Research Guides: International Music Resources by Country: USA

Books & Scores

Encyclopedia of Native American Music of North America by Elaine Keillor; Tim Archambault; John M. H. Kelly This book is a one-stop reference resource for the vast variety of musical expressions of the First Peoples' cultures of North America, both past and present. Encyclopedia of Native American Music of North America documents the surprisingly varied musical practices among North America's First Peoples, both historically and in the modern context. It supplies a detailed yet accessible and approachable overview of the substantial contributions and influence of First Peoples that can be appreciated by both native and nonnative audiences, regardless of their familiarity with musical theory. The entries address how ethnomusicologists with Native American heritage are revolutionizing approaches to the discipline, and showcase how musicians with First Peoples' heritage are influencing modern musical forms including native flute, orchestral string playing, gospel, and hip hop. The work represents a much-needed academic study of First Peoples' musical cultures--a subject that is of growing interest to Native Americans as well as nonnative students and readers. * Provides print and Internet resources with each entry * Presents exclusive information derived from the personal research and fieldwork of the editors * Includes a timeline that highlights important developments in First Peoples' musical expressions * Supplies an index that allows users to easily look up all of the relevant information on a topic
Call Number: REF ML102.N37 K45 2013
Folk Music in the United States by Bruno Nettl; Helen Myers Folding a River, a collection of elegies, shows a pleasing range of free-verse forms that develop themes sustained throughout: loss, exile, myth, landscape. Kawita Kandpal’s poems are explorations of East–West cultures, taking her into an emo-mythic place not to be found on any map. Kandpal’s mood in Folding a River is melancholy, articulated with intelligence and grace, and her phrasing can rise to the level of proverb: “This time next year you will have evolved into an idea.” In its personal evocations of geographical and linguistic exile from the subcontinent, centered on a lost father, her work recalls that of Li-Young Lee, yet with a feminine perspective often haunting in its own right: “tenderly / taking back the mistakes of men.”
Call Number: ML3551 .N47 1976
Reds, Whites, and Blues by William G. Roy Music, and folk music in particular, is often embraced as a form of political expression, a vehicle for bridging or reinforcing social boundaries, and a valuable tool for movements reconfiguring the social landscape. Reds, Whites, and Blues examines the political force of folk music, not through the meaning of its lyrics, but through the concrete social activities that make up movements. Drawing from rich archival material, William Roy shows that the People's Songs movement of the 1930s and 40s, and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s implemented folk music's social relationships--specifically between those who sang and those who listened--in different ways, achieving different outcomes. Roy explores how the People's Songsters envisioned uniting people in song, but made little headway beyond leftist activists. In contrast, the Civil Rights Movement successfully integrated music into collective action, and used music on the picket lines, at sit-ins, on freedom rides, and in jails. Roy considers how the movement's Freedom Songs never gained commercial success, yet contributed to the wider achievements of the Civil Rights struggle. Roy also traces the history of folk music, revealing the complex debates surrounding who or what qualified as "folk" and how the music's status as racially inclusive was not always a given. Examining folk music's galvanizing and unifying power, Reds, Whites, and Blues casts new light on the relationship between cultural forms and social activity.
Call Number: ML3918.F65 R69 2010
A Season of Singing by Sarah M. Ross In the 1960s, Jewish music in America began to evolve. Traditional liturgical tunes developed into a blend of secular and sacred sound that became known in the 1980s as "American Nusach." Chief among these developments was the growth of feminist Jewish songwriting. In this lively study, Sarah M. Ross brings together scholarship on Jewish liturgy, U.S. history, and musical ethnology to describe the multiple roots and development of feminist Jewish music in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Focusing on the work of prolific songwriters such as Debbie Friedman, Rabbi Geela Rayzel Raphael, Rabbi Hanna Tiferet Siegel, and Linda Hirschhorn, this volume illuminates the biographies and oeuvres of innovators in the field, and shows how this new musical form arose from the rich contexts of feminism, identity politics, folk music, and Judaism. In addition to providing deep content analysis of individual songs, Ross examines the feminist Jewish music scene across the United States, the reception of this music, challenges to disseminating the music beyond informal settings, and the state of Jewish music publishing. Rounding out the picture of the transformation of Jewish music, the volume contains appendixes of songs and songwriters a selection of musical transcriptions of feminist Jewish songs, and a comprehensive discography. This book will interest scholars and students in the fields of American Jewish history, women's studies, feminism, ethnomusicology, and contemporary popular and folk music.
Call Number: ML3776 .R67 2016
Slave Songs of the United States by William Francis Allen; Charles P. Ware; Lucy McKim Garrison During the 19th century, the authors recorded the music of the slaves from what was actually heard on plantations during, and immediately following, the Civil War. Direc-tions for singing and musical scores are provided.
Call Number: M1670 .A42 1998

Native American Music

Read about American Music (Grove Music Online)

American Film & Music (Audio/Video Streaming)

American History in Video
Collection of videos documenting events in American history.
Music Online: American Music
A streaming audio collection of songs by and about Americans. Includes the songs of Civil Rights, political campaigns, Prohibition, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, anti-war protests, and more.
Music Online: Jazz Music Library
A streaming audio collection of jazz recordings from all over the world. Includes individual tracks and entire albums featuring some of the most famous artists and ensembles.
Silent Film Online
Contains silent feature films, serials, and shorts from the 1890s to the 1930s that represent the foundation of modern cinematic technique and film theory.

David Van Vactor Music Collection
Composer, conductor, educator, and flutist David Van Vactor (1906-1994) came to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1947 to serve as head of the newly-created Department of Fine Arts, and to take up the baton as the third conductor of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. He conducted the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra until 1972, taught at UT until his retirement in 1976, and continued to compose until his death in 1994.

The David Van Vactor Music Collection includes multiple drafts and final versions of compositions from all eras of Van Vactor’s long career. Successive drafts allow researchers to study Van Vactor’s process of composition, from writing and revising to working with his transcriptionist and publisher.

Garland Encyclopedia of World Music-USA

United States
Read more about music in the United States!

Map of the United States

Citation (3)

Facts in Brief

The United States of America comprises mainly the North American continent between Canada and Mexico. Alaska, to the north-west of Canada, and Hawaii, in the central Pacific Ocean, are two of the 50 states of the USA. There is considerable climatic variation, with mean annual average temperatures ranging from 29°C (84°F) in Florida to −13.3°C (10°F) in Alaska. Average annual rainfall ranges from 1,831 mm (72.1 ins) in Arkansas to 191 mm (7.5 ins) in Nevada. Much of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and Utah is desert. The most widely spoken language and unofficial national language is English, and there are significant and growing Spanish-speaking minorities. Christianity is the predominant religion. The national flag (proportions 10 by 19) has 13 alternating stripes (seven red and six white) with a dark blue rectangular canton, containing 50 white, five-pointed stars, in the upper hoist. The capital is Washington, DC.

Citation (1)

Citation (2)