Articles
All articles by Alan Lomax, unless otherwise noted. This list does not include published liner notes. Additional publications pertaining to Cantometrics and related research can be found under our research section.
“‘Sinful’ Songs of the Southern Negro.” Southwest Review XIX, 2 (Winter 1934): 105–131.
“Haitian Journey: Search for Native Folklore.” Southwest Review XXIII, 2 (January 1938): 125–147.
Review of “Folk Songs of Mississippi and Their Background” by Arthur Hudson. Journal of American Folklore(1938): 211–213.
“Music in Your Own Back Yard.” The American Girl (October 1940): 5–7, 46, 49.
“List of American Folk Songs on Commercially Recorded Records.” First published in the Report of the Committee of the Conference on Inter-American Relations in the Field of Music, September 1940. Reprinted by the Library of Congress, 1942.
“Songs of the American Folk.” Modern Music 18 (Jan.–Feb. 1941): 137–139.
Preface to 14 Traditional Spanish Songs from Texas transcribed by Gustavo Duran. Washington, D.C: Pan-American Union, 1942.
“Of Men and Books.” Interview (on CBS) with Alan Lomax. Northwestern University on the Air, vol. 1, no. 18 (January 31, 1942).
“Reels and Work Songs.” In 75 Years of Freedom: Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the Proclamation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, pp. 27–36.Washington, D.C.:Library of Congress, 1943.
“Mister Ledford and the TVA.” In Radio Drama in Action: Twenty-Five Plays of a Changing World. Erik Barnouw, ed., pp. 51–58. New York: Rinehart & Co., 1945.
“The Best of the Ballads.” Vogue (Dec. 1, 1946): 208, 291–296.
Lomax, Alan with Benjamin Botkin. “Folklore, American: Ten Eventful Years.” 1947 Encyclopedia Britannica: 359–367.
“America Sings the Saga of America.” New York Times Magazine, January 26, 1947.
“I Got the Blues.” Common Ground, vol. 8 (Summer 1948): 38–52.
“Tribal Voices in Many Tongues.” Saturday Review of Literature, May 28, 1949.
Foreword to A Garland of Mountain Song by Jean Ritchie. New York: Broadcast Music, Inc., 1953.
“Making Folk Music Available.” In Four Symposia on Folklore: Held at Midcentury Folklore Conference, Indiana University, July 21–August 4, 1950. Thompson, Stith, Editor. Pp. 155–62. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1953.
“Nuova ipotesi sul canto folkloristico italiano.” Nuovi Argomenti. Alberto Moravia and Alberto Carocci, eds. 17 / 18 (November/ February, 1955–56): 109–135.
“Skiffle: Why Is It So Popular?” Melody Maker, August 31, 1957: 3.
“Skiffle: Where Is It Going?” Melody Maker,September 7, 1957: 5.
“The ‘Folkniks’ and the Songs They Sing.” Sing Out! vol. 9, no. 1 (Summer 1959): 30–31. (Photo on cover.)
“Bluegrass Background: Folk Music With Overdrive.” Esquire, 52 (October 1959): 108.
“Folk Song Style.” American Anthropologist, vol. 61, no. 6 (December 1959): 927–54.
“Zora Neale Hurston: A Life of Negro Folklore.” Sing Out! vol. 10, no. 3 (Oct.–Nov. 1960): 12–13.
Calkins, Carol with Alan Lomax. “Getting to Know Folk Music.” House Beautiful (April 1960): 141, 205.
“Saga of a Folksong Hunter.” HI/FI Stereo Review (May 1960): 40–46.
“Folk Song Traditions Are All Around Us.” Sing Out! vol. 11, no. 1 (February–March 1961): 17–18.
“Aunt Molly Jackson: An Appreciation.” Kentucky Folklore Record, vol. 7, no. 4 (October–December 1961).
“The Adventure of Learning, 1960.” ACLS Newsletter, vol. 13 (February 1962).
“Song Structure and Social Structure.” Ethnology, vol. 1, no. 4 (January 1962): 425–452.
Foreword to Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians by Jean Ritchie. New York: Oak Publications, 1965.
Lomax Alan, and Victor Grauer. “Cantometrics.” Journal of American Folklore Supplement (April 1964): 37–38.
