... Copyright © 1992 by Duke University Press 1992 The Art of Musical Creation Recently a discussion arose concerning the art of musical creation. A statement made by me to the effect that musical creation is almost entirely a subjective process was contested, and strong arguments were advanced...

...Jon Michael Spencer William F. Rogers , Jr. Dorothy Maynor and the Harlem School of the Arts: The Diva and the Dream . Lewiston, N.Y. : Mellen , 1993 . Pp. x , 286 . Copyright © 1994 by Duke University Press 1994 Book Reviews 141 William F. Rogers, Jr. Dorothy Maynor...

..., 13 April 1935 , 8. '7he Green Pastures" 13 See "The Green Pastures" by all means. But after you have done so visit the Museum of Modern Art, II West Fifty-third street, for an entirely different story about your African ancestors. Here is one of the finest, largest and most comprehensive collections...

..., no. 2 (Spring 19721; reprinted with the permission of the publisher. On fire Essence of Jazz 163 Mary Lou was most willing to talk about her art. She poured out her deepest feelings about jazz. It was a feeling of pain because jazz as an art-an art that she has given so much to-has itself suffered so...

... to demonstrate the comprehensive adequacy of a theological approach, the answer is obvious, though no more compelling for music than for any other human activity. For the musician who is wary about any extramusical claims upon the arts, finding theological significance in music may seem a peril to be resisted...

... impossible to divorce his politics from his art. They seem to be linked inexorably, and he is quite frank about the implications of some of his ballads. 'Sure I try to put a message in my music,' he says. All art is propaganda. Every creative artist wants to say something with his art. Why kid ourselves...

... of Music . New York: Dover, 1962. Barthes, Roland. The Responsibility of Forms : Critical Essays on Music, Art, and Representation. Translated by Richard Howard. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. Originally published in French in 1982. Best, Harold M. Music through the Eyes of Faith . San...

... of black2 culture in virtually every area of the arts, including literature, music, dance, the visual arts, film, and a myriad of new and emerging forms . Many of the innovators presently setting the tempo and, in some areas, the direction of the contemporary art world are deeply indebted to the principles...

... but reflecting the influences of Paris, or of German and English painting." And then he asks this pertinent question, "Was there, in fact, as distinguished from art in America, any American art?" Turning to the realm of music, one finds an analogous situation; for, until very recently, music in America...

... portrayed themselves as saviors of bourgeois high culture, although only the most advanced, avant-garde works of art found favor with them. Not least, the culture shock on their arrival in the States must have caused the Frankfurt school members in exile to criticize mass culture as strongly as they did...

... and race oppression. 10 The discussion of race oppression led Spencer to discuss a key issue connected to our liturgical art-namely, the artistic portrayal of Jesus and the other biblical personages as Europeans. One reason we should depict the biblical personages as Africans, Spencer explained, is so we...

... theomusicology's embracing of philosophy in its attempt to theologize about music: Boole Reviews BI As many musicologists have come to realize (and verbalize), musicology cries out, at this stage of its development, for enrichment from other disciplines; in this it is far behind art history, literary studies...

...Jon Michael Spencer Copyright © 1994 by Duke University Press 1994 If I Make My Bed in Hell [on Michael Spencer Whither shall I go from the spiriU or whither shall I fl_ee from thy presence~ If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. -Psalm...

.... It is obvious that such an element could have but little commercial appeal; moreover, due to the long-accepted fallacies of even such a great authority, otherwise, as Dr. Wallaschek, it is commonly supposed that Negro melodies are inherently so organized as to be incapable of being subjected to the kind of art...

.... It cannot be denied that some forms of jazz are of poor quality. But there are other forms that represent valuable contributions to musi- From Musica 1, no. 5 (August 1941): 105-8. Co-authored with Verna Arvey. Reprinted with the permission of William Grant Still Music. The Music of My Race 103 cal art...

... transcended the specific differences we obviously had regarding both avant-garde techniques in new music and the black consciousness and cultural movement in American society and the arts. Still's insistence on referring to himself as an American composer was consistent with his social outlook. He...

... for text and rhythm for mood, but a surprising tendency toward homophony or harmony of modem times. A popular idea of early church music conceives it as a tonal art, dubious of measure, key, and form, either a vague expression of man's regard for the supernatural or an elaborate embroidery of amazingly...

... the Fisk Jubilee Singers returned from Europe laden with unheard-of honours, the endorsement of the music critics of the Old World, and above all, with much money, America suddenly awakened to the fact that here, within her own borders, was an indigenous, unique and unexploited art-treasure. Consequently...

... that sang many of his arrangements of spiri- tuals. At Hampton Institute, in the post he held during his most produc- tive years, Dett was responsible for developing the school's program of musical studies. In 1919 he founded the Musical Arts Society, an organization that brought to the college...

... Copyright © 1992 by Duke University Press 1992 The Negro and His Music When one discusses the Negro "stereotype" he speaks of something that colored people have been fighting for many years something that extends to almost all art-expressions in which colored people are portrayed. Films, up...