An Alabama Songbook

An Alabama Songbook

Author: Byron Arnold

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 2004-08-12

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 0817313060

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A lavish presentation of 208 folksongs collected throughout Alabama in the 1940s Alabama is a state rich in folksong tradition, from old English ballads sung along the Tennessee River to children’s game songs played in Mobile, from the rhythmic work songs of the railroad gandy dancers of Gadsden to the spirituals of the Black Belt. The musical heritage of blacks and whites, rich and poor, hill folk and cotton farmers, these songs endure as a living part of the state’s varied past. In the mid 1940s Byron Arnold, an eager young music professor from The University of Alabama, set out to find and record as many of these songs as he could and was rewarded by unstinting cooperation from many informants. Mrs. Julia Greer Marechal of Mobile, for example, was 90 years old, blind, and a semi-invalid, but she sang for Arnold for three hours, allowing the recording of 33 songs and exhausting Arnold and his technician. Helped by such living repositories as Mrs. Marechal, the Arnold collection grew to well over 500 songs, augmented by field notes and remarkable biographical information on the singers. An Alabama Songbook is the result of Arnold’s efforts and those of his informants across the state and has been shaped by Robert W. Halli Jr. into a narrative enriched by more than 200 significant songs-lullabies, Civil War anthems, African-American gospel and secular songs, fiddle tunes, temperance songs, love ballads, play-party rhymes, and work songs. In the tradition of Alan Lomax’s The Folk Songs of North America and Vance Randolph’s Ozark Folksongs, this volume will appeal to general audiences, folklorists, ethnomusicologists, preservationists, traditional musicians, and historians.


The Alabama Folk Lyric

The Alabama Folk Lyric

Author: Ray Broadus Browne

Publisher: Popular Press

Published: 1979

Total Pages: 504

ISBN-13: 9780879721299

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Alabamians have always been a singing people. The settlers who moved into the various sections of the state brought with them songs which reflected their national origins and geographical backgrounds, and as they spread into the hills and over the lowlands they created new songs out of the conditions under which they lived. Also, they absorbed songs from outside sources whenever these pieces could be adapted to their sentiments and ways of life. Thus, by a process of memory, composition and recreation they developed a rich body of folk songs. The following collection a part of the effort to discover and preserve these songs.


Kodály Today

Kodály Today

Author: Mícheál Houlahan

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 673

ISBN-13: 0190235772

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Kodály Today provides teachers with a step-by-step road map for developing children's performance, creative movement, and literacy skills in an organic and thoughtful manner. Through six years of field-testing with music teachers in the United States, Great Britain, and Hungary (the home country of Zoltán Kodály), authors Micheál Houlahan and Philip Tacka have developed a methodology specifically for 21st century classrooms. Houlahan and Tacka use the latest research findings in cognition and perception to create a system not only appropriate for children's developmental stages but also one which integrates vertically between elementary music classes. The methods outlined in this volume encourage greater musical ability and creativity in children by teaching students to sing, move, play instruments, and develop music literacy skills. In addition, Kodály Today promotes critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration skills. Although the book uses the Kodály philosophy, its methodology has also been tested by teachers certified in Orff and Dalcroze, and has proven an essential guide for teachers no matter what their personal philosophy and specific training might be. The new edition of Kodály Today provides a fully revised and updated core text, as well entirely new chapters on the application of the Kodály method to the elementary choir and the use of technology in the Kodály classroom. In addition, the revisions integrate it fully with the Kodály Today and the graded Kodály Today K-5 Handbooks Series feature methodology and sequential lesson plans specifically developed for the 21st century. They are sure to be an essential guide for music teachers everywhere. -- from back cover.