Mac/2004/Telling Labor's Story through Music

from the Macalester Public Knowledge Base

Macalester College Spring 2004 History 194-05 Music 194-03 Telling Labor’s Story Through Music Peter Rachleff Robert Peterson Old Main 306 Music 113 X 6371 rachleff@macalester.edu X6510 petersonr@macalester.edu Tuesdays/Thursdays 10:10 – 11:40 Old Main 009

This is a cross-listed, interdisciplinary course, linking History and Music. Students can register through either discipline for credit. Students need no previous experience in either discipline to take this course. It is intended to offer students an in-depth exposure to both disciplines, as well as an opportunity to consider their intersection. Our focus will be to explore the use of music by working people and the labor movement as a way to process and comment upon their experiences at work, in communities, and in struggles, as a way to express their values and views, and as a way to tell their stories to others in order to elicit understanding, empathy, and solidarity.

This course will meet twice weekly for lectures and discussions, for which you will be expected to complete reading and/or listening assignments and come to class prepared to participate. Your participation in class will be an important factor in your final grade. There will also be a variety of writing assignments which will ask you to reflect on the readings, recordings, lectures, and discussions, and to formulate your own arguments and conclusions about the material. You will be expected to turn in a final journal which includes brief weekly entries and a reflective final set of comments. There will be no formal examinations.

This course will also work towards a “concertized production” of a newly written labor musical, “Forgotten: The Murder at the Ford Rouge Plant”. Performances will take place on April 29 at United Autoworkers Union Local 879’s hall on Ford Parkway and on April 30 in the Macalester Concert Hall. All students in the class will be expected to contribute to this production, as performers, stagehands, researchers, or producers of lobby displays and educational materials. Rehearsals will be Sunday evenings and some Thursday evenings. For some of you, this will add to the time you must devote to this course. We are expecting the composer, Steve Jones, to spend some time with us during the semester and to attend the actual performance. Other composers and performers of labor music will join us at different times. We will be collaborating with members of UAW Local 879, who will be helping us to understand the work, lives, and issues of auto workers today. We hope that this will include tours of the Ford plant and attendance at union meetings. It is important that we hold up our end of this relationship by treating our collaborators with respect and being responsible in our dealings with them.

We want to thank the Macalester Center for Scholarship and Teaching for their support of this project. We see this as a very special opportunity to learn from each other, from you, and from our community collaborators, as well as, ultimately, to produce something beautiful, provocative, and engaging.

The following books will be available for purchase:

• Jones, BLUES PEOPLE
• Babson, UNFINISHED STRUGGLE]
• Arnesen, ed., THE HUMAN TRADITION IN AMERICAN LABOR HISTORY
• Howard Zinn, et al, THREE STRIKES
• Glasser, MY MUSIC IS MY FLAG
• Filene, ROMANCING THE FOLK
• Lieberman, “MY SONG IS MY WEAPON”
• Rose, BLACK NOISE

There will be cd’s of a wide variety of recordings on reserve at the library. There will also be some additional readings, available via electronic reserves or electronic course folder.

1/27

Introduction to the course. View video of part of “Forgotten”

1/29

Origins of Folk Music (Bob Peterson)

         get started on reading of BLUES PEOPLE

2/3

Slavery and the Creation of the Blues

        read: BLUES PEOPLE, Intro, 1-7, 1-94
        **hand out assignment #1, due 2/10

2/5

Evolution of African American Music

        read: BLUES PEOPLE, 8-9, 95-142
        listening assignment to be announced
       PM: performance of “Of Ebony Embers/Vignettes of the Harlem Renaissance”

2/7-2/8 Auditions and call backs for “Forgotten”

2/10

Evolution of African American Music

         read: BLUES PEOPLE, 10-12, 143-236
         **hand in assignment #1

2/11

African American Studies Symposium (Wednesday evening, 7 PM)

         “Class, Gender, and Generation: Negotiations Within Black Families”

2/12

The Making of the U.S. Working Class, 1877-1910

         read: UNFINISHED STRUGGLE, 1
                  HUMAN TRADITION IN AMERICAN LABOR HISTORY, 1-5
         **hand out assignment #2, due 2/24

2/13-2/14-2/15 African American Studies Conference

         “Fifty Years Since Brown v. Board of Education: Where Are We Now?”

