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The Resource Work songs, Ted Gioia

Work songs, Ted Gioia

Creator
Summary
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
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
xiii, 352 pages
Contents
  • Take this hammer!
  • The cowboy
  • The miner
  • The prisoner
  • The labor movement and songs of work
  • Music and the modern worker
  • The calling
  • Why work songs?
  • The hunter
  • The cultivator
  • The herder
  • Thread and cloth
  • The new rhythms of work
  • Sea and shore
  • The lumberjack
Isbn
9780822337263
Link
http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0519/2005026241.html
Instance
Label
Work songs
Title
Work songs
Statement of responsibility
Ted Gioia
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
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
Additional physical form
Also issued online.
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Gioia, Ted
Dewey number
782.42/1593
Index
index present
LC call number
ML3780
LC item number
.G56 2006
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Working class
  • Work songs
  • Arbeitslied
  • Arbeitslied
  • Work songs
  • Working class
Label
Work songs, Ted Gioia
Link
http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0519/2005026241.html
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 313-335) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
  • Take this hammer!
  • The cowboy
  • The miner
  • The prisoner
  • The labor movement and songs of work
  • Music and the modern worker
  • The calling
  • Why work songs?
  • The hunter
  • The cultivator
  • The herder
  • Thread and cloth
  • The new rhythms of work
  • Sea and shore
  • The lumberjack
Control code
ocm61478791
Dimensions
25 cm
Extent
xiii, 352 pages
Isbn
9780822337263
Lccn
2005026241
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
System control number
  • (Sirsi) o61478791
  • (OCoLC)61478791
Label
Work songs, Ted Gioia
Link
http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0519/2005026241.html
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 313-335) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
  • Take this hammer!
  • The cowboy
  • The miner
  • The prisoner
  • The labor movement and songs of work
  • Music and the modern worker
  • The calling
  • Why work songs?
  • The hunter
  • The cultivator
  • The herder
  • Thread and cloth
  • The new rhythms of work
  • Sea and shore
  • The lumberjack
Control code
ocm61478791
Dimensions
25 cm
Extent
xiii, 352 pages
Isbn
9780822337263
Lccn
2005026241
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
System control number
  • (Sirsi) o61478791
  • (OCoLC)61478791

Subject

Genre

Library Locations

    • Waubonsee: Sugar Grove Campus - Todd LibraryBorrow it
      Collins Hall 2nd Floor Waubonsee Community College Route 47 at Waubonsee Drive, Sugar Grove, IL, 60554-9454, US
      41.7974000 -88.45785

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