About the book
Alan Lomax's prolific sixty-four-year career as a folklorist and musicologist began with a trip across the South and into the heart of Louisiana's Cajun country during the height of the Great Depression. In 1934, his father John, then curator of the Library of Congress's Archive of American Folk Song, took an eighteen-year-old Alan and a 300-pound aluminum disk recorder into the rice fields of Jennings, along the waterways of New Iberia, and behind the gates of Angola State Penitentiary to collect vestiges of African American and Acadian musical tradition. These recordings now serve as the foundational document of indigenous Louisiana music.
Although widely recognized by scholars as a key artifact in the understanding of American vernacular music, most of the recordings by John and Alan Lomax during their expedition across the central-southern fringe of Louisiana were never transcribed or translated, much less studied in depth. This volume presents, for the first time, a comprehensive examination of the 1934 corpus and unveils a multifaceted story of traditional song in one of the country's most culturally dynamic regions.
Through his textual and comparative study of the songs contained in the Lomax collection, Joshua Clegg Caffery provides a musical history of Louisiana that extends beyond Cajun music and zydeco to the rural blues, Irish and English folk songs, play-party songs, slave spirituals, and traditional French folk songs that thrived at the time of these recordings.
Intimate in its presentation of Louisiana folklife and broad in its historical scope, Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana honors the legacy of John and Alan Lomax by retrieving these musical relics from obscurity and ensuring their understanding and appreciation for generations to come.
Includes:
Complete transcriptions of the 1934 Lomax field recordings in southwestern Louisiana
Side-by-side translations from French to English
Photographs from the 1934 field trip and biographical details about the performers
Editions of Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana
- Hardcover
- ISBN 9780807152010
- EBook
- ISBN 9780807152034
- EBook
- ISBN 9780807152041
- PDF
- ISBN 9780807152027
Read an Excerpt
Alan Lomax's prolific sixty-four-year career as a folklorist and musicologist began with a trip across the South and into the heart of Louisiana's Cajun country during the height of the Great Depression. In 1934, his father John, then curator of the Library of Congress's Archive of American Folk Song, took an eighteen-year-old Alan and a 300-pound aluminum disk recorder into the rice fields of Jennings, along the waterways of New Iberia, and behind the gates of Angola State Penitentiary to collect vestiges of African American and Acadian musical tradition. These recordings now serve as the foundational document of indigenous Louisiana music.
Although widely recognized by scholars as a key artifact in the understanding of American vernacular music, most of the recordings by John and Alan Lomax during their expedition across the central-southern fringe of Louisiana were never transcribed or translated, much less studied in depth. This volume presents, for the first time, a comprehensive examination of the 1934 corpus and unveils a multifaceted story of traditional song in one of the country's most culturally dynamic regions.
Through his textual and comparative study of the songs contained in the Lomax collection, Joshua Clegg Caffery provides a musical history of Louisiana that extends beyond Cajun music and zydeco to the rural blues, Irish and English folk songs, play-party songs, slave spirituals, and traditional French folk songs that thrived at the time of these recordings.
Intimate in its presentation of Louisiana folklife and broad in its historical scope, Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana honors the legacy of John and Alan Lomax by retrieving these musical relics from obscurity and ensuring their understanding and appreciation for generations to come.
Includes:
Complete transcriptions of the 1934 Lomax field recordings in southwestern Louisiana
Side-by-side translations from French to English
Photographs from the 1934 field trip and biographical details about the performers
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana about?
Alan Lomax's prolific sixty-four-year career as a folklorist and musicologist began with a trip across the South and into the heart of Louisiana's Cajun country during the height of the Great Depression. In 1934, his father John, then curator of the Library of Congress's Archive of American Folk Song, took an eighteen-year-old Alan and a 300-pound aluminum disk recorder into the rice fields of Jennings, along the waterways of New Iberia, and behind the gates of Angola State Penitentiary to collect vestiges of African American and Acadian musical tradition. These recordings now serve as the foundational document of indigenous Louisiana music.
Although widely recognized by scholars as a key artifact in the understanding of American vernacular music, most of the recordings by John and Alan Lomax during their expedition across the central-southern fringe of Louisiana were never transcribed or translated, much less studied in depth. This volume presents, for the first time, a comprehensive examination of the 1934 corpus and unveils a multifaceted story of traditional song in one of the country's most culturally dynamic regions.
Through his textual and comparative study of the songs contained in the Lomax collection, Joshua Clegg Caffery provides a musical history of Louisiana that extends beyond Cajun music and zydeco to the rural blues, Irish and English folk songs, play-party songs, slave spirituals, and traditional French folk songs that thrived at the time of these recordings.
Intimate in its presentation of Louisiana folklife and broad in its historical scope, Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana honors the legacy of John and Alan Lomax by retrieving these musical relics from obscurity and ensuring their understanding and appreciation for generations to come.
Includes:
Complete transcriptions of the 1934 Lomax field recordings in southwestern Louisiana
Side-by-side translations from French to English
Photographs from the 1934 field trip and biographical details about the performers
What core themes, tropes, or subjects are explored in Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana?
The Arts > Music
Where can I read a sample of Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana?
You can read an official preview of the few pages here https://www.book2look.com/book/9780807152010
How long is Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana and how many pages does it have?
Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana has 384 page(s)
Who is/are the Author/s of the book Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana?
Joshua Clegg Caffery
Who is the Publisher of the book Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana?
LSU Press
What are the ISBN numbers for the physical and digital editions?
Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana is available as hardcover(ISBN 9780807152010) and ebook(ISBN 9780807152034) and ebook(ISBN 9780807152041) and pdf(ISBN 9780807152027)
Where can I buy Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana online or support local independent bookshops?
You can buy Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana from below
Where can I buy Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana?