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Reviews
| Lining Out the Word: Dr. Watts Hymn Singing in the Music of Black Americans. By William T. Dargan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. xvi + 320 pp. Map, tables, illustrations, appendices, notes, bibliography, discography, and index. $45.00 (cloth).
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William Dargan's Lining Out the Word is an ambitious attempt to outline the history of the African American tradition of lined hymnody (or Dr. Watts, as it is commonly known)—in which a leader chants each line of text for a congregation, lacking hymnals or psalters, to then sing in unison—from slavery times to the present day. But the book also attempts to do much more, drawing analogies and parallels with other sacred genres and with secular traditions. Dargan's key point is that the tradition of lining out has served as a powerful "'gatekeeper,' sustaining both continuity and transformations, through which new forms have emerged from the recombination of existing elements" (p. 15). |
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Opening with a chapter that gives an overview of the Dr. Watts tradition in musicological and historical terms, including discussion of what it owes to English and African influences and antecedents, Dargan proceeds to consider the various regional styles that have evolved within the tradition. Subsequent chapters explore English and African historical contexts, transformation into the blues, and the role of the language of the hymns in their style. |
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In the second part of the book, Dargan broadens his discussion to situate each of the previously discussed topics generally within the context of African American music making. To this end he examines the changing socioeconomic conditions of African Americans, grounding his discussion in the life story of the Reverend C. J. Johnson (1913–90). This is arguably the most successful chapter in the book. The final two chapters explore what Dargan refers to as the "Lining Out-Ring Shout Continuum," first in relation to general African American ritual and musical styles, and second in three discrete instances of blues and jazz performances that Dargan relates to this continuum. In these instances Dargan is generally careful to use recorded examples that are widely available so that it is possible, in most instances, to follow his analyses with reference to the recordings. |
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The one regrettable omission from this book is that the core set of recordings discussed, Dr. Watts Hymn Singing among African Americans, compiled by Dargan, is not included in a CD. The recordings are, as indicated, available at the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College, Chicago, but at that location, these are difficult to access for many American and most international readers. This in turn limits the usefulness of the transcriptions of these performances (pp. 62–89). Similarly, the core performance described and analyzed in chapter 8 is not publicly available. It seems odd, however, that Dargan's transcription of "Brother Unknown" (pp. 208–09) is pitched squarely in soprano range—from f, first space treble clef, to a, above the clef—but perhaps this is an engraving error. Finally, it is a pity that no scholarship published after 2001 is discussed in the text or included in the bibliography. |
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This is, nonetheless, a valuable book, giving detailed attention to a genre that has generally been neglected in the study of African American sacred music. Dargan skillfully draws on a wide range of sources, both historical and contemporary and including, valuably, his own fieldwork. It will be a welcome addition to the library of any scholar of African American music.
Thérèse Smith
University College Dublin
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