Musicians Migratory Patterns The African Drum As Symbol In Early America

Musicians’ Migratory Patterns: The African Drum as Symbol in Early America questions the ban that was placed on the African drum in early America. It shows the functional use of the drum for celebrations, weddings, funerals, religious ceremonies, and nonviolent communication. The assumption that "drums and horns" were used to communicate in slave revolts is undone in this study. Rather, this volume seeks to consider the "social place" of the drum for both blacks and whites of the time, using the writings of Europeans and colonial-era Americans, the accounts of African American free persons and slaves, the period instruments, and numerous illustrations of paintings and sculpture. The image of the drum was effectively appropriated by Europeans and Americans who wrote about African American culture, particularly in the nineteenth century, and re-appropriated by African American poets and painters in the early twentieth century who recreated a positive nationalist view of their African past. Throughout human history, cultural objects have been banned by one group to be used another, objects that include books, religious artifacts, and ways of dress. This study unlocks a metaphor that is at the root of racial bias—the idea of what is primitive—while offering a fresh approach by promoting the construct of multiple-points-of-view for this social-historical presentation.

Musicians’ Migratory Patterns: American-Mexican Border Lands considers the works and ideologies of an array of American-based, immigrant Mexican musicians. It asserts their immigrant status as a central force in nourishing, informing, and propelling musical and artistic concerns, uncovering pure and fresh forms of expression that broaden the multicultural map of Mexico. The text guides readers in appreciation of the aesthetic and technical achievements of original works and innovative performances, with artistic and pedagogical implications that frame a vivid picture of the contemporary Mexican as immigrant creator in the United States. The ongoing displacement of Mexicans into the United States impacts not only American economic conditions but the country’s social, cultural, and intellectual configurations as well. Artistic and academic voices shape and enrich the multicultural diversity of both countries, as immigrant Mexican artists and their musics prove instrumental to the forming of a self-critical society compelled to value and embrace its diversity. Despite conflicting political reactions on this complex subject of legal and illegal immigration, undeniable is the influence of Mexican musical expressions in the United States and Mexico, at the border and beyond.

Issues in African American Music: Power, Gender, Race, Representation is a collection of twenty-one essays by leading scholars, surveying vital themes in the history of African American music. Bringing together the viewpoints of ethnomusicologists, historians, and performers, these essays cover topics including the music industry, women and gender, and music as resistance, and explore the stories of music creators and their communities. Revised and expanded to reflect the latest scholarship, with six all-new essays, this book both complements the previously published volume African American Music: An Introduction and stands on its own. Each chapter features a discography of recommended listening for further study. From the antebellum period to the present, and from classical music to hip hop, this wide-ranging volume provides a nuanced introduction for students and anyone seeking to understand the history, social context, and cultural impact of African American music.

Collected essays exploring the origins and evolution of music and dance in Afro-Atlantic culture

A dynamic and original collection of essays on the transnational circulation and changing social meanings of Latin music across the Americas. The transcultural impact of Latin American musical forms in the United States calls for a deeper understanding of the shifting cultural meanings of music. Musical Migrations examines the tensions between the value of Latin popular music as a metaphor for national identity and its transnational meanings as it traverses national borders, geocultural spaces, audiences, and historical periods. The anthology analyzes, among others, the role of popular music in Caribbean diasporas in the United States and Europe, the trans-Caribbean identities of Salsa and reggae, the racial, cultural, and ethnic hybridity in rock across the Americas, and the tensions between tradition and modernity in Peruvian indigenous music, mariachi music in the United States, and in Trinidadian music.

Situates the cultures of Portuguese-speaking Africa within the postcolonial, global era.

"This volume covers the period from the end of the Neolithic era to the beginning of the seventh century of our era. This lengthy period includes the civilization of Ancient Egypt, the history of Nubia, Ethiopia, North Africa and the Sahara, as well as of the other regions of the continent and its islands."--Publisher's description

Presents five hundred-one critical reading questions to prepare for the SAT I and other tests and includes skill builders on different subject matter such as U.S. history and politics, arts and humanities, health and medicine, literature and music, sports, science, and social studies.