Is it possible to define the relationship between the sound of a singing voice and the memory of that voice? The history of African-American music and African-American culture is here analyzed using this question as a key to interpretation. What emerges is a picture where the singing voice is deemed as a founding myth. A myth that is nevertheless intertwined with the history of body and of identity. Cultural history, ethnomusicology, voice studies, philosophy of voice and language are incorporated here in one methodological approach. While crossing the symbolism related to the black singing voice, the relationship among memory and historical sources as well as conflicts between cultural memory and racial imagination, the investigation eventually explores the intersections between tradition and cultural identity in the work of contemporary vocalists.
Gianpaolo Chiriacò 2013, “La polvere e le ossa: Voce, memoria, corpo e identità nella cultura musicale afroamericana”, in Gli spazi della musica, Vol. 2, N. 2, 2013. ISSN 2204-7944.