Bibliography
Publications of Spirituals, 1901–1942
This list is based partly on the index compiled in Eileen Southern & Josephine Wright (SW), African-American Traditions in Song, Sermon, Tale, and Dance, 1600s–1920: An Annotated Bibliography, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Black Music (NY: Greenwood Press, 1990), the collections listed in the Index to Negro Spirituals (CL) (Cleveland, 1937), the Negro Year Book (Tuskegee, AL: Negro Year Book, 1922), and Monroe N. Work, A Bibliography of the Negro in Africa and America (NY: H.W. Wilson, 1928). See also Kathleen A. Abromeit (KA), An Index to African-American Spirituals for the Solo Voice (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999). Reprints and reissues are generally not listed here, nor are individual songs printed as broadsides or folios.
Manuscripts/Archives
H.T. Burleigh Collection, Emory University:
http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/b6v4w
The Archives of the Parish of Calvary, Holy Communion and St. George’s, New York, NY:
https://www.calvarystgeorges.org/
Henrietta Myers Collection on the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Library of Congress:
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/70972594
John Wesley Work III Papers, 1915–1971, Library of Congress:
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/70972612
Adam Knight Spence and John Wesley Work Collection, Atlanta-Fulton Public Library:
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38476761
J. Rosamond Johnson Papers, Yale University: https://archives.yale.edu/
James Weldon Johnson Collection, Yale University: https://jwj.yale.edu/
African American Sheet Music Collection, Brown University Library:
https://library.brown.edu/cds/sheetmusic/afam/about.html
Wings Over Jordan Collection, National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center (Wilberforce, OH):
https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/aids/id/11170/
Wings Over Jordan, UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive: Archive.org
Periodicals/Articles
1903 July 23 / Jeannette Robinson Murphy, “The true Negro music and its decline,” The Independent, vol. 55, no. 2851, pp. 1723–1730: HathiTrust | Archive.org
1906 Aug. / SW 2294 / John Bennett, “A revival sermon at little St. John’s,” Atlantic Monthly, vol. 98, no. 2, pp. 256–268: HathiTrust | Archive.org
1906 Oct. / SW 2308 / L. O’Connell, “The folk songs of Afro-America,” Musician [Boston], no. 11, pp. 503–504:
1907 / F.H. Jenks & Frank Kidson, “Negro music of the United States,” Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 3, pp. 359–362: HathiTrust | Archive.org | Google; see also “Negro music,” vol. 6 (1920), p. 307: HathiTrust | Archive.org | Google
1907 Nov-Dec. / SW 2314 / Henry Hugh Proctor, “The theology of the songs of the Southern slave,” Southern Workman, vol. 36, pp. 584–592, 652–656: HathiTrust
1909 July / SW 2310 / Howard W. Odum, “Religious folk-songs of the Southern Negroes,” American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 265–365: HathiTrust | Archive.org
1911 July / SW 2305 / John Avery Lomax, “Some ballads of North Carolina,” North Carolina Booklet, no. 11, pp. 26–42: HathiTrust | Archive.org | Google
1911 July-Sept., Oct.-Dec. / SW 2311 / Howard W. Odum, “Folk-song and folk-poetry in the secular songs of the Southern Negroes,” Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 24, pp. 255–294; pp. 351–396: HathiTrust 1 | HathiTrust 2 || Archive.org 1 | Archive.org 2 || Google 1 | Google 2
1912 / SW 2320 / William H. Thomas, “Some current folk-songs of the Negro,” Folk-Lore Society of Texas (Austin: Folk-Lore Society): HathiTrust | Archive.org
1912 Apr. / Harris Barrett, “Negro folk songs,” Southern Workman, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 238–245: HathiTrust | Archive.org
1912–1915 / SW 2312 / Eber Carle Perrow, “Songs and rhymes from the South,” Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 25, pp. 137–155; vol. 26, pp. 123–173; vol. 28, pp. 129–190: HathiTrust 1 | HathiTrust 2 | HathiTrust 3 || Archive.org 1 | Archive.org 2 | Archive.org 3 || Google 1 | Google 2 | Google 3
1914 July-Sept. / SW 2309 / Anna Kranz Odum, “Some Negro folk-songs from Tennessee,” Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 27, pp. 255–265: HathiTrust | Google
1916 June / SW 2323 / Newman I. White, “The collection of folk-lore,” Proceedings of the Alabama Educational Association, vol. 35, pp. 119–26:
1917 Aug. 9 / SW 2306 / John Avery Lomax, “Self-pity in Negro folk-songs,” The Nation, vol. 105, no. 2719, pp. 141–145: HathiTrust | Archive.org
1919–1920 / SW 2322 / Clarence Cameron White, “Negro music: A contribution to the national music of America,” Musical Observer, vol. 18 (Nov. 1919), pp. 18–19; vol. 19 (Jan. 1920), 16–17 [Google], (Feb. 1920) 50–51 [Google], (Mar. 1920) 13 [Google].
