The Center for Black Music Research Collection contains materials that reflect many areas of Black music including collections from composers, ethnomusicologists, music researchers, music journalists, and also scores, published music, and audiovisual collections across all genres. These collection guides, or finding aids, provide access to materials held in archival special collections. The guide describes the organization and offers content information so researchers can discover relevant information.
Many musical works listed in these guides are handwritten; those listed with a publisher's name are printed. Please check the guides for more information.
Additional guides will be added as they are completed..
Please contact archives@colum.edu with questions.
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Guide to the William T. Dargan Collection
Columbia College Chicago
William Thomas Dargan is a published ethnomusicologist and an elder in the United Methodist Church, retired from teaching Music at Fisk University and St. Augustine’s College. Dargan grew up listening to Dr. Isaac Watts' hymn singing as well as rhythm and blues. His collection holds audio musical examples that accompany the written text in his book, Lining Out The Word, and field recordings of spirituals and hymns discussed in his work. The term “lining out” is a form of a cappella hymn-singing where a leader sings or chants each line of a hymn before the congregation sings it together.
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Guide to the Zenobia Powell Perry Collection
Columbia College Chicago
Zenobia Powell Perry was a professor, pianist, and composer of classical music. The collection is comprised entirely of Perry’s unpublished scores and music manuscripts, and the collection was arranged by her biographer, Jeannie Gayle Pool.
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Richard 'Dick' Wang Collection
Columbia College Chicago
Richard Wang was a musician, historian, and educator specializing in jazz. The collection consists of a series of arrangements by Mary Lou Williams, a jazz pianist, arranger, and composer, and an interview he conducted with Charles Suber, a jazz critic, educator, journalist, and Down Beat columnist.