Paul Robeson's Voices
Published on 1. March 2024
Book
Hardback
374 pages
978-0-19-763747-0 (ISBN)
Description
Paul Robeson's Voices is a meditation on Robeson's singing, a study of the artist's life in song. Music historian Grant Olwage examines Robeson's voice as it exists in two broad and intersecting domains: as sound object and sounding gesture, specifically how it was fashioned in the contexts of singing practices, in recital, concert, and recorded performance, and as subject of identification. Olwage asks: how does the voice encapsulate modes of subjectivity, of being?
Combining deep archival research with musicological theory, this book is a study of voice as central to Robeson's sense of self and his politics. Paul Robeson's Voices charts the dialectal process of Robeson's vocal and self-discovery, documenting some of the ways Robeson's practice revised the traditions of concert singing in the first half of the twentieth century and how his voice manifested as resistance.
Combining deep archival research with musicological theory, this book is a study of voice as central to Robeson's sense of self and his politics. Paul Robeson's Voices charts the dialectal process of Robeson's vocal and self-discovery, documenting some of the ways Robeson's practice revised the traditions of concert singing in the first half of the twentieth century and how his voice manifested as resistance.
Reviews / Votes
"The key to understanding Paul Robeson's global humanitarian legacy and cosmopolitan musical imagination, Grant Olwage proposes, can be found by listening to his vocal intelligence, technique, and music-historical awareness. Bold, clear, lyrical, deeply researched and including new archival material, Olwage's polyvocal narrative follows Robeson's 'voices' across continents." - Nina Eidsheim, author of The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre, and Vocality in African American Music The key to understanding Paul Robeson's global humanitarian legacy and cosmopolitan musical imagination, Grant Olwage proposes, can be found by listening to his vocal intelligence, technique, and music-historical awareness. Bold, clear, lyrical, deeply researched and including new archival material, Olwage's polyvocal narrative follows Robeson's 'voices' across continents. * Nina Eidsheim, Author of The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre, and Vocality in African American Music. * This carefully researched, well-documented book will be most useful to scholars...Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through researchers; professionals. * Choice *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Illustrations
40
Dimensions
Height: 156 mm
Width: 235 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
590 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-763747-0 (9780197637470)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Grant Olwage
Paul Robeson's Voices
Book
02/2024
Oxford University Press Inc
€34.50
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Grant Olwage is a music historian and lecturer in the Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He is the editor of Composing Apartheid and has written extensively on the Black voice, race, choral cultures, and coloniality. His writing on Paul Robeson's singing, voice, and musical arts has appeared widely.
Content
Acknowledgments
About the Companion Website
Introduction: Voice-Thinking
1. Becoming Paul Robeson's Voice
2.
About the Companion Website
Introduction: Voice-Thinking
1. Becoming Paul Robeson's Voice
2.