Blacks in Classical Music: A Bibliographical Guide to Composers, Performers, and Ensembles (Music Reference Collection) [Hardcover]

John Gray (Compiler)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 20, 1988 | Series: Music Reference Collection (Book 15)

This comprehensive guide is the first to cover the full range of black activity in classical music, with more than 4,000 references to over 300 performers and ensembles. Compiler John Gray has organized a wealth of resources spanning from the mid-eighteenth century to the present, and ranging geographically from Europe and Africa to the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Containing sections on composers, conductors, individual instrumentalists, symphony orchestras, opera singers and companies, the work builds on earlier research in this long-neglected subject, and brings the black musical legacy to new levels of prominence and accessibility.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The first in a projected series of idiom-specific bibliographies in black music, this work treats classical music. It is a comprehensive index to newspaper and periodical indexes (including H.W. Wilson indexes), biographical dictionaries, bibliographies, dissertations and theses, music collections, and published discographies. Its more than 300 black artists and ensembles span the period from the mid-1700s to the present, and range geographically from Europe and Africa to the US, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Scholars, researchers, students, and reference librarians will find that this guide makes searching easier; bibliographers will welcome its detailed and helpful bibliographies. It complements Eileen Southern's reliable and scholarly Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians (Ch Jan 83) and Dominique-Rene De Lerma's Black Concert and Recital Music (1975- ) and Black Music in Our Culture (1970). The six sections include a 54-item bibliography of recommended readings, composers, symphony and concert artists, concert and opera singers, reference works (those examined in compiling this guide), and research centers and catalogs. . . A very fine addition. . .”–Choice

“Blacks in Classical Music is an index of biographical information on approximately 300 black composers, performers, conductors, symphony orchestras, and opera companies. The compiler, using Standifer and Reeder's 1972 Source Book of African and Afro-American Materials for Music Educators as a starting point, lists materials in periodicals, dissertations, and reference books from the 1700s to the 1980s, with the great majority from the twentieth century. An attempt has been made to list European, African, and Western Hemisphere materials comprehensively, except for items from Music Index after the 1979-80 cumulation. Materials on Paul Robeson and Marian Anderson are deliberately limited (because of recent bibliographies on each), and reviews of eight major operas and concert singers are represented selectively. . . the strength of this new book is the number of black composers and performers of classical music included. . . Many of the people listed in Blacks in Classical Music are not well known, however, so the book will prove useful to those looking for the names of blacks in the field, as well as a timesaver for those looking for information on a specific person.”–Reference Books Bulletin

About the Author

JOHN GRAY is a specialist in black culture and tradition, and has contributed articles to Cadence and Coda.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 290 pages
• Publisher: Greenwood Press (June 20, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0313260567
• ISBN-13: 978-0313260568
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,662,442 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

JOHN GRAY is Emeritus Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics. He is a regular contributor to the Guardian and the Times Literary Supplement and the author of over a dozen books, including Heresies and the bestselling Straw Dogs. False Dawn has been translated into sixteen languages.