Fieldwork Method in Ethnomusicology

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THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

Music 40

Field Methods in Ethnomusicology

Fall Semester 200

Tuesdays 2-5 P.M

Music Annex 21

Dr. Carol A. Muller [email protected]

Office: Music Building 304; Telephone: (215) 898-4985

Office Hours:Thursday noon- 1 PM. or by appointment

Explaining the CourseThis is a newly conceptualized field methods course that examines Gospel music performance in

African American communities in West Philadelphia. There are three dimensions to the study of gospel music in the United States: gospel's historical antecedents in slavery embodied in thespiritual, gospel in its contemporary church communities, and gospel as in its commercial andmediated forms.

The educational goal is to provide students with archival and ethnographic experienceand expertise, and to develop community ties between the gospel community in WestPhiladelphia, a small group of students from University City High School, and Penn gradstudents. As the research is conducted it will be transformed into an html format CDROM/website for more generalized public display and consumption. The website becomes ameans of reciprocating to the gospel community for the information we gather in partnership withthem. It will also constitute the beginning of a larger virtual archive on Gospel music in WestPhiladelphia.

Philadelphia is one of the first major cities north of the Mason-Dixon line, i.e. the dividingline between the North and South, so it is a major site for the movement of African Americansbetween the north and south in the post-slavery days. It is the city in which WE Du Bois lived andwrote, is the place where the African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded by Richard Allen.Opera singer Marian Anderson was born and nurtured in this city.

The primary site of fieldwork will be the Millennium Baptist Church in West Philadelphia. All students are urged to attend services at Millennium as often as they are able to through thecourse of the semester to deepen understanding of gospel music performance in itscontemporary church environment and what it means to its community. Services run from 11 amsharp for two hours. Hopefully we will be able to arrange a van for group transportation (werequire the appropriate license to do this).

The archival work will focus on the Marian Anderson Collection housed in the Rare Booksand Manuscripts, floor 6 in Van Pelt. Marian Anderson left an enormous recorded and writtenarchive a good part of which focused on the Spiritual. Additional archives may be consulted, for example, at Temple University--, the Pennsylvania State Historical Society, the AME churcharchives, among others. (The Bausch Institute for Ethnic Studies unfortunately is closed fromOctober 1 through March 2002 because they are moving.)

In addition, this semester we will assist the music librarians in building the collection of gospel audio and video recordings in Van Pelt. And you are encouraged to listen to gospel music

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mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]



on radio, and broadcast on television. This occurs largely on Sundays. We will have severalcommunity experts on Gospel Music visit our class, including Clayton White and Linda Timmons.

This seminar will be conducted as one might imagine a research project might beconducted. It means that we can plan to some extent, but may need to be flexible about someaspects of the class.

There are two kinds of projects: archival and ethnographic, though they will overlap inimportant ways. You should choose which you would prefer to focus on.

Class Requirements: Weekly Journal—submitted at end of semester: 40%Class participation: 10%Website production: 10%Formal Reflection Paper: 40%

Both the journal and formal reflection paper are due at the end of the semester, one week after the last class.

ReadingsThese are divided into three parts:

(1) West Philadelphia and Rationale for Community Partnership Program(2) African American Gospel: Past and Present(3) Field Methods and Ethnographic Representation

PART ONE: Bulkpack of readings from Ira Harkavy and CCP PART TWO (1) Thinking of the Sacred—in African American music scholarship, compare with others.Muller, Carol. 1999. Rituals of Fertility and the Sacrifice of Desire. Chicago: U of C Press. Readchs. 3-5

Ricouer, Paul. 1995. Figuring the Sacred. Religion, Narrative and Imagination. Minneapolis:Fortress.

Weiner, Annette. 1992. Inalienable Possessions: The Paradox of Keeping While Giving.Berkeley: Univ. of California.

(2) Reference Works Anderson, Robert and Gail North. 1979. Gospel Music Encyclopedia. NY: Sterling.

