| Contents |
Part one. Folk and ethnic musics. The British-American tradition. Some marks of the ballad ; Oral tradition and the ballad texts ; Oral tradition and the music of the ballads ; Lyrical songs, play-party games, and fiddle tunes ; The African-American tradition. African music and its relation to black music in America ; Religious folk music: the spiritual ; Secular folk music -- American Indian and Hispanic traditions. Music in aboriginal Indian life ; Characteristics of Indian music ; Indian music and acculturation ; Iberian-Indian-African traditions from the South ; Hispanic-derived sacred music from Mexico ; Secular music from Mexico ; Music from the Caribbean and South America -- Aspects of folk music in twentieth-century America. Folk music as an instrument of persuasion ; The popularization of folk music ; Modern collecting, study, and thought in folk music -- Part two. Popular sacred music. Religious music in early America. Psalmody in America ; The singing-school tradition ; Music among our smaller independent sects -- Religious music during and after the time of expansion. The Native tradition suppressed in the urban east ; The frontier and rural America in the nineteenth century ; The city and urban revivalism ; Gospel music after the advent of radio and recordings -- Part three. The prodigious offspring of the rural south. Country music. Enduring characteristics of the music ; Enduring characteristics of the words ; Commercial beginnings: early recordings, radio, and the first stars ; The west: the cowboy image ; The west: realism and eclecticism ; Postwar dissemination and full-scale commercialization ; The persistence and revival of traditional styles -- Blues: from country to city. Early published blues ; "Classic" city blues ; Blues and jazz ; Boogie-woogie ; Country blues ; Urban blues and "Soul" music -- Rock. Characteristics of the music ; Characteristics of the words ; A brief history of rock's times and styles ; Some final considerations -- Part four. Popular secular music. Secular music in the cities from colonial times to the Jacksonian era. Concerts and dances ; Bands and military music ; Musical theater ; Popular song -- Popular musical theater from the Jacksonian era to the present. Minstrelsy and musical entertainment before the Civil War ; From the Civil War through the turn of the century ; The first half of the twentieth century ; Musical since the advent of rock ; The film musical -- Popular song, dance, and march music from the Jacksonian era to the advent of rock. Popular song from the 1830s through the Civil War ; Popular song from the Civil War through the ragtime era ; The band in America after the Jacksonian era ; Popular song from ragtime to rock -- Part five. Jazz and its forerunners. Ragtime and pre-jazz. The context of ragtime from its origins to its zenith ; Musical characteristics of ragtime ; The decline and metamorphosis of ragtime ; The ragtime revival ; Pre-Jazz -- Jazz. The New Orleans style: the traditional jazz of the early recordings ; Dissemination and change: the pre-swing era ; The swing era and the big bands ; The emergence of the modern jazz: bop as a turning point ; Fusions, eclecticism, and the pluralism of the 1970s and 1980s -- Part six. Classical music. Laying the foundation: accomplishments from the Jacksonian era to World War I. 1830-1865: education reform in a time of expansion ; Louis Moreau Gottschalk and the virtuoso in nineteenth-century America ; After the Civil War: the pursuit of culture in a time of industrialization -- Traditionally evolving classical music after World War I. Some background for the "Fervent years" ; Music with film ; Music with dance ; Musical drama ; Music with poetry ; Music independent of film, dance, drama, or poetry -- Exploration and experiment, I: new ways with old tools. Charles Ives (1874-1954) ; Carl Ruggles (1876-1971) ; "The American five" and one remarkable woman ; Henry Cowell (1897-1965) ; Conlon Nancarrow and the player piano ; Lou Harrison and John Cage ; Harry Partch (1901-74) ; Edgar Varese (1883-1965) -- Exploration and experiment, II: the impact of technology and new aesthetic concepts. The surface features of mid-century modernism ; The two dominant rationales of mid-century modernism ; New technology and the new music ; Other aspects of mid-century modernism -- Beyond modernism: autonomy, assimilation, and accessibility. The new autonomy ; Assimilation and re-connection ; Music of association and the new accessibility -- Part seven. Regionalism and diversity. Three regional samplings. Louisiana and the French influence ; The upper midwest and the Scandinavian influence ; The Sacramento Valley: a rich mix of cultures. |
| Abstract |
A study of American music up to the late 1980s which integrates more than a decade of new research. Kingman emphasizes several parallel, yet distinct, streams of folk and ethnic musics, popular sacred music, the southern musics of country, blues and rock, popular music, jazz, and classical music. |
