Black Music Research Newsletter, Spring 1986

Columbia College Chicago Digital Commons @ Columbia College Chicago Center for Black Music Research: Black Music Research Newsletter Publications Spring 4-1-1986 Black Music Research Newsletter, Spring 1986 Samuel Floyd Columbia College Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cbmrnews Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons, and the Education Commons Recommended Citation Floyd, Samuel, "Black Music Research Newsletter, Spring 1986" (1986). Center for Black Music Research: Black Music Research Newsletter. 22. https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cbmrnews/22 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Publications at Digital Commons @ Columbia College Chicago. It has been accepted for inclusion in Center for Black Music Research: Black Music Research Newsletter by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Columbia College Chicago. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BLACK MUSIC RESEARCH NEWSLETTER COLUMBIA COLLEGE CHICAGO Vol. 8, No. 2 ISSN Number 0271-3799 Spring 1986 CBMR Database: The Union Catalog and Reference System by D. W Krummel, University of 11/inois With the support of the Lloyd A. rllinois), Dena J. Epstein (University raphers; and the feas.ibility, as Fry Foundation, the Center for Black of Chicago), Diana Haskell (The New explored by computer data-base Music Research has undertaken a berry Library), D. W. Krummel (Uni specialists. The reports have now major project for providing biblio versity of Illinois), Steven Newsome been revised and incorporated into a graphical access to the literature of (Vivian Harsh Collection, Chicago project document. black music. The basic plan involves Public Library), Donald Roberts The Union Catalog is intended to two inter-related programs: a Union (Northwestern University), Jane cover the black-music books, sound Catalog of Black Music Holdings in Rosenberg (Council on Library Re recordings, scores, and sheet music Chicago-Area Libraries, and a Com sources), Kenyon Rosenberg (Na in six major Chicago-area collections: puterized Reference System describ tional Technical Information Service, the Columbia College ljbrary, Carter ing.current black music materials. U.S. Department of Commerce), and G. Woodson Regional Library of the A special planning conference was Mary Schellhorn (Columbia College Chicago Public Library, the Newberry held in Chicago on November 4th, Library). The extensive planning re Library, and the music libraries of the 1985, for purposes of evaluating the ports for the session, prepared by University of Chicago, Northwestern plans and suggesting directions for Samuel A. Floyd and Marsha J. Reis University, and Roosevelt University. the program. The invited attendants ser, were scrutinized from a wide var While specialists in library resources included Dominique-Rene de Lerma iety of angles and probed from the might argue whether these collections (Morgan State University), Donald perspectives of the needs, as iden together were the equal of those in Draganski (Roosevelt University), tified by black music scholars; the John M. Eddins (University of functions, as analyzed by bibliog- Continued on page 2 Milestones of Black-American Composition by Eileen Southern, Harvard University If I had to select five milestones in the history of American music, and it gaged to play at the Lafayette Ball," the history of Afro-American compos is engaging music. as a contemporary stated. For the oc ition, and only five, the following The first composition on my ljst is casion Johnson wrote one of his most works would constitute my list. The Francis Johnson's uifayette March. By elaborate band compositions, replete composers do not necessarily typify 1824, the year of General Lafayette's with trumpet florishes, fanciful ob the most gifted black writers of the celebrated tour of the United States, ligatos and ornate embellishment. past one hundred and fifty years, nor Johnson had become so renowned in Although I have not heard a band do the works necessarily represent the Philadelphia "that nothing could be performance of this piece as Lafayette best they produced. But this music more natural than thatt the black mas has made definitive contributions to ter of melody should £have been] en- Continued on page 2 2 (as with most encyclopedias, type of material; by subject heading; CBMR Database, co11ti1111ed dictionaries, bibliographies, discog or by key term. The Name Authority raphies, indexes, and similar refer Fi le and thesaurus lists can also be New York (th,e Schomburg and Lin ence works). It may also prove possi printed in their own right. Additional coln Center coUections of the New ble to incorporate the contents of sev general access-whether involving York Public Library) or Washington eral of the particularly important printed lists, or as a nationally or loc (the Library of Congress and Howard periodicals within the System. ally distributed computerized data University), dearly they establish By way of a kind of