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For Further Study
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1
For a modern account, of blackface minstrelsy watch "Bamboozled" written by Spike Lee, directed by Jon Kilik and Spike Lee. CA: New Line Home Entertainment, 2000. How "fictional" do you think this account really is and do you think it is still unlikely to return to contemporary entertainment?
2
Read excerpts from minstrel shows in W. T. Lhamon, Jr.'s "Jump Jim Crow: Lost Plays, Lyrics and Street Prose from the First Atlantic Popular Culture." Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000. How does the comedy of the minstrel show differ from some contemporary television sitcoms?
3
The "American Experience: Stephen Foster" video documentary is a compelling biography of America's first popular song composer. PBS Home Video (AMER 9308). Write a brief summary of the ways in which Stephen Foster undermined his own success. Is there a songwriter today who's career seems to follow the same path?
4

To experience the sound of Civil War band music listen to the following CDs:

  • The Yankee Brass Band (New World Records CD 80312)
    • Music from the North that has survived
  • A Storm in the Land (New World Records CD 80608)
    • Music from the South that survived the 13th Regimental Army (known as the Bloody 13th). The band for this regiment was largely comprised of Moravian Musicians.
  • The Civil War: Its Music and Its Sounds (Phillips CD 32591)
    • Performed on original instruments (including "Taps" heard on a bugle found at Appomattox) this CD by Frederick Fennell and the Eastman Wind Ensemble is an extraordinary document. The music is performed on original instruments and Fennell (and the recording crew of then Mercury Records) recorded the actual sounds of artillery used during the numerous Civil War battles.

After hearing this music why do you think it has survived into contemporary times?

5
Walt Whitman, one of the greatest American poets was also an avid music lover. Whitman said that without music his epic "Leaves of Grass" may have gone unwritten. From that wonderful collection of poetry read Whitman's "Proud Music of the Storm" and note the numerous musics he references. Follow up on those references by listening to some of them.





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