Description
Book SynopsisFrom the plaintive tunes of woe sung by exiled kings and queens of Africa to the spirited worksongs and shouts of freedmen, in Sinful Tunes and Spirituals Dena J. Epstein traces the course of early black folk music in all its guises. This classic work is being reissued with a new author's preface on the silver anniversary of its original publication.
Trade ReviewWinner of the Simkins Prize of the Southern Historical Association, 1979.
"No previous scholar has told more about the manner of diffusion of African music and dance in the New World . . . . No one else has related with more telling effect the impact that Afro-American musical patterns had upon the sensibilities of the white public."--Lawrence W. Levine,
Journal of American History"Epstein has uncovered far more about early black music than anyone thought possible. Her luxuriant quotations and definitive treatments of a wide variety of musical subtopics make the book an essential reference volume and a marvelous storehouse of information."--John B. Boles,
Journal of Southern History"
Sinful Tunes ensures that we will never again be able to sing or listen to a spiritual in quite the same way. We can now see more clearly than ever before what has shaped it; we have been taken nearer the soul of the music."--Hugh Brogan,
Times Literary Supplement"[A] definitive, indeed monumental study of black slave music in America."--Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr.,
Musical QuarterlyTable of ContentsPreface to the 2003 Paperback xiii
Preface to the 1977 Edition xvii
Prologue: The African Heritage and the Middle Passage 3
Part One: Development of Black Folk Music to 1800 19
1. Early Reports of African Music in British and French America 21
La Calinda and the
Banza 30
Other African Dancing 38 2. More Black Instruments and Early White Reaction 47 Drums and Other African Instruments 47
The Balafo 55
Legal Restrictions on Instruments 58 3. The Role of Music in Daily Life 63 Funerals 63
Pinkster and Other African Celebrations in the North 66
Worksongs and Other Kinds of African Singing 68 4. The Acculturation of African Music in the New World 77 The Arrival of Africans and Their Music 78
Acculaturation in New Orleans 90 5. Conversion to Christianity 100
6. Acculturated Black Musicians in the Thirteen Colonies 112 The African Jig, a Black-to-White Exchange 120
Part Two: Secular and Sacred Black Folk Music, 1800-1867 125
7. African Survivals 127 Persisting Musical and Cultural Patterns 128
Black Music in New Orleans, 1820-67 132 8. Acculturated Dancing and Associated Instruments 139 Patting Juba 141
Drums, Quills, Banjo, Bones, Triangle, Tambourine 144
Fiddlers 147
Instrumental Combinations 155 9. Worksongs 161 Field Work and Domestic Chores 161
Industrial and Steamboat Workers 164
Boat Songs 166
Corn, Cane, and Other Harvest Songs 172
Singing on the March 176
Street Cries and Field Hollers 181 10. Distinctive Characteristics of Secular Black Folk Music 184 Whistling 184
Improvisation 184
Satire 187
Style of Singing 188
Other Secular Music 189 11. The Religious Background of Sacred Black Folk Music, 1801-67 191 Opposition to Religious Instruction of Slaves 192
Camp Meetings 197
Missions to the Slaves 199
Black Religious Groups 202
Opposition to Secular Music and Dancing 207 12. Distinctive Black Religious Music 217 Spirituals 217
Attempts to Suppress Black Religious Singing 229
The Shout 232
Funerals 234
Part Three: The Emergence of Black Folk Music during the Civil War 239
13. Early Wartime Reports and the First Publication of a Spiritual with Its Music 241 14. The Port Royal Experiment 252 Historical Background 252
Earliest Published Reports 256
Wartime Publication of Song Texts and Music 260 15. Reports of Black Folk Music, 1863-67 274 Criticism of "This Barbaric Music" 274
Recognition of a Distinctive Folk Music 275
The Shout 278
Worksongs 287
Performance Style 290
Introduction of "New" Songs by the Teachers 296 16.
Slave Songs of the United States: Its Editors 303 William Francis Allen 304
Charles Pickard Ware 310
Lucy McKim Garrison 314 17.
Slave Songs of the United States: Its Publication 321 The Contributors 321
Problems of Notation 326
Assembling the Collection 329
Publication and Reception 331
Conclusion 343
Appendices 349 I. Musical Excerpts from the Manuscript Diaries of William Francis Allen 349
II. Table of Sources for the Banjo, Chronologically Arranged 359
III. Earliest Published Versions of "Go Down, Moses" 363
Bibliography 374
Index 416