preliminary pilot base, or through COM or CD-ROM Chicago as one of the top three centers project in this area, several extensive catalog, or through an information for historical materials on black detailed studies have been underta service based mainly at the Center for music, with six highly varied collec ken involving the name and subject Black Music Research itself-will also tions, each with distinctive particular indexes-or lacking these, the text it be provided, ideally available through strengths. self-in a number of the most re several of the above. Among the im portant aspects of spected books on black music. The in The strong consensus at the this part of the Proj ect will be the de dexes in the two major periodicals in November planning conference is that velopment of a na me authority file, the field, Tlte 8/nck Perspective !11 Music the project is clearly needed. The his based wherever possible on those of and 8/nck Music Research Jo11rnnl, have toric holdings of black music in our the Library of Congress, the Institute also been studied. Ideally the practice nation's libraries have never been of Jazz Studies of Rutgers University for selecting and evaluating indi adequately located, let alone de in Newark, and Dominique-Rene de vidual books and their own separate scribed and studied. Nor would any Lerma's "Namelist of Black Musi indexes ought to be conceived, both one dare to argue that current black cians." Birth and death da tes are to in ideal intellectual terms and with a music materials are being covered be included, along with cross refer view to the appropriate optimum ef adequately, for instance in Music ences, and updating is planned. Since fort expended in this activity. A I11tlex, or RILM Abstracts, or in America: Library of Congress subject headings thesaurus of key terms is being de History nnd Life, or even between are generally agreed to be less than veloped for use with musical scores. them. Above all, the Project can not ideal for the needs of the readership Above all, special formulations are help but address the even larger ques intended here, a special thesaurus is being constructed so that the System tion of the needs of those who work being developed, partially out of the may be usable by those musical with black music, whether as perfor topical name forms used in the Floyd groups whose vocabularies accommo mers or composers in any of our and Reisser Black Music in tlte U11ited date ambiguity in strange and won numerous art-music or vernacular States. derful ways-a hard task indeed, but traditions; or as scholars, whether of As for the Computerized Reference a very important one. Finally, all of the music or the culture primarily; or System, central to its conception will th ese considerations are being addres as administrators, addressing the mar beJhe program for selecting key terms sed in terms of search strategies-in ket for sounds, equipment, and ser from the materials added to the Black volving, for instance, Boolean alge vices; or simply as lay persons, be Music Research Collection at Colum bra, truncation, and natural language they students in school or readers at bia College. In addition to sound re practices-that are possible on a com home or in public libraries, curious cordings and periodica ls, the cover puterized system. about our country's black-music heri age will extend to include books that Several different possible kinds of tage, its practices, and its future. are centrally relevant to the study of output are being provided. Users may Based on the Chicago model as a start, black music (for instance, topical request lists of citations drawn from the Union Catalog could advantage studies, indjvidual and collective either the Union Catalog or Reference ously be extended nation-wide. The biographies, iconographies, pedagog System. Such lists can be tailored to challenge, in sum, is a vast one ical material, and general history), but the needs of the user through the limi partly because it is l,O complex, but not when their duplication of cover tation of the searcb by any of several even more important, because it is so age would prove highly redundant fields, including author, ti.tie, and significant. share of publicity. Moreover, the expo where it was a great hit in London Milestones, co11ti1111ed sure had internat;vnal implications, and the provinces. Particularly attrac heard it, judging from the piano score for in 1837 Johnson would become the tive is the Overture, written by Wi ll and contemporary comment, the per first American (to my knowledge) to Marion Cook, composer-in-chief for formance was wildly successful. His perform abroad with his music group. the Williams/Walker musicals, with its torically, the occasion is significant as The second work on my list is the exuberant rhythms, piquant har the first time in American history that Bert Williams/George Walker musical monies, catchy melodies, and subtle a black composer attracted national at /11 DahometJ, which played a record mood changes.

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