culture in the United States and around the world. From Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message," to Jay-Z, Diddy, and 50 Cent, Hip Hop Culture is the first comprehensive reference work to focus on one of the most influential cultural phenomena of our time. Scholarly and streetwise, backed by statistics, documents, and research, it recounts three decades of Hip Hop's evolution, highlighting its defining events, recordings, personalities, movements, and ideas, as well as society's response. How did an inner-city subculture, all but dismissed in the early 1980s, become the ruler of the world's airwaves and iPods? Who are the players who moved Hip Hop from the record bins to the pinnacles of entertainment, business, and fashion? Who are the founders, innovators, legends, and major players? Authoritative and authentic, Hip Hop Culture provides a wealth of information and insights for students, educators, and anyone interested in the ways pop culture reflects and shapes our lives.

The Asian continent is composed of multiple political systems, huge populations, and different religions and histories. Yet, the undercurrents of politics and political affairs and how societies function in this vast region are not well known, and in fact often misunderstood. The role of music and its impact on political affairs is just one of these unknown or misunderstood factors about this region. Unlike initial political communication studies, the present book is not about examining established political structures such as parliament or congress and the presidency; political processes such as elections, campaign advertising and voter education; or even political behavior and participation such as voting and the performance of other civic duties. Rather, it recognizes and explores the impact and intersection of music and politics in society, in this case, various societies in the Asian continent. The book is projected to be an invaluable research tool specifically in the hands of researchers and students of Asian politics in the aforementioned fields, and people who are interested in understanding and investigating the intersection of music and politics globally. Therefore, suggested potential targets for the envisaged edited book include such researchers and students across multiple disciplines in the arts and humanities, as well as libraries and research institutes across the globe.

This book is my personal tribute to The Beatles - Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison. One might think for just a moment, that my subtitle; "Growing up with John, Paul, George and Ringo" would imply that I actually grew up with these men during my childhood. Well, I actually did grow up with them but not in the physical sense of having played with them as boys in the neighborhoods of Liverpool England or having attended school with them (I was only a toddler when they invaded America). No, I grew up with The Beatles in the sense of their being the first musical influence that ever touched my life in a significant way. At the early age of six years of age I remember hearing my sister play her Beatle's albums and singles and times I listened to them with her at about age seven, hearing albums such as Abbey Road and singles such as "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)." I realized that this group had an incredible range of diversity from rock opera type releases to songs with a great deal of humor in them. From that time forward and throughout my life, to-date, this amazing music phenomenon has made me laugh, cry, rejoice and feel romance when courting my wife in the early 1980s. Do I place The Beatles in the same category as a religious experience or one I could never have survived life without? Certainly not but I can say honestly that their music has brought more to my life than I would have experienced had I never discovered them. It is my hope that this book helps to convey some of that experience to the readers of it and that at the same time they can see in the chapters that follow, the humanity, struggles and events that also impacted the lives of these brilliant music legends. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: The Forever Unrivaled Rock Group CHAPTER TWO: Was John Lennon a Religious Man? CHAPTER THREE: John's Search for Happiness CHAPTER FOUR: My Review of the Beatles First Album CHAPTER FIVE: My Review of the Beatles Rubber Soul Album CHAPTER SIX: My Review of the Beatles Revolver Album CHAPTER SEVEN: My Review of the Beatles Sergeant Pepper's Album CHAPTER EIGHT: My Review of the Beatles Album & Movie "Let It Be" CHAPTER NINE: The Intriguing "Paul is Dead" Beatles Hoax-Conspiracy CHAPTER TEN: The Beatles - Unequaled and Unsurpassed

Four Parts, No Waiting investigates the role that vernacular, barbershop-style close harmony has played in American musical history, in American life, and in the American imagination. Starting with a discussion of the first craze for Austrian four-part close harmony in the 1830s, Averill traces the popularity of this musical form in minstrel shows, black recreational singing, vaudeville, early recordings, and in the barbershop revival of the 1930s. In his exploration of barbershop, Averill uncovers a rich musical tradition - a hybrid of black and white cultural forms, practiced by amateurs, and part of a mythologized vision of small-town American life.