In the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, jazz music was performed everywhere. Black musicals were presented on Broadway, black composers wrote prize-winning works, and the Harlem Symphony Orchestra played to Harlem concert audiences. Often viewed as a period of literary explosion for African Americans, the Harlem Renaissance saw the emergence of many musical greats - Dinah Washington, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, and Louis Armstrong. These essays examine the music of this period as a central aspect of African-American life.

The book features essays on a variety of subjects regarding the music of African Americans; vocal concert music, musical theatre, Duke Ellington and the relationship of the music to literature and art. An extensive bibliography lists works composed during the period.

CONTENTS:
- Music in the Harlem Renaissance: An Overview - Samuel A. Floyd
- Vindication As A Thematic Principle In the Writings of Alain Locke on the Music of Black Americans - Paul Burgett
- Vocal Concert Music In the Harlem Renaissance - Rawn Spearman
- Harlem Renaissance Ideals In the Music of Robert Nathaniel Dett - Georgia A. Ryder
- William Grant Still, Florence Price, and William Dawson: Echoes of the Harlem Renaissance - Rae Linda Brown
- Black Musical Theater and the Harlem Renaissance Movement - John Graziano
- The Renaissance Education of Duke Ellington - Mark Tucker
- Interactions Between Writers and Music During the Harlem Renaissance - Richard A. Long
- Interactions Between Art and Music During the Harlem Renaissance - Allan M. Gordon
- The Negro Renaissance and England - Jeffrey P. Green
- Bibliography of the Music: The Concert Music of the Harlem Renaissance Composers, 1919-1935 - Dominique-Rene de Lerma

SAMUEL A. FLOYD is director of the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College in Chicago. He is the author of Black Music In the United States and Black Music Biography.

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