The Transformation of Black Music : The rhythms, the songs, and the ships of the African Diaspora

279 Pages·2017·7.25 MB·English

by  Floyd

The Transformation of Black Music

The Transformation
of Black Music
THE RHYTHMS, THE SONGS, AND THE SHIPS
OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA
SAMUEL A. FLOYD JR. with MELANIE L. ZECK
and
GUTHRIE P. RAMSEY JR.
1
1
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ISBN 978– 0– 19– 530724– 5
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Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
To the legacy of Mrs. Johnnie V. Lee
pillar of the Florida A&M University music
community, teacher, and lover of all music
(mentor to three generations of the Floyd family)
Encomium: Samuel A. Floyd Jr.
"Modern life means democracy, democracy means freeing intelligence
for independent effectiveness— the emancipation of mind as
an individual organ to do its own work. We naturally associate
democracy, to be sure, with freedom of action, but freedom of action
without freed capacity of thought behind it is only chaos."
John Dewey, "Democracy in Education" 1903
Sam, thank you for leading by example.

Contents
List of Maps ix
Foreword, by Melanie Zeck xi
Preface, by Samuel A. Floyd Jr. and Melanie Zeck xiii
Acknowledgments xvii
Contributors xix
Introduction xxi
Recommended Recordings xxxv
PART I: BLACK MUSIC AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA
1. Out of Africa: Setting Sail from the Motherland 3
2. The Making of the African Diaspora: Ships on the Oceans 31
3. The Diaspora’s Concert Worlds: Europe and the Americas 49
4. Isles of Rhythm: The Cinquillo- Tresillo Complex in the
Circum- Caribbean
69
5. Ties That Bind: Myth and Ritual in the Circum- Caribbean
and Beyond
87
PART II: CASE STUDIES
6. “Pip’s Tambourine”: Black Music and Sterling Stuckey’s Revelations
of Herman Melville’s Hidden Sources
111
vii
viii Contents
7. “Git on Board, Lil’ Chillun”: Children and Music in the Diaspora
(by Melanie Zeck)
127
8. The Movement: Black Identities and the Paths Forward 141
9. Afro- modernism and Music: On Science, Community, and Magic
in the Black Avant- Garde (by Guthrie Ramsey Jr.)
155
10. Africa and the Trope of the Return 173
Epilogue 187
Appendix A: Excerpt from “Ring Shout! Literary Studies, Historical Studies,
and Black Music Inquiry” 199
Appendix B: Figures and Institutions from the “First Black Renaissance” 201
Notes 203
Bibliography 221
Index 235
Index of Performers and Composers of Classical/Art Music 239
List of Maps
Chapter 1 (Out of Africa: Setting Sail from
the Motherland)
Map 1.1a Outline of Africa with major lakes and rivers 4
Map 1.1b Political map of Africa: modern nation states 5
Map 1.2 Outline of Africa with historical empires/ kingdoms
depicted: Ghana, Mali, Songhay, Ethiopia, Yorubaland, Kanem 7
Map 1.2a Kingdom of Ghana, eleventh century ad 8
Map 1.2b Empire of Mali, ca. fourteenth century ad 9
Map 1.2c Empire of Songhay, late fourteenth century ad to 1591 10
Map 1.2d Kingdom of Ethiopia (Abyssinia) 11
Map 1.2e Outline of Africa with Kingdom of Kanem and Kanem-Bornu
Empire 12
Map 1.2f Outline of Africa with Yorubaland 13
Map 1.3 Outline of southern Africa with modern nation states; historical
names of places referenced in text 22
Chapter 2 (The Making of the African Diaspora)
Map 2.1 Moorish influence of Spain 33
Map 2.2 Colonies in the circum- Caribbean by ruling country 37
Map 2.3 Regions/ cities in Mexico with black settlements 39
ix