Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes

Odum, Howard Washington, 1884-1954Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.9
Word count
203K words
Chapters
21

Tags

English Originals Folk LiteratureMusicReligion Field CollectionAfrican American MusicEthnomusicologyExpression of FaithOral TraditionReligion and FolkloreEthnic MemoryFolk BalladSpiritual TraditionAmerican South

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes by Howard Washington OdumAuthor: Odum, Howard Washington, 1884-1954,Language: English, Class: ML: Music: Literature of music, Release Date: Mar 8, 2012

Editor's review

This book is Howard W. Odum's early compilation and study of the religious folk songs of Southern Negroes, a valuable document at the intersection of musical literature and folklore studies. Its value lies not in providing a complete song collection or a modern analytical framework, but in preserving samples of oral tradition from a particular historical period and in showing how researchers of the time recorded, classified, and understood these songs. Readers can see the thematic distribution, linguistic features, and ritual contexts of the religious folk songs, and can also sense the perspective and limitations of early academic writing. For readers interested in African American culture, the history of American folklore studies, religious music, and oral tradition, this is a primary source to be read alongside other materials. It is best treated as a historical source rather than an introductory reader; note the distinction between the song transcriptions, the researcher's commentary, and the publishing information added by the editor, and understand possible period prejudices in light of the historical context.

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Reading tips

  1. Read the table of contents and preface first to understand the scope and classification, then select specific songs and commentary to read.
  2. Keep a notebook and mark the song transcriptions separately from the researcher's explanations for later comparison.
  3. Read alongside secondary studies of African American religious music or folklore history to fill in background and critical perspectives.
  4. Note the version information and publishing notes, and distinguish the original text from content added by the e-book platform.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21

FAQ

Is this book a complete folk-song collection or a research work? The materials indicate that it is Odum's compilation and study of Southern Negro religious folk songs, combining song transcriptions with the researcher's commentary; it is not a complete song collection in the modern sense. Readers should distinguish the song samples from the researcher's classification and explanations, and should not use it as a mere songbook.
Can I read it without a musicology background? Yes, but expectations should be adjusted. The text focuses on lyrics, themes, and folklore records rather than music-theoretical analysis. Readers without a musicology background can read it as cultural history and, with the help of related historical and folklore background materials, understand its recording methods and period context.
What period limitations should I watch for while reading? Early folklore research may carry the racial ideas and classificatory frameworks popular at the time, and its recording methods were also limited by field conditions. Readers should view the researcher's commentary separately from the lyrics themselves, analyze the prejudices in light of Southern US history, and use later research for comparison and supplementation.
How does the e-book publishing information affect reading? The materials show that the book was released by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain e-book. When reading, distinguish the original work's content from the platform's added publishing notes, category labels, and release information; cite the original text as authoritative, and note whether the e-book's layout and annotations are complete.

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About the author

Odum, Howard Washington, 1884-1954 Author · American · 1884–1954

Howard Washington Odum (1884–1954) was an American sociologist who taught for many years at the University of North Carolina and focused on the society of the American South and on racial issues. One work by him is held in this collection, Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes, which examines the religious folk songs of Southern Black communities and belongs to the study of religious folklore and musical culture, being documentary and text-recording in character. Public information on the details of his life is limited; his scholarly contribution lies chiefly in his observation and documentation of Southern social conditions and Black cultural traditions, offering early texts of reference value for research in related fields.