The music of Black Americans : a history

Song in a strange land, 1619-1775. The African legacy ; The colonial era

Let my people go, 1776-1865. Two wars and the new nation ; Antebellum urban life ; Antebellum rural life ; The war years and emancipation

Blow ye the trumpet, 1865-1919. After the war ; The new century ; Precursors of jazz

Lift every voice, 1920-1996. The jazz age ; The Harlem Renaissance and beyond ; The mid-century decades ; Singers, instrumentalists, and composers

Currents in contemporary arenas. Part one: Song in a strange land, 1619-1775. The African legacy. Music in West Africa (The role of music in society ; Occasions for music making ; Professional musicians ; Musical instruments and performance practice ; Music and poetry ; Music and the dance ; Summary) ; The African diaspora (From indentured servitude to slavery ; African retentions in the New World)

The colonial era. Music in the colonies ; Primary sources of information (The colonial newspaper ; Other primary sources) ; Congregational singing: psalmody and hymnody (Singing in the meetinghouse ; Psalm singing in the community ; The Reform movement ; The growth of hymnody) ; Religious instruction and psalmody (Patterns of slavery in north and south ; Conversion and religious instruction in the north ; Missionary activities in the south) ; Recreational music (Holiday celebrations ; Social diversions of the colonists ; Slave dance musicians ; Social singing ; Slave recreational activities) ; Development of musical skills ; Slave festivals in the African tradition ('Lection day festivities ; Pinkster celebrations ; Other slave gatherings)

Part two: Let my people go, 1776-1865. Two wars and the new nation. Black musicians in the armed services (The Revolutionary War ; The War of 1812) ; The post-revolutionary period (Musical activities in the new nation ; Black singing-school masters ; Black benevolent and fraternal societies) ; The black church (The earliest black congregations ; Methodist ; Dissenters ; Richard Allen's hymnals) ; Independent black denominations (Denominational hymnals ; Importance of the black church) ; The camp meeting (Singing in the camp meeting ; The camp-meeting hymn ; Shouts in the camp meeting) ; Ethiopian minstrelsy (Antecedents of minstrel songs ; Growth of the "Ethiopian" music ; Black entertainers in Ethiopian minstrelsy)

Antebellum urban life. Black musicians and the general state of music. Urban music in the north (The concert stage ; Sacred music concerts ; Grand concerts and concert troupes ; Bands and orchestras ; Composers ; The Philadelphia school ; Composers in other cities ; Music in the theater ; Balls and holiday celebrations ; Dance halls and dives ; Street vendors and itinerant musicians) ; Music of the black church (Music in the worship service ; Camp meetings and bush meetings ; Informal religious practices) ; Urban music in the south (New Orleans: a musical center ; Vocal music ; Brass bands and orchestras ; A symphony orchestra ; Dance orchestras and recreational music ; Black fiddlers and white dancers) ; African traditions in the south (Dancing in the Place Congo ; John Conny festivals ; Voodoo) ; The anti-slavery movement (Anti-slavery songs ; The Underground Railroad) ; Music of the black church, II (Music instruction in Sabbath schools) ; Songs on the waterfront

Antebellum rural life. Primary sources of information ; The musical sources ; Daily life on the plantation ; Songs of narration and social comment ; Worksongs ; Recreational music (Dance music ; Musical instruments ; Other recreational activities) ; Entertainment for the masters ; Importance of music to the slaves ; The worship service (Spirituals ; The shout) ; Other religious services ; All origin for the spiritual ; Character of the folk music (Melody and scales ; Rhythmic features ; Musical texture ; Poetic language and themes ; Performance practice ; Summary)

The war years and emancipation. Music in the Union army ; Music in the Confederate army ; Music in the contraband camp ; Emancipation

Part three: Blow ye the trumpet, 1865-1919. After the war. Songs of the people ; Dissemination of the spirituals (The Fisk Jubilee Singers and other student groups ; Professional jubilee singers) ; Black Ethiopian minstrelsy (Minstrel troupes ; Minstrel traditions ; Minstrel stars) ; The concert stage (Prima Donnas ; Male vocalists and ensembles ; Concert instrumental artists ; Concert musicians abroad) ; Traveling road shows ; Festivals and extravaganzas ; Brass bands and dance orchestras (U.S. Army bands ; Society dance orchestras) ; Other musical organizations ; Itinerant and community musicians ; Composers and writers ; Music of the black church, III (Hymn writers and collectors)

