Review: Lomax Songbooks

Subject: Review: Best Loved American Folk Songs- A.Lomax
From: voyager
Date: 30 Jun 18 - 11:36 PM

This marvelous anthology compiled by Alan & John Lomax with music by Charles and Ruth Seeger literally fell into my lap today. This 1947 songbook is which in song origins of the canon of American Folk music.

More threads to follow.
Very surprised to see no Charles See her content on mudcat.

voyage

Subject: RE: Review: Best Loved American Folk Songs- A.Lomax
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 01 Jul 18 - 12:16 AM

There has been some mention of Charles Seeger on mudcat. Type

                                  Charles Seeger site:mudcat.org

into the web, and you'll get https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=87245 among other mentions.

I have the book you mention, though my copy is called Folk Song U.S.A.

Subject: RE: Review: Best Loved American Folk Songs- A.Lomax
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 01 Jul 18 - 05:41 AM

"Very surprised to see no Charles See her content on mudcat."

Possibly because Charles and Ruth Crawford Seeger were more into classical music. I guess the income from "arranging" music for folk songs brought in a better income.
Personally I am always wary of folk songs where the music has been "arranged" especially by classically trained musicians.

Subject: Review: Folk Song USA (John and Alan Lomax)
From: voyager
Date: 14 Jul 20 - 12:01 PM

By chance, I found this wonderful anthology (Best Loved American Folk Songs) in our library last night. A gift from my wife's parents. In a short Mudcat note, I won't try to offer a 'review' (there are better writers than I). If you're interested, lookup an essay by David McAllister in 'Ethnomusicology' (Sep 1962).

My brief comments here -

Music arrangements by Charles and Ruth Crawford Seeger (!).
This 'treasure' sits with American Fireside Collection (1952) and my
    Sing Out volume 1 books
It's a shame that every Internet query about books points to Amazon,
   eBay or Google books.
I'm a bit surprised that I don't find a Mudcat thread posted already.
https://www.loc.gov/folklife/lomax/


Cheers
voyager

Subject: Review: Best Loved American Folk Songs (FSUSA)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Jul 20 - 02:06 PM

Hi, Voyager - I thought I'd combine you with your previous thread and broaden the title a bit.

The copy I have is an undated fourth edition, titled Best Loved American Folk Songs (Folk Song U.S.A.), collected, adapted, and arranged by John A. Lomas and Alan Lomax, with piano arrangements by Charles Seeger and Ruth Crawford Seeger.The copyright is 1947 by John A. and Alan Lomax, under the title Folk Song U.S.A. I wonder why the title was changed, and when. The publisher of my hardcover edition is Grosset & Dunlap of New York. The background notes and source information are quite good, much better than earlier Lomax books. There are 111 songs in this book.

The Traditional Ballad Index has these Lomax books listed:

• Lomax-ABFS -- John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax, American Ballads and Folk Songs (1934). Ballads cited by Page. Indexed by Robert Waltz.
• Lomax-FSNA -- Alan Lomax, The Folk Songs of North America (1960). Ballads cited by Number. Indexed by Robert Waltz.
• Lomax-FSUSA -- John A. and Alan Lomax with music arrangements by Charles and Ruth Seeger, Folk Song U.S.A. (1947). Ballads cited by Number. Indexed by Robert Waltz.
• Lomax-Singing -- John A. and Alan Lomax (Ruth Crawford Seeger, music editor), Our Singing Country (1941). Ballads cited by Page. Indexed by Robert Waltz. Added in v. 3.2

Subject: RE: Review: Lomax Songbooks
From: voyager
Date: 14 Jul 20 - 03:45 PM

Thank you JO for catching my thread, adding more content and pointing us to the larger body of the Lomax collections. There are some real gems in this Folk Song USA book.

voyager (aka Tim)

Subject: RE: Review: Lomax Songbooks
From: meself
Date: 14 Jul 20 - 06:49 PM

"Very surprised to see no Charles See her content on mudcat."

Am I really the only one who was a little mystified by that statement? I did figure it out eventually ... !