Brevard, Lisa. 1992. Annotated Bibliography of African American Gospel Music. IN Reagon(ed.), pp. 355-372.

Dixon, Robert. 1969. Blues and Gospel Records, 1902-1942. NY: Oxford University Press.

Estell, Kenneth 1994. African America: Portrait of a People.Washington DC: Visible Ink.

Jackson, Irene. 1979. Afro-American Religious Music: A Bibliography and a Catolog of Gospel

Music. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Maultsby, Portia. 1975. Selective Bibliography: U.S. Black Music. Ethnomusicology 421-449.

Oliver, Paul et al. 1986. The New Grove Gospel, Blues, and Jazz. NY: Norton.

(3) “White” Perspectives on Gospel/Music in PhiladelphiaCusic, Don. 1990. The Sound of Light. Bowling Green: BG State University Popular Press.

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Gerson, Robert. 1940. Music in Philadelphia. Westport CT: Greenwood. (reprint 1970).

Howard and Streck. 1999. Apostles of Rock. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.

Yoder, Don. 1961. Pennsylvania Spirituals. Lancaster PA: PA Folklife Society.

(4) General Boyer, Horace. 2000. The Golden Age of Gospel. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press.

Cruz, Jon. 1999. Culture on the Margins: The Black Spiritual and the Rise of American CulturalInterpretation. Princeton: PUP. (Critical history, i.e. inter-racial contact, ethnosympathy)

Hall, Jacob. 1971. Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers. New York: AMS Press.

Hillsman, Joan. 1990. Gospel Music: An African American Art Form. Washington DC. MiddleAtlantic Press. (small book, good for classroom use).

Jones, F and A (eds.) 2001. The Triumph of the Soul: Cultural and Psychological Aspects of African American Music. Westport CT: Praeger.

Reagon, Bernice. 2001. If you don't go, don't hinder me.: The African American Song Tradition.Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press.

Southern, Eileen. 1971. The Music of Black Americans: A History. NY: Norton.

______________. 1983. Readings in Black American Music. NY: Norton.

Stebbins, George. 1971. Reminiscences and Gospel Hymn Stories. NY: GH Doran and Co.

Walker, Wyatt Tee. 1979. “Somebody’s Calling My Name”: Black Sacred Music and SocialChange. Valey Forge, PA: Judson Press.

Williams-Jones, Pearl. 1975. Afro-American Gospel Music: A Crystallization of the BlackAesthetic. Ethnomusicology 373-385.

(5) Early History Please Note: The Rare Books and Manuscripts section of Van Pelt has a large collection of Negro Spirituals and other religious music, particularly Christian music used in early Americancommunities. Check under keyword “spirituals” Barton, W. 1899 Repr. 1972. Old Plantation Hymns. NY: Lamson, Wolffe and Co.

Courlander, Harold.1963. Negro Folk Music. NY: Columbia UP, chs. 1-5.

Emerson, William. Stories and Spirituals of the Negro Slave. Microfiche 847.

Krehbiel, Henry. 1914. Afro-American Folksongs. NY: G. Schirmer.

Maultsby, Portia. 1975. Music of Northern Independent Black Churches During the Ante-BellumPeriod. Ethnomusicology, 401-420.

Pitts, Walter. 1993. Old Ship of Zion: The Afro-Baptist Ritual in the African Diaspora. NY:Oxford.

Southern, Eileen. 177. Musical Practices in Black Churches of Philadelphia and New York, ca.

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1800-1844. Journal of the American Musicological Society 30, pp. 296-312.

Taylor, John. 1975. Somethin' on my mind: A Cultural and Historical Interpretation of NegroSpiritual Texts. Ethnomusicology , 387-399.

(6) Contemporary History: Spirituals in 20thc. and Gospel Music Performance Anderson, Paul. 2001. Deep River: Music and Memory in Harlem Renaissance Thought. Duke

UP, esp. pp. 1-112.

Boyer, Horace. 1979. Contemporary Gospel Music. Black Perspective in Music 7/1, 5-58.

Campbell, James. 1998. Songs of Zion: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States and South Africa . Chapel Hill: UNC Press, esp. Book One.

Cone, J. 1972. The Spirituals and the Blues: An Interpretation. NY: Seabury.

Dje-dje, J. 1989. Gospel Music in the Los Angeles Black Community: A Historical Overview.Journal of Black Music Research, 35-79.

Epstein, Dana. 1977. Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War. Urbana:Univ of Illinois.

Floyd, Samuel. 1996. The Power of Black Music. See esp. Intro, chs. 1-4.

Hare, Cuney. 1936, repr.1996. Negro Musicians and Their Music. NY: Simon and Shuster etc.Part of the African American Women Writers 1910-1940 series.

Heilbut, Tony. 1975. The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times. Garden City, NJ: Anchor Books.

Jones, Arthur. 2001. Upon This Rock: The Foundational Influence of the Spirituals. IN Jonesand Jones, pp. 3-34.

Jones, Arthur. 1993. Wade in the Water: The Wisdom of the Spirituals. M NY: Orbis.

Journal of Black Music Research, Special Issue on Gospel Music 1995, 15/2.

Kirk-Duggan, Cheryl. 1997. Exorcising Evil: A Womanist Perspective on the Spirituals. NY:Orbis.

Maultsby, Portia. 1992. The Impact of Gospel Music in the Secular Music Industry. IN Reagon,pp. 19-36.

Nelson, Angela. 2001. Why We Sing: The Role and Meaning of Gospel in African AmericanPopular Culture. IN Jones and Jones, 97-126.

Oliver, Paul. 1984. Songsters and Saints: Vocal Traditions on Race Records. Cambridge: CUP,esp. Introduction, chs. 5-7.

Reagon, Bernice Johnson. 1992. We'll Understand Better By and By: Pioneering AfricanAmerican Gospel Composers. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, Introduction.Javonovich.

Robinson, Aminah. 1992. Teachings: Drawn from African American Spirituals. NY: Harcour

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Sanger, Kerran. 1995. "When the Spirit Says aSing!" The Role of Freedom Songs in the CivilRights Movement. NY: Garland.

Spencer, Jon Michael. 1992. Black Hymnody: A Hymnological History of the African-American Church . Knoxville: Univ. of Tennessee Press.

_________________. 1987. The heavenly anthem: Holy ghost singing in the primal PentecostalRevival (1906-1909). Journal of Black Sacred Music 1/1, 1-33.

Stanley, David. 1982. The Gospel-Singing Convention in South Georgia. Journal of AmericanFolklore 95/375, 1-32.

Stout, Daniel. 1996. Religion and Mass Media: Audiences and Adaptations. Thousand Oaks,CA: Sage.

Thurman, Howard (1945), repr. 1975. Deep River and The Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life andDeath. Richmond, Indiana: Friends United Press.

Waterman, Richard. 1951. Gospel Hymns in a Negro Church in Chicago. International Folk Music Journal 3, 87-93.

Woodson, Carter. 1921, repr. 1972. The History of the Negro Church, Washington DC: Associated Publishers.

(7) Special Focus: Marian AndersonCheck the Marian Anderson link on the Penn Library homepage; visit this collection, navigate withlibrarian from Van Pelt.

Anderson, Marian. 1956. My Lord What a Morning. (Ghost Written by Howard Taubman, frominterviews conducted with MA, copies of interviews in Van Pelt.)

Floyd, Samuel. 1995. The Power of Black Music: Interpreting its History from Africa to the UnitedStates. NY: Oxford UP. See ch. 9 Troping the Blues: From Spirituals to Concert Hall.

Keiler, Allan. 2000. Marian Anderson: A Singer's Journey. NY: Scribner. Drawing on MAarchival material in VP library at Penn.

(8) Gospel Music Ethnography Allen, Ray. 1991. Singing in the Spirit: African-American Sacred Quartets in New York City.

Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press.

Burnim, Mellonee. 1980. The Black Music Gospel Tradition: Symbol of Ethnicity. UnpublishedPhd. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan UMI # 8105956.

Dje-dje, JC. 1978. American Black Spiritual and Gospel Songs from Southeast Georgia: A

Comparative Study. UCLA: Center for Afro-American Studies.

Johnson, K. 1997. The Johnson Family Singers: We Sang for our Supper. Univ, of MississippiPress.

Lornell, Kip. 1988. "Happy in the Service of the Lord": Afro-American Gospel Quartets inMemphis. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press.

Montell, William. 1991. Singing the Glory Down: Amateur Gospel Music in South CentralKentucky, 1900-1990. Louisville: Univ. Press of Kentucky.

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Ricks, George. 1960. Some Aspects of the Religious Music of the United States Negro: AnEthnomusicological Study with Special Emphasis on the Gospel Tradition. Published in1997: NY: Arno Press.

PART THREE (9) Field Methods and Ethnographic Representation

Agar, Michael. 1980. The Professional Stranger: An Informal Introduction to Ethnography. NY:Academic Press.

Barz, G and T. Cooley (eds.) 1997. Shadows in the Field. NY: Oxford UP

Behar, Ruth and Deborah Gordon (eds.) 1995. Women Writing Culture. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.

Bennett de Marais, Kathleen (ed.) 1998. Inside Stories: Qualitative Research Reflections.Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Briggs, Charles. 1989. Learning How to Ask: A socio-linguistic appraisal of the role of theinterview in Social Science research. NY: Cambridge, chs. 1, 5, 6.

Clifford, James. 1988. The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth Century Ethnography, Literature,and Art. Cambridge MA: Harvard UP.

Clifford, James and George Marcus.1986. Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. Berkeley: Univ. of California P.

Council on Library and Information Resources. 2001. Folk Heritage Collections in Crisis.Washington DC.

Crane, Julia and Michael Angrosino. 1974. Field Projects in Anthropology. Morristown NJ:General Learning Press.

Finnegan, Ruth.1992. Oral Traditions and the Verbal Arts: A Guide to Research Practices. NY:Routledge.

Geertz, Clifford.1973. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. Ch. 1 (Thick Description),Ch. 4 (Religion as cultural system), and Ch. 5 Analysis of sacred symbols.

Gluck, Sherna and Daphne Patai (eds.) 1991. Women’s Words: The Feminist Practice of OralHistory. NY: Routledge.

Gorden, Raymond. 1992. Basic Interviewing Skills. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.

Jackson, Bruce. 1987. Fieldwork. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois.

Kochman, Thomas. 1981. Black and White: Styles in Conflict. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago P.

Marcus, George and Michael Fischer. 1986. Anthropology as Cultural Critique: An ExperimentalMoment in the Human Sciences. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago P.

Nettl, Bruno. The Study of Ethnomusicology: Twenty-Nine Issues and Concepts. Urbana: Univ.of Illinois, esp. chs. 18-22.

Personal Narratives Group. 1989. Interpreting Women’s Lives: Feminist Theory and Personal

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Narratives. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois.

Ruby, Jay. (ed.)1982. A Crack in the Mirror: Reflexive Perspectives in Anthropology.Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania.

Sanjek, Roger (ed.) Fieldnotes: The Making of Anthropology. Ithaca: Cornell UP.

Shelemay. Kay. 1988. Together in the Field: Team Research among Syrian Jews in Brooklyn,NY. Ethnomusicology 32/3, 369-384.

Spradley, James. 1980. Participant Observation. NY: Holt, Rinehart,and Winston.

_____________. 1979. The Ethnographic Interview. NY: Holt, Rienhart, and Winston.

Stringer, Ernie et al. 1997. Community-based Ethnography: Breaking Traditional Boundaries of Research, Teaching, and Learning. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Van Maanen, John. 1988. Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago.

Wolcott, Harry. 1995. The Art of Fieldwork. London: Sage.

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Fieldwork Method in Ethnomusicology

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