1922 June 1 / Ian Cameron, “Negro songs,” The Musical Times, vol. 63, pp. 431–432: HathiTrust | Archive.org | Google
1922 May-July / Edith Armstrong Talbot, “True religion in Negro hymns,” Southern Workman, vol. 51, pp. 213–216, 260–264, 334–339: HathiTrust 1 | HathiTrust 2 | HathiTrust 3 || Google 1 | Google 2 | Google 3
1922 July / A.E. Perkins, “Negro spirituals from the far South,” Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 35, pp. 223–249: HathiTrust | Archive.org | Google
1925 Apr.-June / “Folklore from St. Helena, South Carolina,” Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 38, no. 148, pp. 217–238: HathiTrust | Archive.org | Google
1928 Oct.-Dec. / Elsie Clews Parsons, “Spirituals from the ‘American’ colony of Samana Bay, Santo Domingo,” Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 41, no. 162, pp. 525–528: HathiTrust | Archive.org
1928 Oct.-Dec. / K.J. Holzknecht, “Some Negro song variants from Louisville,” Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 41, no. 162, pp. 558–578: HathiTrust | Archive.org
1928 Oct.-Dec. / Mary Dickson Arrowood & T.F. Hamilton, “Nine Negro spirituals, 1850–1861, from lower South Carolina,” Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 41, no. 162, pp. 579–584: HathiTrust | Archive.org
Books/Scores
1901 / Songs Sung by Slayton’s Jubilee Singers (Chicago: Bowen & Co.): PDF
1901 / KA / Harry T. Burleigh, Plantation Melodies Old & New (NY: G. Schirmer): HathiTrust | Google
1901 / SW 2298 / Thomas P. Fenner, Frederic Rathbun, Bessie Cleaveland, Cabin and Plantation Songs, 3rd Ed. (NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons): HathiTrust | Archive.org
1901 / SW 2301 / Emily Hallowell, Calhoun Plantation Songs (Boston: C.W. Thompson):
1902 / SW 2313 / Clara Gottschalk Peterson, Creole Songs from New Orleans in the Negro Dialect (New Orleans: L. Grunewald): HathiTrust
1902 / SW 2325 / KA / F.J. Work, New Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers (Nashville: Fisk University):
1903 / SW 2303 / Anne Hobson, “Plantation Songs,” In Old Alabama (NY: Doubleday, Page & Co.), pp. 159–237: HathiTrust | Archive.org | Google
1904 / SW 2307 / Jeanette Robinson Murphy, Southern Thoughts for Northern Thinkers and African Music in America (NY: Bandanna): Archive.org
1904 / S.J. Oslin, “Freemen’s Songs,” Sunlight Glees (Hartford, AR: Hartford Music Co.), nos. 107–109:
1904 / Original American Folk Songs as Sung by the Glazier’s Carolinians (Chicago: Glazier Lyceum Bureau): HathiTrust
1904 ca. / American Folk Songs as sung by Williams’ Original Dixie Jubilee Singers (Chicago: Williams & Johnson): PDF
1905 / SW 2297 / Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Twenty-Four Negro Melodies Transcribed for the Piano (Bryn Mawr, PA: Oliver Ditson): HathiTrust | Google
1906 ca. / SW 2319 / N. Clark Smith, New Jubilee Songs for Quartette, Choir, or Chorus (Chicago: Jubilee Music Co.):
