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Re: [ARSCLIST] Sounds of Slavery



There is always the possibility. The trick is uncovering them.

What I have found in my years of transferring recordings for individuals is that there are some unbelievable recordings in peoples basements and attics. Some are not only of genealogical importance, but also can have historical significants. The problem is convincing these people that their recordings are of interest to anyone outside the family. And most recordings, unfortunately are only discovered after a family member passes. I haven't transferred anything made before 1930. But who knows what could show up.

Angie Dickinson Mickle
Avocado Productions
Arvada, CO
www.avocadoproductions.com
800-246-3811


Bertram Lyons wrote:
Throwing dirt on Lomax doesn't seem to address the question of whether recordings exist of slaves previous to the 1930s. Recording technology was present for over 40/50 years before the 1930s. Did unknown individuals make attempts to capture the sounds of slaves previously to the 1930s? Are there historical recordings out there that fill this void?

You would have to imagine that this is a possibility.

I think that was more the original question.

I wonder if there is a productive answer out there.

Bertram Lyons

Project Manager / Dissemination Coordinator
Association for Cultural Equity
Alan Lomax Archive
450 West 41st Street, Room 606
New York, NY 10036
901-508-6631
www.culturalequity.org


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Sounds of Slavery
From: Bob Olhsson <olh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, April 27, 2007 1:48 pm
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Unfortunately Lomax chose to omit an immense body of music that didn't
fit
his personal and somewhat primitive image of the African American.
"The rest
of the story" has recently been uncovered at Fisk University in notes
kept
by the music professors who served as his guides. Many slaves had been
given
an excellent music education and their descendents and children became
the
music teachers to the working class of the southeastern United States.
Their
amazing fusion of West African, English, Irish, French and German folk
and
Gospel music along with European classical music became  the basis of
America's popular music.

There's an amazing story sitting there for somebody to flesh out.

Bob Olhsson Audio Mastery, Nashville TN
Mastering, Audio for Picture, Mix Evaluation and Quality Control
Over 40 years making people sound better than they ever imagined!
615.385.8051 http://www.hyperback.com


-----Original Message----- From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of svorg@xxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Friday, April 27, 2007 11:03 AM To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Sounds of Slavery

Start with the LOC:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/lohtml/lohome.html

Scott
Ann Arbor, MI



 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Joel Bresler <joel.br@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Dear friends:

A recent book by Shane White and Graham White, "The Sounds of Slavery: Discovering African American History through Songs, Sermons, and Speech", attempts to analyze the sounds of American slave culture. The accompanying CD includes 18 cuts, mostly dating from the 1930s. The authors note that these selections are "about as close as we are ever going to get" to sounds from slaves themselves. (p. xxii)

Given that recording technology had been around for decades by the 1930s, is this true? Are any lister's aware of earlier recordings that might shed light on the "field calls, work songs, sermons, and other sounds and utterances of slaves on American plantations"?

Many thanks for your thoughts.

Joel

From Booklist:

With no recordings of slave songs and narratives, the authors have undertaken the difficult task of bringing to contemporary readers (and listeners, via the CD that accompanies the book) the sounds of American slave culture. The impressive work songs, spirituals, and prayers were compiled from tracks recorded in the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration. Drawing on WPA interviews with former slaves, slave narratives, and other historical documents from the 1700s through the 1850s, the authors provide the context for the field calls, work songs, sermons, and other sounds and utterances of slaves on American plantations. The authors also focus on recollections of the wails of slaves being whipped, the barking of hounds hunting down runaways, and the keening of women losing their children to the slave block.



Joel Bresler Independent Researcher 250 E. Emerson Rd. Lexington, MA 02420 USA

781-862-4104 (Telephone & FAX)
joel.br@xxxxxxxxxxx
www.followthedrinkinggourd.org
IN CASE OF VERIZON EMAIL PROBLEMS, PLEASE USE MY BACK-UP EMAIL:
joelbresler-at-gmail.com






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