Description
Book SynopsisPaul Robeson''s Voices is a meditation on Robeson''s singing, a study of the artist''s life in song. Music historian Grant Olwage examines Robeson''s voice as it exists in two broad and intersecting domains: as sound object and sounding gesture, specifically how it was fashioned in the contexts of singing practices, in recital, concert, and recorded performance, and as subject of identification. Olwage asks: how does the voice encapsulate modes of subjectivity, of being?Combining deep archival research with musicological theory, this book is a study of voice as central to Robeson''s sense of self and his politics. Paul Robeson''s Voices charts the dialectal process of Robeson''s vocal and self-discovery, documenting some of the ways Robeson''s practice revised the traditions of concert singing in the first half of the twentieth century and how his voice manifested as resistance.
Trade Review“The key to understanding Paul Robeson's global humanitarian legacy and cosmopolitan musical imagination, Grant Olwage proposes, can be found by listening to his vocal intelligence, technique, and music-historical awareness. Bold, clear, lyrical, deeply researched and including new archival material, Olwage's polyvocal narrative follows Robeson's 'voices' across continents.” - Nina Eidsheim, author of The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre, and Vocality in African American Music
The key to understanding Paul Robeson's global humanitarian legacy and cosmopolitan musical imagination, Grant Olwage proposes, can be found by listening to his vocal intelligence, technique, and music-historical awareness. Bold, clear, lyrical, deeply researched and including new archival material, Olwage's polyvocal narrative follows Robeson's 'voices' across continents. * Nina Eidsheim, Author of The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre, and Vocality in African American Music. *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments About the Companion Website Introduction: Voice-Thinking 1. Becoming Paul Robeson's Voice 2.
