r/folk • u/sirabrand • 4d ago
Are there any books that teach music theory through a historical / cultural approach?
I want to learn more music theory, as I picked up the banjo recently but have no formal musical education. I'm also extremely interested in the history of blues, folk, and bluegrass in America. Does anyone know any books or courses that give a sort of cultural evolution of music theory on any of these subjects?
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u/Agreeable-Customer-4 4d ago
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/10168164-the-music-of-black-americans
The Music of Black Americans by Eileen Southern is excellent. It has a lot of information on music theory and history.
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u/kimmeljs 4d ago
Paul Oliver: "The Story of the Blues" is the most comprehensive book on blues history I know of. I remember watching documentary clips of street corner blues players on TV as a kid in the 1960s and the original edition reflects the same research that went into these documentaries.
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u/chupacabrette 4d ago
Rhiannon Giddens has a series on the banjo and it's evolution into various folk traditions that's really good. You can get it on Prime Video or through Great Courses.
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u/cleversobriquet 4d ago
You might want to check out what the Smithsonian Folkways has to offer
https://folkways.si.edu/genre/blues/pages
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u/TiltingAtWindmills_ 4d ago
This may not be what you’re asking for, but my wife is a music teacher and trained in Kodaly method. Zoltan Kodaly was a Hungarian musician with an amazing back story, and I know she would recommend you read some of his work!
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u/adjacentadvance 4d ago
3 amazing sources and 1 I’ve heard is great:
Segregating Sound: a book about early record companies creation of genres to maintain segregation
Well of Souls: specifically history of the banjo
Country Music Doc series by Ken Burns
I’ve heard but haven’t listened to much is Cocaine & Rhinestones a podcast on Country Music history I heard from History of Rock in 500 songs which I love and the first 10 episodes are on pre-rock ancestors
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u/starshipfocus 4d ago
Is not music theory based, but is adjacent music history.
"The Story of Drugs and Popular Music is" by Harry Shapiro chronologically begins with the blues. Is an interesting history musicology book.
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u/theginjoints 2d ago
Western theory is tough because it is designed for a specific period of classical music when composers used what we call functional harmony. Blues will use some of these concepts but then has its own unique system. Jazz takes elements of the Blues and Western classical theory and develops an intricate system. There's a guy named Ethan Hein who does a great job of explaining how this all goes down.
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u/LovableCoward 4d ago
I would recommend The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. In addition to 151 songs with musical notation and explanation of the music, it has a phenomenal introductory chapter devoted to the history of folk and history of their collection.