Cosmopolitan or Provincial?: Ideology in Early Black Music Historiography, 1867-1940

Abstract

Southern, recently called quiet revolutionary,' published The Music of Black Americans: A History in 1971. The appearance of her book in the wake of the Black Power Movement, the turbulent social upheaval of the late 1960s, links it to an auspicious historical moment. Among other dramatic social changes, the period saw the radicalization of the word black, a designation standing provocatively, even proudly, in Southern's main title. Furthermore, widespread student protests led to sweeping curricular advances in colleges and universities across the nation, most notably, the addition of courses in black history and culture. Designed to fill a void in the new curriculum, Southern's work broke new ground in its method and scope, inspiring others (both directly and indirectly) to similar inquiry and helping to establish black music as a scholarly specialty. Thus The Music of Black Americans stands as an important symbol of the epoch in which it first appeared, even as it filled a glaring lacuna in American musical scholarship as a whole. Work on black music that followed has featured research rich in variety and scope: musical biography and autobiography, archival and oral histories, systematic research on jazz and blues, the compilation of bibliographies and indices, ethnographic studies, critical editions, and much more. In addition, the recent introduction of contemporary cultural and social theory into the field has pointed out new critical directions, stimu1. Samuel A. Floyd Jr. coined this apt portrayal in his essay, Eileen Jackson Southern: Quiet Revolutionary (1992), which outlines Southern's early life and scholarly contributions to the field of black music scholarship.