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21L.423

Introduction to Anglo-American Folk Music

Undergraduate · Historical course

Fall 2005

This course examines the production, transmission, preservation and qualities of folk music in the British Isles and North America from the 18th century to the folk revival of the 1960s and the present. There is a special emphasis on balladry, fiddle styles, and African-American influences. The class sings ballads and folk songs from the Child and Lomax collections as well as other sources as we examine them from literary, historical, and musical points of view. Readings supply critical and background materials from a number of sources. Visitors and films bring additional perspectives.

Readings

  • 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.) ↗
    Required
  • Child, Francis James. English and Scottish Popular Ballads . Vol. 1. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2003. ISBN: 9780486431505.
    Required
  • Epstein, Dena. Sinful Tunes and Spirituals . Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780252071508.
    Required
  • Lomax, John, and Alan. Our Singing Country . Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2000. ISBN: 9780486410890.
    Required
  • Ritchie, Jean. Singing Family of the Cumberlands . Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1988. ISBN: 9780813116792.
    Required
  • Whisnant, David. All That is Native and Fine . Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1984. ISBN: 9780807815618.
    Required
  • Dundes, Alan. “What is Folklore?” In The Study of Folklore . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1965. ISBN: 9780138589448.
    Listed reading
  • Thoms, William. “Folklore.” In The Atheneum . (August 22, 1846). Reprinted in Journal of Folklore Research 33, no. 3 (1996).
    Listed reading
  • 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.
    Listed reading
  • Gerould, Gordon Hall. “The Nature of Ballads.” In The Ballad of Tradition . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1957, pp. 1-14.
    Listed reading
  • 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.
    Listed reading
  • 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.
    Listed reading
  • 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.
    Listed reading
  • 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.
    Listed reading
  • Abrahams, Roger. “The Nature of Folk Tunes.” In Anglo-American Folksong Style . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1968, pp. 151-164.
    Listed reading
  • Barlow, Jeremy. Playford: Dancing Master . London, UK: Faber Music, 1985, preface.
    Listed reading
  • Addison, Joseph. “The Spectator.” Journal of Folklore Research , no. 70, 74, and 85: 181-191.
    Listed reading
  • Emmerson, George. “Sang Abune a’ Sang.” In Rantin’ Pipe and Tremblin’ String . Montreal, Canada: McGill-Queens University Press, 1971, pp. 53-61. ISBN: 9780773501164.
    Listed reading
  • 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.
    Listed reading
  • 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.
    Listed reading
  • Rieuwerts, Sigrid, ed. “In Memoriam: Francis James Child.” In Ballads into Books . Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang, 1997, pp. 19-27. ISBN: 9783906757346.
    Listed reading
  • ———. “‘The Genuine Ballads of the People’: F. J. Child and the Ballad Cause.” Journal of Folklore Research 31 (1994): 1-27.
    Listed reading
  • Child, Francis James. “Ballad Books,” and “Appendix.” The Nation (1858): 30-34.
    Listed reading
  • 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.
    Listed reading
  • 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.
    Listed reading
  • Look over Volume I of Child’s English and Scottish Popular Ballads . Choose a ballad to work on and bring it to class.
    Listed reading
  • Pound, Louise. “Ballads and Literature.” In Poetic Origins and the Ballad . New York, NY: Macmillan Company, 1921, pp. 106-137.
    Listed reading
  • Finnegan, Ruth. “Transmission, Distribution, and Publication.” In Oral Poetry . New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1977, pp. 134-169. ISBN: 9780521213165.
    Listed reading
  • 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.
    Listed reading
  • 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.
    Listed reading
  • Feldman, Alan. The Northern Fiddler . London, UK: Oak Publications, 1979, introduction, pp. 1-12. ISBN: 0711906823.
    Listed reading
  • MacLeod, Alistair. “Two Selected Stories.” In Island . New York, NY: Norton, 2001. ISBN: 9780393050356.
    Listed reading
  • Cohen, Norm. “Instruments and Musical Aspects.” In Folk Music: A Regional Exploration . Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 2005, pp. 63-82. ISBN: 9780313328725.
    Listed reading
  • Nevell, Richard. “Rows and Circles.” In A Time to Dance . New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1977, pp. 11-26. ISBN: 9780312805227.
    Listed reading
  • Ruckert, George. “The Cape Breton Fiddling Tradition.” 2005.
    Listed reading
  • Titon, Jeff. Old Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes . Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2001, introduction, pp. 12-20. ISBN: 9780813122007.
    Listed reading
  • Reiner, D., and P. Anick. Old-time Fiddling Across America . Pacific, MO: Mel Bay, 2000, pp. 12-20. ISBN: 9780786653812. (Excerpts.)
    Listed reading
  • Jenoure, Theresa. “The African-American Fiddler.” Views on Black American Music 2 (1984-85): 55-61. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.
    Listed reading
  • Southern, Eileen. “Solomon Northrup.” In Readings in Black American Music . New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1972, pp. 93-103. ISBN: 9780393098921.
    Listed reading
  • Epstein, Dena. Sinful Tunes and Spirituals . Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2003, pp. 30-99, 112-124, and 161-190. ISBN: 9780252071508. (Excerpts.)
    Listed reading
  • Chase, Gilbert. “The Ethiopian Business.” In America’s Music . Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1987, pp. 232-247. ISBN: 9780252004544.
    Listed reading
  • 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.
    Listed reading
  • 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.
    Listed reading
  • Wilder, Laura Ingalls. “The Madcap Days.” In Little Town on the Prairie . 1941, pp. 252-262.
    Listed reading
  • Film Viewing: Serrano, Angel, and Alvaro Toepke. The Language You Cry In . 1998.
    Listed reading
  • Chase, Gilbert. “The Negro Spirituals.” In America’s Music . Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1987, pp. 213-246. ISBN: 9780252004544.
    Listed reading
  • Epstein, Dena. “Religious Background.” In Sinful Tunes and Spirituals . Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2003, pp. 191-231. ISBN: 9780252071508.
    Listed reading
  • Look over: Allen, William Francis, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison. Slave Songs of the United States . Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing, 1998. ISBN: 9781565545939.
    Listed reading
  • 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.
    Listed reading
  • Radano, Ronald. “Denoting Difference: The Writing of Slave Spirituals.” Critical Inquiry 22 (1996): 506-44.
    Listed reading
  • Ritchie, Jean. Singing Family of the Cumberlands . Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1988, pp. 3-94. ISBN: 9780813116792.
    Listed reading
  • Ritchie, Jean. Singing Family of the Cumberlands . Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1988, pp. 95-256. ISBN: 9780813116792.
    Listed reading
  • 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.
    Listed reading
  • 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.
    Listed reading
  • Recommended film viewing: Greenwald, Maggie. Songcatcher . 2000.
    Listed reading
  • Cohen, Anne and Norm. “Folk and Hillbilly Music: Further Thoughts on Their Relation.” JEMF Quarterly 13 (1977): 50-57.
    Listed reading
  • 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.
    Listed reading
  • 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.
    Listed reading
  • 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.
    Listed reading
  • Lomax, John, and Alan. Our Singing Country . Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2000, introduction and prefaces, pp. xiii-xxxv. ISBN: 9780486410890.
    Listed reading
  • Lomax, Alan. “My Heart Struck Sorrow.” In The Land Where the Blues Began . New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1993, pp. 3-63. ISBN: 9780679404248.
    Listed reading
  • 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.
    Listed reading
  • Cohen, Norm. “Urban Centers and Folk Music.” In Folk Music: A Regional Exploration . Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 2005, pp. 207-240. ISBN: 9780313328725.
    Listed reading
Sources