1906 / Carl Holliday, A History of Southern Literature (NY: Neale), pp. 187–192: HathiTrust | Archive.org | Google
1907 / Carl Holliday, Three Centuries of Southern Poetry (Nashville: M.E. Church), pp. 107–111: HathiTrust | Archive.org | Google
1907 / F.J. Work, Folk Songs of the American Negro (Nashville: Fisk)
[Not numbered] / SW 2326 / CL: Sounding Spirit
Number 1: HathiTrust
Number 1 Revised: PDF | HathiTrust
Number 2: Sounding Spirit
1907 / SW 2302 / KA / Emily Hallowell, Calhoun Plantation Songs, 2nd ed. (Boston: C.W. Thompson): HathiTrust
1909 / SW 2299 / CL / KA / Thomas P. Fenner, Religious Folk Songs of the Negro (Hampton, VA: Institute Press): HathiTrust | Archive.org | Google
1909 / SW 2296 / William Carter, Plantation Melodies (Hamilton, Ontario: Duncan Lith):
1909 / Calhoun by Picture and Song (Calhoun Colored School): Google | HathiTrust
1909 / Julien Tiersot, La musique chez les peuples indigènes de l'Amérique du Nord (Paris: Fischbacher, 1909):
1911 / CL / G.C. Noble, Most Popular Plantation Songs (NY: Hines, Noble & Eldredge): HathiTrust | Google
1914 / SW 2304 / CL / KA / H.E. Krehbiel, Afro-American Folksongs: A Study in Racial and National Music (NY: G. Schirmer): HathiTrust | Archive.org | Google
1914 / SW 2328 / John Allan Wyeth, With Sabre and Scalpel (NY: Harper & Brothers): HathiTrust | Archive.org | Google
1915 / SW 2327 / KA / F.J. Work, Folk Song of the American Negro (Nashville: Fisk): HathiTrust | Archive.org | Google
1915 / SW 2321 / George Putnam Upton, “Negro Minstrelsy,” The Song: Its Birth, Evolution, and Function (Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co.), pp. 111–119: HathiTrust | Google
1916 / SW 2315 / National Jubilee Melodies (Nashville: National Baptist): Hymnary | HathiTrust [1923]
1916 / Ruth McEnery Stuart, Plantation Songs, and Other Verse (NY: D. Appleton): HathiTrust | Archive.org | Google [Some of these could be by Stuart herself, but this collection includes “Rise up, shepherd.” See Lippincott’s Monthly, Jan. 1891]
1918 / Harvey B. Gaul, Nine Negro Spirituals (NY: H.W. Gray):
1918 / SW 2316 / Homer Rodeheaver, Rodeheaver’s Plantation Melodies (Chicago: Rodeheaver):
1918 / SW 2317 / Homer Rodeheaver, Rodeheaver’s Plantation Melodies [2nd ed.] (Chicago: Rodeheaver): HathiTrust
1918 / Mary Gillen, Oliver Chalifoux, Old Melodies of the South (Boston: Carrie Jacobs-Bond & Son): Archive.org
1918–1919 / SW 2295 / Natalie Burlin, Negro Folk-Songs, 4 vols. (NY: G. Schirmer): HathiTrust || Archive.org 1 | Archive.org 2 | Archive.org 3 | Archive.org 4 || Google
1919 / SW 2318 / Dorothy Scarborough, From a Southern Porch (NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons): HathiTrust | Archive.org | Google
1920 ca. / Songs of the South: Words and Music of 17 Favorite Negro Spirituals (Atlanta: Commission on Interracial Cooperation):
