Black Music in the Harlem Renaissance

A Collection of Essays

Samuel A., Jr. Floyd

• Publisher: University of Tennessee Press
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9798895271421
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: African American History

This work provides an in-depth look at the role of black music within the Harlem Renaissance movement, suggesting its primacy to Renaissance philosophy and practice. Floyd holds that the music of this period was also the source of certain ambivalent attitudes on the part of the black leadership. The book features essays on various subjects including musical theatre, Duke Ellington, black music and musicians in England, concert singers and the interrelationships between black painters and music. It also includes a music bibliography of works composed during the period. 

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• 1. Music in the Harlem Renaissance: An Overview
• 2. Vindication as a Thematic Principle in the Writings of Alain Locke on the Music of Black Americans
• 3. Vocal Concert Music in the Harlem Renaissance
• 4. Harlem Renaissance Ideals in the Music of Robert Nathaniel Dett
• 5. William Grant Still, Florence Price, and William Dawson: Echoes of the Harlem Renaissance
• 6. Black Musical Theater and the Harlem Renaissance Movement
• 7. The Renaissance Education of Duke Ellington
• 8. Interactions between Writers and Music during the Harlem Renaissance
• 9. Interactions between Art and Music during the Harlem Renaissance
• 10. The Negro Renaissance and England
• Epilogue
• Bibliography of the Music: The Concert Music of the Harlem Renaissance Composers, 1919-1935
• Index
• About the Contributors