MusH440-540: Studies in American Music: AMERICAN ROOTS Spring 2007

Course Description and Requirements

This course is about vernacular musical traditions in the United States: folk music from the Anglo-American and African-American traditions, popular music, religious music, musical theater, and, to an extent, cultivated music that has been influenced by traditions.

Daily assignments will involve listening to recordings, viewing films, reading from the text (Richard Crawford's An Introduction to America's Music) as well as scholarly articles and other sources..

There will be a series of brief written assignments (a total of  15-20 pages for the semester). These must be typed, and are due at the beginning of class on the date indicated.

The class Web Site--www.class.uidaho.edu/mush440_540--includes the syllabus, assignments, related web sites.  Daily assignments are here, under "week".

Your class participation grade will be determined by attendance and evidence of preparation for discussion. . There will be two tests and a final summary project in lieu of a final exam. Written assignments, participation, and tests have equal weight (1/3 each) in determining the final grade

Graduate Students: You should write a total of four article summaries in the course of the semester, and be prepared to make short reports to the class from time to time.

RESOURCES

A valuable reference tool for the study of American music, although somewhat outdated,  is the New Grove Dictionary of American Music (in the Schuldt Library).  The New Grove Dictionary of Music 2nd Edition is on line (accessible on-campus) and is the best current reference work on music: www.grovemusic.com

Your text book has two companion volumes which are on Reserve:  To Stretch Our Ears: A Documentary History of American Music, and America's Musical Life: A History, which has the same chapter structure as the text book, but goes into greater depth.   There are also surveys of American music by Gilbert Chase, Charles Hamm and H. Wiley Hitchcock on Reserve.. UnCover and Expanded Academic Index—on-line periodical searches through IDA—are the best way to access current writings in newspapers and magazines on all subjects. America, History and Life is a useful on-line database index on American topics, including music.

The Schuldt Library has recordings and listening facilities, basic reference works, and a Reserve system. The catalogue to the CD collection is available on the computer across the room from the door; this catalogue is also available online: http://www.class.uidaho.edu/music/schu.asp#l.  LP's are accessible through the card catalogue.

The single most important source of recordings of U.S. music is the New World Records Recorded Anthology of American Music—I will give you a Xerox listing  the first 100 records in the series. They are accessible in the library by asking for NW and then the number as listed in the handout. The Index to the New World Records by Davis ( Ref. ML 156.9/D38 in the U.I. Library) is a more complete analytical index. A few other key collections: A270-272--Anthology of American Folk Music; A203--The Folk Box; A381 The Smithsonian Collection of Country Music; cd 93-97 The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz, and The Smithsonian Collection of Classic American Song (a cassette collection with no number).

My office hours are 10:30 T-W-Th and 1:30 T and Th..  You are welcome to contact me by e-mail (mdupree@uidaho.edu)or my office phone (885-7557) 


Syllabus:  Streamed Listening   

ANGLO AMERICAN FOLK SONG

Traditional

Pretty Saro
Doug and Jack Wallin

Traditional

The House Carpenter
Clarence Ashley

Traditional

John Hardy Was a Desperate Man
The Carter Family

Traditional

Irish Washerwoman

THE UNFORTUNATE RAKE AND VARIANTS (through Gambler's Blues)

