New Orleans Jazz, Mahalia Jackson and the Philosophy of Art, PB (vol2)
ISBN 978 1909281 81 3
434 pages.
Published 2021
£25.00
Paperback, PDF
“The republication of H.R. Rookmaaker’s Works is a welcome event indeed … (written) from a rich, Christian perspective. We should be particularly grateful for the reappearance of his pioneering works on African-American music. Like good wine, these extraordinary texts have only improved with age.”
William Edgar, Professor of Apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia
Table of Contents
Contents of Volume 2
List of Photographs xi
Acknowledgments xii
Part I: Philosophy and Aesthetics
The Basic principles of the Philosophy of the Cosmonomic Idea 3
1 Basic principles (3); 2 The Philosophy of the Cosmonomic
Idea (5); 3 How is reality constructed? (6); 4 What is the use
of philosophy? (8)
What the Philosophy of the Cosmonomic Idea has Meant to Me 10
The Philosophy of Unbelievers 13
1 Philosophy and the human heart (13); 2 Philosophy and the
world order (16)
Book Review: Dr J. Stellingwerff, Origin and Future of Creative Man 21
Sketch for an Aesthetic Theory based on the Philosophy of the
Cosmonomic Idea 24
General introduction (24);1 Aesthetic theory (25); 2A The science
of art, general (56); 2B The science of art, applied to music (63);
Epilogue (77)
Style and World View 80
1 What is style? (80); 2 Who influences style? (81); 3 The influences
of style on art (82); 4 Style and world view in the twentieth
century (84); 5 Style and Christian art (87)
The Aesthetic Sphere and Disclosure 89
Science, Aesthetics and Art 93
Science (93); Aesthetics (99); Art (107)
The Iconic Function 114
Norms for Art and Art Education? 116
The problem of our time (116); Norms for art (118); Beyond words
and proof (120); We all use norms (121); Historicism (122);
Subjectivism (124); Aestheticism (125); The fear of the future
generations (126); Art is difficult (127); The structure of a work
of art (127); Art and world view (129); Reality is not static (130);
Judging art (131); Conclusions (134)
Art, Aesthetics, and Beauty 138
Art (138); Aesthetics (140); Beauty (142)
Art, Philosophy and our View of Reality 144
We see what we know (145); Against subjectivism (146); Three
examples (144)
Book Review: Calvin G. Seerveld, A Turnabout in Aesthetics to
Understanding 151
Part II: Jazz, Blues and Spirituals
Preface by Hans Rookmaaker to the First Edition 157
Acknowledgments to the First Edition 158
1 Origins 159
African music (159); White folk music (160); African music
in South America (161); African-American work songs in the
USA (162); Children’s songs/nursery rhymes (164); The first of
the African-American Christian songs in North America (167);
The origin of the true Negro spiritual (169)
2 Nineteenth Century: Development 172
The development of the spirituals in the nineteenth century (172);
The origin of the westernized spiritual (175); The background
to the true spiritual (178); Secular folk songs during the age of
slavery (179); Minstrel shows (181); Secular hollers (181); The
origin of the blues (184); The background to the blues (188); The
blues as sung by Ma Rainey et al. (190); The first brass band
music (193); String bands (194); Ragtime (195)
3 Twentieth Century: pre-World War I 197
New Orleans around 1900 (197); Black music in New Orleans
(199); Brass bands in New Orleans (201); Jelly Roll Morton in
New Orleans (201); The development of early jazz (204); Early
white jazz (207); Handy’s blues (208)
4 The 1920s 211
Post-1918 New Orleans music in Chicago: King Oliver (211); Post-
1918 New Orleans music in Chicago: other bands, Morton (217);
White jazz in Chicago (218); The development of jazz on the white
scene (220); Black folk songs in the1920s (223); Church music in
the 1920s (225); Origin of the commercial spirituals (229); The
blues of Bessie Smith (230); Folk blues in the 1920s (231); Piano
folk music (233); Jug bands (234); Jelly Roll Morton’s jazz in 1926
(235); White Chicago jazz (237); Armstrong’s Hot Five and Hot
Seven (240); The development of new African-American jazz after
about 1927 (243); The later jazz of Oliver and Williams (244);
Morton’s later developments (246); The development of jazz in New
Orleans in the 1920s (248); The entrance and development of
Ellington (249)
5 The 1930s 254
Jazz in Kansas City around 1930 (254); Blind Willie Johnson
(254); The commercialization and development of jazz (256);
Beginning to look to the past (258); The emergence of the study of
folk music: Leadbelly (259); Gershwin’s opera (262); Jelly
Roll Morton’s recordings for the Library of Congress (264); The
collection of jazz records and the study of the history of jazz (265);
Spirituals in the 1930s: Rosetta Tharpe (266); Blues after 1935
(268); The birth of swing (269); The swing of Basie and co. (271)
6 The 1940s 273
The birth of modern jazz (273); The rediscovery of New Orleans
jazz (279); White revival and Dixieland jazz (283); Commercial
spirituals since approximately 1940 (286); New church choral
song (287); Black folk music after about 1940 (290); Blues and
spirituals among the working class after about 1940 (291)
7 The 1950s and Beyond 293
Jazz in the 1950s (293); The development of modern jazz (295);
Swing ad absurdum (299); The problem of jazz in our world
(300); Tragedy threatens in the development of gospel songs (304);
Spiritual solos: Mahalia Jackson (306)
Selected Bibliography to the First Edition 310
Updated Discography and Resources 312
Part III: Music Articles
African and African-American music 317
African music as it really is: disenchantment and confirmation of
a romantic dream (317); From Eliza to Odetta (318); American
folk music at its best (322)
Blues 325
Poetic fiction in the blues (325); Blind Lemon Jefferson (326); Ida
Cox (328); Folk songs of black Americans (330); African-
American music as a source of beauty and historical
information (331); Hollerin’ and cryin’ the blues (333); Nothin’
but the blues (336)
Spirituals and Gospel 338
Let’s sing the old Dr Watts: a chapter in the history of Negro
spirituals (338); The Negro spiritual in church (345); Spirituals
in concert form (347); Voices of victory (349); Two church services
in Harlem (351); The African-American church service in the USA
(352); Visiting Mahalia Jackson (353); USA 1961 (356)
Jazz 359
Listening to jazz (359); ‘Jazz’, jazz and classical (362); Original
Dixieland jazz band (367); Jelly Roll Morton (369); Ory’s Creole
trombone (370); Jazz on the riverboats (372); A New Orleans suite
(373); Johnny Dodds: a great and modest musician (375)
Rock 377
The background to modern music: an interview (377)
Classical Music 382
Old music (382); Bach and Mozart (383)
Notes to Volume 2 385