Sign up for Genealogy Pointers »

This important work crystallized the idea "that the songs of American blacks were folksongs, that they were American folksongs, and that they contain certain 'idioms which were transplanted from Africa.'" The author develops his analysis in chapters devoted to the modes, harmony, variations, rhythms, and structural features of the songs, as well as in special chapters treating African-American dance and the songs of black Creoles. It presents in concise form one of the major arguments on the genesis of African-American folksongs.