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Music of the common tongue : survival and celebration in Afro-American music / Christopher Small.

By: Small, Christopher, 1927-2011.
Material type: materialTypeLabelBookPublisher: London : Calder, 1994Description: 495 p. ; 22cm.ISBN: 071454096X.Subject(s): African Americans -- Music -- History and criticism | Music -- United States -- History and criticism | Music -- Social aspectsDDC classification: 781.7296073
Contents:
Africans, Europeans and the making of music -- On the ritual performance -- Rituals for survival I: an extatic delight in psalmody -- On cultures and their fusion -- Styles of encounter I: a need in white culture -- On value and values -- Rituals for survival II: the sheer power of song -- On literacy and nonliteracy -- Styles of encounter II: adjusting to white culture -- On improvisation -- Styles of encounter III: a lot of loving going on -- On the decline of a music -- Styles and rituals: wanting to be part of that music -- On records and rewards -- Styles of encounter IV: a very satisfactory black-music circle -- Confronting the rational God.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Copy number Status Barcode
General lending MTU Cork School of Music Library Lending 781.7296073 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 00147346
Total holds: 0

Includes index.

Africans, Europeans and the making of music -- On the ritual performance -- Rituals for survival I: an extatic delight in psalmody -- On cultures and their fusion -- Styles of encounter I: a need in white culture -- On value and values -- Rituals for survival II: the sheer power of song -- On literacy and nonliteracy -- Styles of encounter II: adjusting to white culture -- On improvisation -- Styles of encounter III: a lot of loving going on -- On the decline of a music -- Styles and rituals: wanting to be part of that music -- On records and rewards -- Styles of encounter IV: a very satisfactory black-music circle -- Confronting the rational God.

Susan Sayer Collection.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Another instance of a serious contribution to Afro-American music by a Briton (although its author was originally from New Zealand), this history of black music, from its beginnings in Africa to the present, is not a history of people but a philosophic treatment of provocative ideas. Musicians such as Albert Ammons, Louis Armstrong, and Josephine Baker are encountered, but there are more references to Beethoven than to all three. Small directs profoundly scholarly attention to popular idioms, using bibliographic references only occasionally for support. No study since John Blacking's How Musical Is Man? (1976) has been so intellectually stimulating in this field. Upper-division and graduate students.-D.R. de Lerma, Morgan State University
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