1921 / William C. Blades, Negro Poems, Melodies, Plantation Pieces, Camp Meeting Songs, etc. (Boston: R.G. Badger, 1921): HathiTrust | Archive.org | Google
1921 / Songs and Spirituals of Negro Composition for Revivals and Congregational Singing (Chicago: Overton-Hygienic Co.): HathiTrust
1922 / Edith Armstrong Talbot, True Religion in Negro Hymns (Hampton, VA: Hampton Institute):
1923 / CL / Frances H. Abbot & Alfred J. Swan, Eight Negro Songs from Bedford Co. Virginia (NY: Enoch & Sons): HathiTrust | Google
1923 / Homer Rodeheaver, Rodeheaver’s Negro Spirituals (Chicago: Biglow & Main): PDF
1923 / Lawrence Brown, Spirituals: Five Negro Songs (London: Schott & Co.): Archive.org
1923 / Florence Hudson Botsford, Folk Songs of Many Peoples, vol. 2 (NY: The Womans Press, 1922), pp. 32–50: HathiTrust | Google
1923 / Nettie Fitzgerald McAdams, Folk-Songs of the American Negro: A Collection of Unprinted Texts Preceded by a General Survey of the Traits of Negro Song, M.A. Thesis (University of California): HathiTrust | Google
1923–1927 ca. / John Nelson Clark Coggin, Plantation Melodies and Spiritual Songs (Philadelphia: Rodeheaver Hall-Mack): PDF (1st ed.) | PDF (3rd ed.)
1924 / CL / Hollis E. Dann, Fifty-Eight Spirituals for Choral Use (Boston: C.C. Birchard):
1924 / CL / Hugo Frey, Collection of 25 Selected Famous Negro Spirituals (NY: Robbins-Engel): HathiTrust
1924 / R. Emmet Kennedy, Black Cameos (NY: Albert & Charles Boni): HathiTrust | Archive.org | Google
1924 / Walter Goodell, Forty Spirituals (Chicago: Hall & McCreary Co.):
1924 ca. / Clement Wood, Negro Songs, An Anthology (Girard, KS: Haldeman-Julius): HathiTrust
1917–1924 / CL / Harry T. Burleigh, The Celebrated Negro Spirituals, No. 1 (London: G. Ricordi): PDF
1917–1925 / CL / Harry T. Burleigh, The Celebrated Negro Spirituals, No. 2 (London: G. Ricordi): PDF
1925 / CL / KA / N.G. Ballanta-Taylor, Saint Helena Island Spirituals (NY: G. Schirmer): Google
1925 / CL / KA / William A. Fisher, Ten Negro Spirituals (Boston: Oliver Ditson):
1925 / CL / KA / R. Emmet Kennedy, Mellows: A Chronicle of Unknown Singers (NY: Albert & Charles Boni): HathiTrust | Archive.org
1925 / KA / Howard W. Odum & Guy Johnson, The Negro and His Songs: A Study of Typical Negro Songs in the South (Chapel Hill, UNC): HathiTrust | Archive.org | Google
1925 ca. / SW 2324 / Charles Williams, American Folk Songs As Sung by Williams’ Jubilee Singers (Chicago: Williams Lyceum Bureau):
1925 / Dorothy Scarborough, On the Trail of Negro Folk Songs (Cambridge, MA: Harvard): HathiTrust | Archive.org
1925 / CL / KA / J.W. Johnson & J.R. Johnson, The Book of American Negro Spirituals (NY: Viking Press): HathiTrust | Archive.org | Google
1926 / CL / KA / J.W. Johnson & J.R. Johnson, The Second Book of Negro Spirituals (NY: Viking Press): HathiTrust | Archive.org | Google
