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Introduction to Anglo-American Folk Music >> Content Detail



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Readings

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Required Texts


Amazon logo Allen, William Francis, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison. Slave Songs of the United States. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing, 1998. ISBN: 9781565545939. (See a digital version of this text by UNC Chapel Hill.)

Amazon logo Child, Francis James. English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Vol. 1. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2003. ISBN: 9780486431505.

Amazon logo Epstein, Dena. Sinful Tunes and Spirituals. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780252071508.

Amazon logo Lomax, John, and Alan. Our Singing Country. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2000. ISBN: 9780486410890.

Amazon logo Ritchie, Jean. Singing Family of the Cumberlands. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1988. ISBN: 9780813116792.

Amazon logo Whisnant, David. All That is Native and Fine. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1984. ISBN: 9780807815618.



Descriptions of Recorded Listening Assignments


Fiddling Sampler (PDF)

Rounder Clips (PDF)


SES #READINGSREADING QUESTIONSKEY DATES
Unit One: Anglo-Scottish Ballads and Sources of the Traditions
1

Amazon logo Dundes, Alan. "What is Folklore?" In The Study of Folklore. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1965. ISBN: 9780138589448.

Thoms, William. "Folklore." In The Atheneum. (August 22, 1846). Reprinted in Journal of Folklore Research 33, no. 3 (1996).

Muir, Willa. "Children's Singing Games," and "Singing and Listening to Oral Poetry." In Living with Ballads. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1965, pp. 13-53.

(PDF)
2

Gerould, Gordon Hall. "The Nature of Ballads." In The Ballad of Tradition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1957, pp. 1-14.

Muir, Willa. "Ballad Background II," "The Northern Scottish Background," and "Story Material." In Living with Ballads. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1965, pp. 71-107.

(PDF)Ballad performances by Craig-Morgan-Robson
3

Gerould, Gordon Hall. "Ballad Characteristics," and "Ballad as a Record of the Past." In The Ballad of Tradition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1957, pp. 84-162.

Pound, Louise. "Audience and Authorship as Mirrored in the Ballads." In Poetic Origins and the Ballad. New York, NY: Macmillan Company, 1921, pp. 95-106.

(PDF)
4

Amazon logo Sharp, Cecil. "Introduction," "Origin," "Evolution," "The Modes," and "English Folk Scales." In English Folk Song: Some Conclusions. Wakefield, UK: E. P. Publishing, 1977, pp. xix-xxv, 21-41, and 47-91. ISBN: 9780854099290.

Abrahams, Roger. "The Nature of Folk Tunes." In Anglo-American Folksong Style. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1968, pp. 151-164.

(PDF)
5

Barlow, Jeremy. Playford: Dancing Master. London, UK: Faber Music, 1985, preface.

Addison, Joseph. "The Spectator." Journal of Folklore Research, no. 70, 74, and 85: 181-191.

Amazon logo Emmerson, George. "Sang Abune a' Sang." In Rantin' Pipe and Tremblin' String. Montreal, Canada: McGill-Queens University Press, 1971, pp. 53-61. ISBN: 9780773501164.

Amazon logo Harker, Dave. "The Early Mediators," and "From Thomas Percy to Joseph Ritson." In Fakesong. Milton Keynes, UK: Open University Press, 1985, pp. 3-37. ISBN: 9780335150663.

MacDowell, Paula. The Women of Grub Street: Press, Politics and Gender in the London Literary Marketplace 1678-1730. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1998, pp. 58-62 and 81-91.

6

Amazon logo Rieuwerts, Sigrid, ed. "In Memoriam: Francis James Child." In Ballads into Books. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang, 1997, pp. 19-27. ISBN: 9783906757346.

———. "'The Genuine Ballads of the People': F. J. Child and the Ballad Cause." Journal of Folklore Research 31 (1994): 1-27.

Child, Francis James. "Ballad Books," and "Appendix." The Nation (1858): 30-34.

Amazon logo Kittredge. "Essay on Child." In The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Vol. I. Edited by Francis James Child. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2003, pp. xvii-xxv. ISBN: 9780486431505.

Amazon logo Child, Francis James. "Ballad Poetry," and "Hind Horn." In English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Vol. I. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2003, pp. xxvii-xxxiv and 260-287. ISBN: 9780486431505.

Look over Volume I of Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Choose a ballad to work on and bring it to class.
7

Pound, Louise. "Ballads and Literature." In Poetic Origins and the Ballad. New York, NY: Macmillan Company, 1921, pp. 106-137.

Amazon logo Finnegan, Ruth. "Transmission, Distribution, and Publication." In Oral Poetry. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1977, pp. 134-169. ISBN: 9780521213165.

Amazon logo Bronson, Bertrand. "The Habits of the Ballad as Song." In The Ballad as Song. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1970, pp. 92-111. ISBN: 9780520013995.

(PDF)
Unit Two: The Fiddle and the Dance
8

Amazon logo Breathnach, Breandean. "The Dance Music," and "The Great Collectors." In Folk Music and Dances of Ireland. Cork, Ireland: Ossian Publishing, 1971, pp. 55-64 and 103-108. ISBN: 9781900428651.

Amazon logo Feldman, Alan. The Northern Fiddler. London, UK: Oak Publications, 1979, introduction, pp. 1-12. ISBN: 0711906823.

Amazon logo MacLeod, Alistair. "Two Selected Stories." In Island. New York, NY: Norton, 2001. ISBN: 9780393050356.

(PDF)
9

Amazon logo Cohen, Norm. "Instruments and Musical Aspects." In Folk Music: A Regional Exploration. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 2005, pp. 63-82. ISBN: 9780313328725.

