Work Songs

Nonfiction, Entertainment, Music, Theory & Criticism, History & Criticism, Reference
Cover of the book Work Songs by Ted Gioia, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Ted Gioia ISBN: 9780822387688
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: April 13, 2006
Imprint: Duke University Press Books Language: English
Author: Ted Gioia
ISBN: 9780822387688
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: April 13, 2006
Imprint: Duke University Press Books
Language: English

All societies have relied on music to transform the experience of work. Song accompanied the farmer’s labors, calmed the herder’s flock, and set in motion the spinner’s wheel. Today this tradition continues. Music blares on the shop floor; song accompanies transactions in the retail store; the radio keeps the trucker going on the long-distance haul.

Now Ted Gioia, author of several acclaimed books on the history of jazz, tells the story of work songs from prehistoric times to the present. Vocation by vocation, Gioia focuses attention on the rhythms and melodies that have attended tasks such as the cultivation of crops, the raising and lowering of sails, the swinging of hammers, the felling of trees. In an engaging, conversational writing style, he synthesizes a breathtaking amount of material, not only from songbooks and recordings but also from travel literature, historical accounts, slave narratives, folklore, labor union writings, and more. He draws on all of these to describe how workers in societies around the world have used music to increase efficiency, measure time, relay commands, maintain focus, and alleviate drudgery.

At the same time, Gioia emphasizes how work songs often soar beyond utilitarian functions. The heart-wringing laments of the prison chain gang, the sailor’s shanties, the lumberjack’s ballads, the field hollers and corn-shucking songs of the American South, the pearl-diving songs of the Persian Gulf, the rich mbube a cappella singing of South African miners: Who can listen to these and other songs borne of toil and hard labor without feeling their sweep and power? Ultimately, Work Songs, like its companion volume Healing Songs, is an impassioned tribute to the extraordinary capacity of music to enter into day-to-day lives, to address humanity’s deepest concerns and most heartfelt needs.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

All societies have relied on music to transform the experience of work. Song accompanied the farmer’s labors, calmed the herder’s flock, and set in motion the spinner’s wheel. Today this tradition continues. Music blares on the shop floor; song accompanies transactions in the retail store; the radio keeps the trucker going on the long-distance haul.

Now Ted Gioia, author of several acclaimed books on the history of jazz, tells the story of work songs from prehistoric times to the present. Vocation by vocation, Gioia focuses attention on the rhythms and melodies that have attended tasks such as the cultivation of crops, the raising and lowering of sails, the swinging of hammers, the felling of trees. In an engaging, conversational writing style, he synthesizes a breathtaking amount of material, not only from songbooks and recordings but also from travel literature, historical accounts, slave narratives, folklore, labor union writings, and more. He draws on all of these to describe how workers in societies around the world have used music to increase efficiency, measure time, relay commands, maintain focus, and alleviate drudgery.

At the same time, Gioia emphasizes how work songs often soar beyond utilitarian functions. The heart-wringing laments of the prison chain gang, the sailor’s shanties, the lumberjack’s ballads, the field hollers and corn-shucking songs of the American South, the pearl-diving songs of the Persian Gulf, the rich mbube a cappella singing of South African miners: Who can listen to these and other songs borne of toil and hard labor without feeling their sweep and power? Ultimately, Work Songs, like its companion volume Healing Songs, is an impassioned tribute to the extraordinary capacity of music to enter into day-to-day lives, to address humanity’s deepest concerns and most heartfelt needs.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book City of Extremes by Ted Gioia
Cover of the book Art beyond Itself by Ted Gioia
Cover of the book Mama Africa by Ted Gioia
Cover of the book Battling for Hearts and Minds by Ted Gioia
Cover of the book Entre Nous by Ted Gioia
Cover of the book It's All for Sale by Ted Gioia
Cover of the book Our Own Way in This Part of the World by Ted Gioia
Cover of the book Biocapital by Ted Gioia
Cover of the book Edward Said and the Work of the Critic by Ted Gioia
Cover of the book How to Be an Intellectual in the Age of TV by Ted Gioia
Cover of the book Jugaad Time by Ted Gioia
Cover of the book Dark Borders by Ted Gioia
Cover of the book Genes in Development by Ted Gioia
Cover of the book Cultures in Contact by Ted Gioia
Cover of the book Pedagogies of Crossing by Ted Gioia
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy