field holler

English

Noun

field holler (plural field hollers)

1. (music) A slow, introspective African-American song type that has its origin in solo work songs, featuring a meandering melody, irregular rhythms, and various forms of wordless vocalization.
   • 1954, Langston Hughes, The First Book of Jazz‎^[6], New York: Franklin Watts, published 1955, page 9:

     They made up field hollers with long, sad, wailing blue notes in their voices that said how tired a man can be.

   • 1963, Amiri Baraka, chapter 7, in Blues People: Negro Music in White America‎^[7], New York: Morrow, page 87:

     The emergence of classic blues indicated that many changes had taken place in the Negro. His sense of place, or status, within the superstructure of American society had changed radically since the days of the field holler.

   • 1976, Maya Angelou, chapter 3, in Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry like Christmas‎^[8], New York: Bantam, published 1977, page 28:

     I was terrified that once loose, once I lifted or lost my control, I would rise from my seat and dance like a puppet, up and down the aisles. I would open my mouth, and screams, shouts and field hollers would tear out my tongue in their rush to be free.

   • 2005, Bill Friskics-Warren, “Transcendental Blues: Bettye LaVette has found her joy—and maybe, at last, an audience the size of her voice”, in Mary Gaitskill, Daphne Carr, editors, Da Capo Best Music Writing 2006‎^[9], Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, page 169:

     […] she moans the remaining lines unhurriedly and with staggering self-possession, stretching out the vowels as if intoning a field holler.

Synonyms

• arwhoolie, cornfield holler, field blues, field cry, field shout, holler