The new century. The general state of music ; Music nationalism (Nationalistic music of black composers) ; In the concert world (Concert singers ; Concert violinists and pianists ; Artist professors) ; Music educators ; Symphony orchestras, opera companies, and choral societies (Symphony orchestras ; Opera companies and choral societies) ; Theaters and theater music ; Shows on the road (Black showmen and the circus) ; Vaudeville and musical comedies ; Musicals on and off Broadway (The Walker and Williams Company) ; Black entertainers abroad ; Military music ; The music business (Musicians' unions ; Music publishing) ; Early recordings of black musicians ; Professional organizations (ASCAP ; The National Association of Negro Musicians)

Precursors of jazz. The general state of music ; The emergence of ragtime (Ragtime songs ; Instrumental rags ; Composers of piano rags ; Rag performers ; Ragtime elements in the music of white composers) ; The blues (Blues and spirituals ; Characteristics of the blues ; Father of the blues) ; Brass bands and string bands (Brass bands and dance orchestras in New Orleans ; Syncopated orchestras in New York ; Syncopated orchestras in Chicago and other cities) ; World War I (Songs of the war ; After the war) ; Summary

Part four: Lift every voice, 1920-1996. The jazz age. Characteristics of jazz ; Race records (Early black recording companies ; Women and blues ; Downhome blues) ; Jazz band recording ; The big bands ; The swing era ; Kansas City jazz ; Principal jazz instrumentalists ; Jazz singers ; Jazz pianists ; Jazz women as bandleaders ; Jazz composer-arrangers ; White musicians and jazz ; The end of an era

The Harlem Renaissance and beyond. The general state of music in the nation ; In the concert world (Concert/opera singers ; Concert artists in mid-career) ; Musical organizations (Professional choruses) ; Composers and composer/educators (Dean of Afro-American composers) ; Black musicals on Broadway ; Harlem and the new Negro ; The federal arts project ; The media: films and radio ; Concerts, festivals, and operas ; Writing about music ; The emergence of gospel (White gospel hymnody ; Music in the black folk church ; Lining-out and Dr. Watts ; Shape-note singing and The Sacred Harp ; Black church songs ; Father of gospel music ; Other gospel composers ; Gospel traditions

The mid-century decades. World War II (The Great Lakes experience ; The USO camp shows ; Regimental bands and choruses) ; The black revolution ; Educating the black community ; The gospel sound (Gospel composers/performers ; Gospel quartets ; Milestones in gospel history) ; New developments in jazz (Bebop ; Free jazz ; Innovations of the seventies ; Jazz at the keyboard ; Jazz singers ; Jazz festivals ; Jazz in the church) ; The urban blues (The Mississippi Delta blues ; Chicago blues ; Blues styles in other places ; Blues in Europe and festivals ; Blues repertoires ; Library of Congress recordings) ; Popular music (Pop soloists ; Pop quartets ; Rhythm 'n' blues ; Soul music ; Rock 'n' roll ; New dance music)

Singers, instrumentalists, and composers (Singers at mid-century ; Pianists and other instrumentalists ; Symphony orchestra players and conductors) ; The world of opera (The concert/opera singers ; New opera companies ; A new old opera) ; Composers (Composers after the war ; The society of black composers ; Composers and synthesizers) ; Black musicals on Broadway ; Other forms of theater music (Music for the dance)

Currents in contemporary arenas. Jazz improvisers and composers ; A new generation ; Blakey's kids ; Aspects of the new music ; The young lions ; The professors ; "Classical" composers and improvisers ; Concert artists ; Community-based music groups (Academic-based groups ; Professional groups) ; Opera: old and new ; Opera companies ; Black singers on stage ; Symphony orchestras: the conductors ; Symphony instrumentalists ; Symphony of the New World ; Festivals (FESTAC in Nigeria ; Celebration at Lincoln Center ; A symposium in Michigan ; The Atlanta festivals ; Summer festivals ; The Cincinnati festival ; Carnegie Hall concerts) ; Cabaret divas ; Resources of the past (Ragtime ; Blues revivals ; Popular music ; The new pop music: rap) ; Women in black church music ; Gospel since the 1980s (Hymnals and performance practice ; Contemporary gospel) ; A gospel Greek myth ; Coda