2/17

The Labor Song-Poems of the Late 19th Century

         read: Halker, LABOR SONG-POEMS AND LABOR PROTEST, 1865-1895 chaps. 2-3-4, 47-134
         listening assignment to be announced

2/19

The Making of the U.S. Working Class, 1910-1929

          read: UNFINISHED STRUGGLE, 2
                   HUMAN TRADITION IN AMERICAN LABOR HISTORY, 6-9
                   Zinn,”The Colorado Coal Strike,” in THREE STRIKES, 1, 5-56

2/19 Start rehearsals of “Forgotten” – 7pm, Carnegie 06

2/24

“Pins and Needles” and “Cradle Will Rock” (Bob Peterson)

           listening assignment to be announced
           keep reading
           **assignment #2 due

2/26

The Making of the U.S. Working Class, 1929-1941

          read: UNFINISHED STRUGGLE, 3
                   HUMAN TRADITION IN AMERICAN LABOR HISTORY, 10-11

3/2

Labor Struggle in the 1930s

         read: THREE STRIKES: Frank, “Detroit Woolworth’s Strike,” 2, 57-118
                         Kelley, “New York Musicians Strike Out,” 3, 119-156
                  Steve Jones, “The Fogotten Man’s Hour”
         **hand out assignment #3, due 3/11

3/4

Labor Culture in the 1930s

         read: Denning, THE CULTURAL FRONT, I: “Waiting for Lefty,” 1-50
                       II, 3: “Ballad for Americans,” 115-160

3/9

Labor Culture in the 1930s

         read: Denning, THE CULTURAL FRONT, III, 8: “Labor on Revue,” 283-322;
                    9: “Cabaret Blues,” 323-361

3/11

Labor Culture in the 1930s – wrap up

         continue to discuss Denning, Kelley, Frank, and “Forgotten”
        **assignment #3 due

3/15 – 3/21: Spring Break (read Glasser, MY MUSIC IS MY FLAG)

3/23

Ethnic Music and Working Class Music

          read: MY MUSIC IS MY FLAG, Intro, 1-3

3/25

Ethnic Music and Working Class Music

          read: MY MUSIC IS MY FLAG, 4-5 and Conclusion

3/30

Folk Music and Working-Class Music

          read: ROMANCING THE FOLK, 1
          **hand out assignment #4, due 4/13

4/1

The Folk Revival and Protest Music of the 1960s (Bob Peterson)

         listening assignment to be announced
         read: ROMANCING THE FOLK, 2-3

4/6

Folk Music and Working Class Music

         read: Glazer, LABOR’S TROUBADOUR, chaps. 1, 2, 6

4/8

Folk Music and Working Class Music

         read: ROMANCING THE FOLK, 4

4/13

Folk Music and Working Class Music

         read: ROMANCING THE FOLK, 5 and Conclusion
        **assignment #4 due

4/15

The Politics of Culture

         read: “MY SONG IS MY WEAPON,” Intro, 1-2

4/20

The Politics of Culture

         read: “MY SONG IS MY WEAPON,”  3-4-5

4/22

The Politics of Culture

          read; “MY SONG IS MY WEAPON,” 6-7-8

4/27

Hip Hop – A New Working Class Music?

         read: BLACK NOISE, 1-2-3

Hip Hop – A New Working Class Music?

          read: BLACK NOISE, 4-5

4/29 Evening – Production of “Forgotten”

4/30 Evening – Production of “Forgotten”

5/4

Closing discussion/ turn in journals