Date of Award
1-1-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.M. in Music
First Advisor
Thomas A. Peattie
Second Advisor
Michael Gardiner
Third Advisor
John Latartara
School
University of Mississippi
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
Questions surrounding the relationship between erasure, music, and memory are deeply embedded within contemporary academic discourse. Music and its makers are continually remembered, forgotten, rediscovered, and lost. How we frame these conversations about memory is especially critical when considering the legacy and cultural remembrance of the Blues. This includes acknowledging that the truth of musical memory extends beyond the artists themselves—it includes those who document, study, and shape how the Blues is archived, interpreted, and narrated. This thesis addresses these questions of memory and erasure through a reconsideration of the figure of John Wesley Work III (1901–1967), a Black scholar, folklorist, and Professor of Music at Fisk University. To the extent that his decisive contributions to the documentation of Black vernacular music have been persistently underrecognized in historical and scholarly narratives, nowhere is this more evident than in context of The Library of Congress and Fisk University Joint Study of Coahoma County (1941–1942), a pivotal study that documented Black life and music in and around Coahoma County, Mississippi. Central to this inquiry is the collaborative work on this study undertaken by Alan Lomax (1915–2002) and John Wesley Work III, and the complexities of navigating an institutional partnership between the Library of Congress and Fisk University. The thesis begins by offering insight into Lomax’s professional trajectory during this period, shedding light on the broader implications of his research. The discussion then turns to Work’s life during and after the study, including his evolving relationships with Fisk University. Conversations surrounding Black masculinity, disability, and recurring tropes within the Blues tradition are also introduced. Finally, the thesis closes with a gallery of legacy and memory, drawing on the philosophical frameworks of Friedrich Kittler, Félix Guattari, and Jacques Lacan to explore what remains, what disappears, and what resists capture—read through the spectral and theoretical lens of the spectrogram.
Recommended Citation
Uselton, Kennedy, "“Listen to The Angels Shouting”: Witnessing, Erasure, and The Legacy of John Wesley Work III" (2025). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3403.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/3403