A series of speakers, primarily professors, open a symposium celebrating the history and impact of African-American spirituals.

A series of speakers, primarily professors, open a symposium celebrating the history and impact of African-American spirituals. This presentation continues from the presentation "Celebration of Negro Spirituals, Part One."

A series of speakers, primarily professors, open a symposium celebrating the history and impact of African-American spirituals.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author James M. McPherson examines the contemporary popular perspectives on the Civil War, both of Northerners and Southerners, civilians and soldiers. McPherson uses the popular music of the period as a framework for discussing the changing views, and focuses on the growing desire to end the war and the increasing sense of hopelessness that it would ever end.

An audio version can be downloaded.

Scholar and author Emily Thompson describes the study of aural history—the study of not just music, but of noise and soundscapes as a whole, what cultures heard and how they heard it—and discusses the aural culture in the U.S. from 1900 to 1933. She looks at how sound at the time was influenced by technology and at the consumption of sound, focusing particularly on architecture's influence on sound.

Emily James, an interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg, discusses the place of music in slaves' lives, looking at the double meanings of many of the songs' lyrics.

To listen to this podcast, select "All 2006 Podcasts," and scroll to the June fifth program.