Traditional

The Unfortunate Rake
A.L. Lloyd

Traditional

The Trooper Cut Down In His Prime
Ewan MacLoll

Traditional

The Young Sailor Cut Down In His Prime
Harry Cox

Traditional

The Bad Girl's Lament
Wade Hemsworth

Traditional

One Morning In May
Hally Wood

Traditional

The Girl In the Dilger Case
D.K. Wilgus

Traditional

The Cowboy's Lament
Bruce Buckley

Traditional

Streets of Laredo
Harry Jackson

Traditional

St. James Hospital
Alan Lomax

Traditional

Gambler's Blues
Dave Van Ronk


ANGLO AMERICAN RELIGIOUS MUSIC

Traditional

Old 100

Old Baptist

On Jordan's Stormy Banks

William Billings

Chester

Daniel Reed

Sherburne

William Billings

Thanksgiving Anthem

Mason

Olivet

Anonymous

Wondrous Love

Oliver Holden

Cowper
Word of Mouth Chorus

anonymous

Shall We Gather at the River
The Boston Camerata; Joel Cohen, director


AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGIOUS MUSIC

Traditional

Reg'lar, Reg'lar, Rollin' Under
Georgia Sea Island Singers

Traditional

Ain't I Right
Georgia Sea Island Singers

Traditional

Sign of the Judgement
McIntosh County Singers

Traditional

O Death
Georgia Sea Island Singers

Traditional

Beulah Land
Georgia Sea Island Singers

Traditional

Deep River
Tuskegee Institute Choir

Traditional

Go Down Moses
Paul Robeson


  • Nineteenth Century Popular Song

  • Bishop

    Home, Sweet Home
    Amelita Galli-Curci, soprano; Homer Samuel, piano

    Foster

    De Camptown Races
    Frederick Urrey; John Van Buskirk

    J.P. Carter

    Lucy Neal
    The Early Minstrel Show

    Foster

    Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair
    Julianne Baird, Linda Russell, Steve Schneider

    Root

    The Battle Cry of Freedom
    Gregg Smith Singers

    Sawyer

    Weeping, Sad and Lonely
    The Hutchinson Family Singers

    J. Holloway

    Wood Up Quick Step
    Chestnut Brass

    Unknown

    Listen to the Mocking Bird
    Chestnut Brass

    John Philip Sousa

    Semper Fidelis
    United States Marine Band; Captain Taylor Branson (1927)

    John Philip Sousa

    The Stars and Stripes Forever
    United States Marine Band

    Traditional

    Sweet Betsy From Pike
    Logan English

     

    Early 20th Century Stage Music

    George M. Cohan

                        I'm a Yankee Doodle Boy

    Herbert

                    I'm Falling in Love with Someone  (John McCormack, tenor)

    Will Marion Cook

    Swing Along
    Center for Black Music Research Repertory Ensemble

     

    Ragtime,  Blues, and Tin Pan Alley Songs up to 1930

    Scott Joplin

    Bethena, A Concert Waltz
    Joshua Rifkin, piano

    Irving Berlin

    Alexander's Ragtime Band
    Boswell Sisters

    Irving Berlin

    That Mysterious Rag
    Ben Sears, voice; Brad Connor, piano

    Traditional

    Po' Boy Blues
    John Dudley

    Bessie Smith

    Gus Kahn and Walter Donaldson

                        Yes, Sir!  That's My Baby!

    George Whiting and Walter Donaldson

    My Blue Heaven
    Gene Austin

    James Cavanaugh and Harry Barris

    Mississippi Mud
    The Rhythm Boys with Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra

    W.C. Handy

                        St. Louis Blues

    George Gershwin

    Rhapsody in Blue
    Paul Whiteman Orchestra; George Gershwin, piano

     

    The Musical in the Second Quarter of the 20th Century

    Jerome Kern

    Can't Help Lovin' dat Man
    Helen Morgan

    George Gershwin

    The Man I Love
    Ella Fitzgerald

     

    Richard Rodgers (and Oscar Hammerstein, lyrics)

                        Kansas City

                        Out of My Dreams

                        Oklahoma

    Hillbilly and Country Music

    A.P. Carter

    Can the Circle Be Unbroken
    The Carter Family

    Jimmie Rodgers

    Blue Yodel #9
    Jimmie Rodgers

    Bill Monroe

    It's Mighty Dark to Travel
    Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys

    Woody Guthrie

    So Long, It's Been Good to Know You
    Woody Guthrie

    Hank Williams

    I'm So Lonesome I Could Die
    Hank Williams

    Miller

    It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels
    Kitty Wells

    African-American Religious Music in the 20th Century

    Thomas Dorsey

    Talk About Jesus
    Marion Williams

    Traditional

    Wade in the Water
    Golden Gate Quartet

    Traditional

    Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho
    Golden Gate Quartet

    Traditional

    Wade in the Water
    Sweet Honey in the Rock

    Mid Twentieth-Century Popular Music

    Lewis Jordan

                        Choo Choo Ch'Boogie

    Leiber/Stoller

                        Hound Dog,  Big Mama Thornton

    Elvis Presley

                        Don't Be Cruel

    Steiner-Hawes

    M.T.A.
    The Kingston Trio

    Coots-Kenny-Kenny

    Love Letters in the Sand
    Pat Boone

    Puentes

                        Oye como va,  Santana

    Dylan, Bob

                        Blowin' in the Wind,  Bob Dylan

    Robinson/White

                        My Girl,  The Supremes

    Redding

                        Respect, Aretha Franklin

    Wynton Marsalis

    Devotional
    Wynton Marsalis