Amazon logo Nevell, Richard. "Rows and Circles." In A Time to Dance. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1977, pp. 11-26. ISBN: 9780312805227.

Ruckert, George. "The Cape Breton Fiddling Tradition." 2005.

Ballad paper due
10

Amazon logo Titon, Jeff. Old Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2001, introduction, pp. 12-20. ISBN: 9780813122007.

Amazon logo Reiner, D., and P. Anick. Old-time Fiddling Across America. Pacific, MO: Mel Bay, 2000, pp. 12-20. ISBN: 9780786653812. (Excerpts.)

Jenoure, Theresa. "The African-American Fiddler." Views on Black American Music 2 (1984-85): 55-61. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.

Amazon logo Southern, Eileen. "Solomon Northrup." In Readings in Black American Music. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1972, pp. 93-103. ISBN: 9780393098921.

Unit Three: Toward the Great Confluence
11Amazon logo Epstein, Dena. Sinful Tunes and Spirituals. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2003, pp. 30-99, 112-124, and 161-190. ISBN: 9780252071508. (Excerpts.)(PDF)Performance by Dave Webber and Anni Fentiman, ballad singers
12

Amazon logo Chase, Gilbert. "The Ethiopian Business." In America's Music. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1987, pp. 232-247. ISBN: 9780252004544.

Amazon logo Nathan, Hans. "The Performance of the Virginia Minstrels." In Inside the Minstrel Mask. Edited by Annemarie Bean, James V. Hatch, and Brooks McNamara. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1996, pp. 35-42. ISBN: 9780819563002.

Amazon logo Winans, Robert B. "Early Minstrel Show Music." In Inside the Minstrel Mask. Edited by Annemarie Bean, James V. Hatch, and Brooks McNamara. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1996, pp. 141-162. ISBN: 9780819563002.

Wilder, Laura Ingalls. "The Madcap Days." In Little Town on the Prairie. 1941, pp. 252-262.

(PDF)Film Viewing: Serrano, Angel, and Alvaro Toepke. The Language You Cry In. 1998.
13

Amazon logo Chase, Gilbert. "The Negro Spirituals." In America's Music. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1987, pp. 213-246. ISBN: 9780252004544.

Amazon logo Epstein, Dena. "Religious Background." In Sinful Tunes and Spirituals. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2003, pp. 191-231. ISBN: 9780252071508.

Look over: Amazon logo Allen, William Francis, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison. Slave Songs of the United States. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing, 1998. ISBN: 9781565545939.

(PDF)Ballad paper revision due
14Amazon logo Epstein, Dena. "Emergence of Black Folk Music - Slave Songs." In Sinful Tunes and Spirituals. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2003, pp. 241-342. ISBN: 9780252071508.Fiddle presentation by Alan Jabbour
15

Williams, Sherley Anne. "Meditations on History."

Radano, Ronald. "Denoting Difference: The Writing of Slave Spirituals." Critical Inquiry 22 (1996): 506-44.

Performance by Brian Peters, ballad singer
Unit Four: Music in Appalachia
16Amazon logo Ritchie, Jean. Singing Family of the Cumberlands. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1988, pp. 3-94. ISBN: 9780813116792.(PDF)
17Amazon logo Ritchie, Jean. Singing Family of the Cumberlands. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1988, pp. 95-256. ISBN: 9780813116792.(PDF)
18Amazon logo Whisnant, David. "Hit Sounds Reasonable." In All that is Native and Fine. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1984, pp. 3-102. ISBN: 9780807815618.(PDF)
19Amazon logo Whisnant, David. "All that is Native and Fine." In All that is Native and Fine. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1984, pp. 103-180. ISBN: 9780807815618. Also skim "The White Top Festival." pp. 183-252.

Fiddle paper due

Performance and talk by Jeff Warner: Collecting in North Carolina

20

No class meeting today

Recommended film viewing: Greenwald, Maggie. Songcatcher. 2000.

21

Cohen, Anne and Norm. "Folk and Hillbilly Music: Further Thoughts on Their Relation." JEMF Quarterly 13 (1977): 50-57.

Amazon logo Goldstein, Kenneth S. "The Impact of Recording Technology on the British Folksong Revival." In Folk Music and Modern Sound. Edited by William Ferris and Mary L. Hart. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1982, pp. 3-13. ISBN: 9780878051571.

Eacker, Susan A., and Geoff. "A Banjo on Her Knee - Part I: Appalachian Women and America's First Instrument." Old-time Herald 8, no. 2.

Unit Five: The Lomax Legacy
22

Amazon logo Cohen, Ronald. "Sinful Songs of the Southern Negro." In Alan Lomax: Selected Writings 1934-1997. New York, NY: Routledge, 2003, pp. 8-31, 69-76, and 86-91. ISBN: 9780415938549.

Amazon logo Lomax, John, and Alan. Our Singing Country. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2000, introduction and prefaces, pp. xiii-xxxv. ISBN: 9780486410890.

(PDF)
23

Amazon logo Lomax, Alan. "My Heart Struck Sorrow." In The Land Where the Blues Began. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1993, pp. 3-63. ISBN: 9780679404248.

Amazon logo Wald, Elijah. "What is Blues," "Race Records," and "What the Records Missed." Escaping the Delta. New York, NY: Amistad, 2004, pp. 3-69. ISBN: 9780060524234.

(PDF)
24

Amazon logo Cohen, Norm. "Urban Centers and Folk Music." In Folk Music: A Regional Exploration. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 2005, pp. 207-240. ISBN: 9780313328725.

Walker, Alice. "Nineteen Fifty-five."

25-26Presentation of class music projects

 








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