1926 / CL / KA / William A. Fisher, Seventy Negro Spirituals (Boston: Oliver Ditson): HathiTrust | Google
1926 / Edward Boatner, Spirituals Triumphant Old and New (Nashville: Sunday School Board):
1927 / Edward Boatner, Spirituals Triumphant Old and New [Rev. & Enl.] (Nashville: Sunday School Board): HathiTrust | Google
1927 / CL / Carl Sandburg, The American Songbag (NY: Harcourt, Brace & Co.): HathiTrust | Archive.org | Google
1927 / KA / Clarence Cameron White, Forty Negro Spirituals (Philadelphia: Theodore Presser): HathiTrust | Google
1927 / CL / KA / Nathaniel Dett, Religious Folk Songs of the Negro (Hampton, VA: Institute Press): Archive.org
1927 / CL / KA / Eva Jessye, My Spirituals (NY: Robbins-Engle): PDF
1917–1928 / KA / Harry T. Burleigh, Album of Negro Spirituals: High Voice (Melville, NY: Columbo/Belwin): HathiTrust
1917–1928 / KA / Harry T. Burleigh, Album of Negro Spirituals: Low Voice (Melville, NY: Columbo/Belwin): HathiTrust
1928 / CL / KA / Carl Diton, Thirty-six South Carolina Spirituals (NY: G. Schirmer):
1928 / Newman White, American Negro Folk Songs (Cambridge: University Press): HathiTrust
1929 / Harry T. Burleigh, Old Songs Hymnal (NY: The Century Co.): [Index] PNG1 | PNG2
1929 / CL / John Jacob Niles, Seven Negro Exaltations (NY: G. Schirmer):
1930 / CL / KA / Hall Johnson, The Green Pastures Spirituals (NY: Carl Fischer):
1930 / CL / Gerald Grey, Fifty Negro Spirituals (York, NE: J.A. Parks):
1930 / CL / KA / M.A. Grissom, Negro Sings a New Heaven (Chapel Hill: UNC):
1930 / CL / J. Rosamond Johnson, Utica Jubilee Singers Spirituals (Boston: Oliver Ditson):
1930 / KA / Lawrence Brown, Negro Folk Songs (NY: Associated Music Publishers):
1931 / Augustine T. Smythe, The Carolina Low-Country (NY: Macmillan): PDF
1931 / CL / A.E. Wier, The Scribner Radio Music Library, vol. 7 (NY: C. Scribner’s Sons):
1931 / CL / KA / R. Emmet Kennedy, More Mellows (NY: Dodd, Mead & Co.):
1933 / CL / KA / E.A. McIlhenny, Befo’ de War Spirituals (Boston: Christopher Publishing):
1934 / KA / John A. Lomax & Alan Lomax, “Negro Spirituals,” American Ballads and Folk Songs (NY: Macmillan Co., 1934):
1936 / KA / Nathaniel Dett, The Dett Collection of Negro Spirituals, 4 vols. (Chicago: Hall & McCreary):
1936 / J. Rosamond Johnson, Shout Songs ():
1936 / Homer Rodeheaver, Southland Spirituals (Winona Lake, IN: Rodeheaver):
1937 / J. Rosamond Johnson, Rolling Along in Song: a Chronological Survey of American Negro Music (NY: Viking Press):
1939 / Wings Over Jordan: Favorite Spirituals of 1939 (Philadelphia: Rodeheaver Hall-Mack):
1940 / KA / John W. Work, American Negro Songs (NY: Bonanza):
1940 / J. Rosamond Johnson, The Album of Negro Spirituals (NY: Edward B. Marks):
1941 / KA / John A. Lomax & Alan Lomax, Our Singing Country: A Second Volume of American Ballads and Folk Songs (NY: Macmillan):
1942 / KA / Lydia Parrish, Slave Songs of the Georgia Sea Islands (NY: Creative Age):