LibGuides: Primary Sources for African American History: Audio: Music

Hiphop Archive and Research Institute

Harvard University's Hiphop Archive and Research Institute
Museum, archive, and library, the Hiphop Archive and Research Institute's mission is "to facilitate and encourage the pursuit of knowledge, art, culture and responsible leadership through Hiphop." Their collection houses lots of primary sources and is worth a look.

Library of Congress Collections

African American Song
This article about African American music, while not a primary sources, contains many links to primary sources.

"From slave era field hollers, spirituals, and gospel, to blues, soul, and hip-hop, American musical culture abounds with the influence of African American song."
African American Gospel
This link contains a five song gospel playlist.

"African American Gospel music is a form of euphoric, rhythmic, spiritual music rooted in the solo and responsive church singing of the African American South. Its development coincided with -- and is germane to -- the development of rhythm and blues."
African-American Band Music & Recordings, 1883 to 1923
The second tab, "Collection Items" contains hundreds of audio files. Link also shows sheet music, album covers, and links to other resources.

"The core of this presentation consists of 'stock' arrangements for bands or small orchestras of popular songs written by African Americans."
Black Broadway and Tin Pan Alley
"African American songwriters and performers made up a small, yet important part of the early recording industry. These are recordings of compositions by top African American composers and lyricists of the early 1900s ..."

University Collected Primary Sources

African American Sheet Music
From the Brown University Library Center for Digital Scholarship

"The full collection consists of approximately 500,000 items, of which perhaps 250,000 are currently available for use. It is one of the largest collections of sheet music in any library in the United States. The sheet music, primarily vocal music of American imprint, dates from the 18th century to the present day, with the largest concentration of titles in the period 1840-1950."
USC Libary's Gospel Music History Archive
"The GMHA is an effort to preserve the legacy of gospel music in a state-of-the-art digital archive ... The archive contains original audio and visual video interviews, music files, publicity materials, photographs, film, scholarly articles, and analysis from academic and gospel-community-based experts."

Slave Songs of the United States

The 1867 music book,

Slave Songs of the United States,

is part of the Documenting the American South collection. See the Primary Source Sets tab for the entire collection.

This webpage contains a complete scan of the book, along with transcribed text, notes, descriptions, and sheet music.

The Museum

The National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC, part of the Smithsonian Institution and colloquially known as the Blacksonian, has an extensive YouTube page, including a playlist of songs curated for Juneteenth 2024 celebrations. Please find this playlist at the link below, and more information at the museum in its page on this LibGuide.

Juneteenth 2024
"Access the museum’s playlist of songs that speak to themes of family, freedom, joy, and resilience."