Music in American life

Presents an overview of the history rockabilly music, covering its main performers such as Elvis Presley in the mid 1950s and includes information on its revival in the late 1970s, and discusses its modern day incarnations.

"Florence B. Price (1887-1953) was the first African American woman composer to achieve national recognition. She grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, studies at the new England Conservatory, and spent her professional career in Chicago (1927-53), where her Symphony in E Minor, premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1933 under the direction of Frederick Stock, marks the first large-scale work by an African American woman composer (and the second work by an African American composer) to be performed by a major American orchestra. A prolific composer, she wrote more than 300 works in all genres: orchestra music (symphonies, orchestral suites, and concerti), vocal music, art songs and arrangements of spirituals, piano music (including teaching pieces), organ music, chamber music, and music for chorus. Her compositions reflect not only her cultural heritage, but also the romantic nationalist style of the period in which she was most active (beginning in the 1920s). Brown discusses Price in the context of the Harlem Renaissance and deals with issues of race, gender, and class. She draws on interviews with Price's colleagues, on music manuscripts located in major repositories of African American material and in private collections, on contemporary black newspapers and journals, on census records, and on archival materials as well as the relevant published sources. An appendix lists Price's compositions by genre"--.

Discusses the history of the "doo-wop" music movement in Chicago.

A history of American music, its diversity, and the cultural influences that helped it develop.

A look at the life and career of singer Marian Anderson, who rose from poor roots to become the first African-American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in 1955.

Profiles the careers of jazz musicians Sam Wooding, Benny Waters, Bix Beiderbecke, Joe Tarto, Bud Freeman, Jimmy McPartland, Freddie Moore, and Jabbo Smith.