Lomax, Alan, with Edith Crowell Trager. “Phonotactique du Chant Populaire.” L’Homme (January–April 1964): 1–55.
Preface to Ain't You Got a Right to the Tree of Life? The People of Johns Island, South Carolina — their faces, their words and their songs by Guy and Candie Carawan. Photographs by Robert Yellin. Music transcribed by Ethel Raim. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966) Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1989.
“The Good and the Beautiful in Folksong.” Journal of American Folklore 317 (July–September 1967): 213–35.
“Special Features of the Sung Communication.” In Essays on the Verbal and Visual Arts, Proceedings of the 1966 Annual Spring Meeting, American Ethnological Society, 109–27. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1967.
“Song Styles: An Indicator of Popular Culture.” Public Opinion Quarterly 31 (1967): 469–70.
Lomax, Alan, Irmgard Bartenieff, and Forrestine Paulay. “Choreometrics: A Method for the Study of Cross-Cultural Pattern in Film.” Research Film vol. 6, no. 6, 1969.
“Africanisms in New World Negro Music.” In Research and Resources: Papers of the Conference on Research and Resources of Haiti,118–154. New York: Research Institute for the Study of Man, 1969.
“The Homogeneity of African-Afro-American Musical Style.” In Afro-American Anthropology: Contemporary Perspectives, Norman E. Whitten, Jr. and John F. Szwed, eds., 181–201. New York: Free Press, 1970.
“Choreometrics and Ethnographic Filmmaking: Toward an Ethnographic Film Archive.” Filmmaker’s Newsletter, vol. 4, no. 4 (February 1971).
“An Appeal for Cultural Equity.” The World of Music: Quarterly Journal of the International Music Council (UNESCO) in Association with the International Institute for Comparative Music Studies and Documentation, vol. 14, no. 2, 1972.
“Brief Progress Report: Cantometrics-Choreometrics Projects.” Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council, 4, 1972: 142–45.
Lomax, Alan and Norman Berkowitz. “The Evolutionary Taxonomy of Culture.” Science, vol. 177 (July 21, 1972): 228–239.
“Cinema, Science, and Cultural Renewal.” Current Anthropology, vol. 14 (1973): 474–480.
“Singing: Folk and Non-Western Singing.” In New Encyclopedia Britannica: Macropedia, 15th Edition, 1974: XVI: 790–94.
“A Note on a Feminine Factor in Cultural History.” In Being Female: Reproduction, Power, and Change. Dana Raphael, ed. Pp. 131–37. The Hague: Mouton, 1975.
“Culture-Style: Factors in Face-to-Face Interaction.” In Organization of Behavior in Face-to-Face Interaction.Adam Kendon, et al., eds., pp. 457–74. The Hague: Mouton, 1975.
“People and Their Culture and the Pursuit of Happiness.” 1976 Festival of American Folklife: Smithsonian Institution National Park Service. Washington, D.C.: Office of Folklife Programs, Smithsonian Institution, 1976.
“Cross-Cultural Factors in Phonological Change.” Language in Society, vol. 2 (1973): 161–175.
Lomax, Alan, et al. “A Stylistic Analysis of Speaking.” Language in Society 6 (1977): 15–47.
“An Appeal for Cultural Equity: When Cultures Clash.” Journal of Communication. 27 (Spring 1977): 125–138.
Lomax, Alan with Conrad Arensberg. “A Worldwide Evolutionary Classification of Cultures by Subsistence Systems.” Current Anthropology, vol. 18 (1977): 659–708.
“Universals in Song.” World of Music: Journal of the International Institute for Comparative Music Studies and Documentation (Berlin) in Association with the International Music Council (UNESCO) 19, nos. 1–2 (1977): 117–29. French translation: 131–41.
“Factors of Musical Style.” In Theory & Practice: Essays Presented to Gene Weltfish. Stanley Diamond, ed. Pp. 29–58. The Hague: Mouton, 1980.
“Folk Music in the Roosevelt Era.” Transcription of interview by Ralph Rinzler. Folk Music in the Roosevelt White House: A Commemorative Program, pp. 14–17. Washington, D.C.: Office of Folklife Programs, Smithsonian Institution, 1982.
Introduction to Never Without a Song: The Years and Songs of Jennie Devlin, 1865–1952 by Katharine D. Newman, pp. xii–xvi. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995.