Pre-Release: Slave Songs of the United States

[Marcus Brinkmann]

Hi,

I am happy to give you a sneak preview to my ambitious music notation
project based on Lilypond 2.10, a digital edition of the 1867 song book:

The Slave Songs of the United States
Edited by: William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware and Lucy McKim Garrison

All type-setting of the original 1867 text is finished and in very
good shape.  Future improvements will be done in other areas, like a
new preface, illustrations, MIDI files, etc.  This pre-release,
although quite usable in its own right, is particularly directed at
people who might be willing to take a look at the source code and tell
me what I could do better.

Lilypond does an excellent job on these songs, and only few manual
tweaks were necessary.  Some tweaks may be the result of my lack of
understanding of Lilypond internals.  The whole book contains 136
songs, each about 1 DIN A5 page on average.  The build tree produced
by lilypond-book is over 700 MB (!) strong, I suspect because the
required fonts are copied into each EPS file (can this be improved?).

This book is a very important historic document, not only as a
document of the harm inflicted upon a people by slavery, but also as
evidence for the roots of much of our contemporary music, from Blues
to Jazz.  It may also be useful to serve as an example for how to use
Lilypond in a large-scale song book project, although there is lots of
room for improvement.  If you have any suggestions, please drop me a
note at <address@hidden>.

You can find more information below and at:

http://www.marcus-brinkmann.de/slave-songs.html

I want to thank the Lilypond team, without whom this work would not
have been possible at all!

Kind regards,
Marcus Brinkmann

The PDF file and the source:

http://www.marcus-brinkmann.de/slave-songs-1.0-alpha.pdf
http://www.marcus-brinkmann.de/slave-songs-1.0-alpha.tar.gz

The song list:

   1. Roll, Jordan, roll
   2. Jehovah, Hallelujah
   3. I hear from Heaven to-day
   4. Blow your trumpet, Gabriel
   5. Praise, member
   6. Wrestle on, Jacob
   7. The Lonesome Valley
   8. I can't stay behind
   9. Poor Rosy
  10. The Trouble of the World
  11. There's a meeting here to-night
  12. Hold your light
  13. Happy Morning
  14. No man can hinder me
  15. Lord, remember me
  16. Not weary yet
  17. Religion so sweet
  18. Hunting for the Lord
  19. Go in the wilderness
  20. Tell my Jesus ``Morning.''
  21. The Graveyard
  22. John, John, of the Holy Order
  23. I saw the beam in my sister's eye
  24. Hunting for a city
  25. Gwine follow
  26. Lay this body down
  27. Heaven bell a-ring
  28. Jine 'em
  29. Rain fall and wet Becca Lawton
  30. Bound to go
  31. Michael row the boat ashore
  32. Sail, O believer
  33. Rock o' Jubilee
  34. Stars begin to fall
  35. King Emanuel
  36. Satan's Camp A-Fire
  37. Give up the world
  38. Jesus on the Waterside
  39. I wish I been dere
  40. Build a house in Paradise
  41. I know when I'm going home
  42. I'm a trouble in de mind
  43. Travel on
  44. Archangel, open the door
  45. My body rock 'long fever
  46. Bell da ring
  47. Pray all de member
  48. Turn sinner, turn O
  49. My army cross over
  50. Join the angel band
  51. I an' Satan had a race
  52. Shall I die?
  53. When we do meet again
  54. The White Marble Stone
  55. I can't stand the fire
  56. Meet, O Lord
  57. Wai', Mr.~Mackright
  58. Early in the morning
  59. Hail, Mary
  60. No more rain fall for wet you
  61. I want to go home
  62. Good-bye, brother
  63. Fare ye well
  64. Many thousand go
  65. Brother Moses gone
  66. The Sin-sick Soul
  67. Some Valiant Soldier
  68. Hallelu, Hallelu
  69. Children do linger
  70. Good-bye
  71. Lord, make me more patient
  72. The Day of Judgment
  73. The Resurrection Morn
  74. Nobody knows the trouble I've had
  75. Who is on the Lord's side
  76. Hold out to the end
  77. Come go with me
  78. Every hour in the day
  79. In the mansions above
  80. Shout on, children
  81. Jesus, won't you come by-and-by?
  82. Heave away
  83. Wake up, Jacob
  84. On to Glory
  85. Just Now
  86. Shock along, John
  87. Round the corn, Sally
  88. Jordan's Mills
  89. Sabbath has no end
  90. I don't feel weary
  91. The Hypocrite and the Concubine
  92. O shout away
  93. O'er the Crossing
  94. Rock o' my Soul
  95. We will march thro' the valley
  96. What a trying time
  97. Almost Over
  98. Don't be weary, traveller
  99. Let God's saints come in
 100. The Golden Altar
 101. The Winter
 102. The Heaven Bells
 103. The Gold Band
 104. The Good Old Way
 105. I'm going home
 106. Sinner won't die no more
 107. Brother, guide me home
 108. Little children, then won't you be glad?
 109. Charleston Gals
 110. Run, nigger, run
 111. I'm gwine to Alabamy
 112. My Father, how long?
 113. I'm in trouble
 114. O Daniel
 115. O brother, don't get weary
 116. I want to join the band
 117. Jacob's Ladder
 118. Pray on
 119. Good news, Member
 120. I want to die like-a Lazarus die
 121. Away down in Sunbury
 122. This is the trouble of the world
 123. Lean on the Lord's side
 124. These are all my Father's children
 125. The Old Ship of Zion
 126. Come along, Moses
 127. The Social Band
 128. God got plenty o' room
 129. You must be pure and holy
 130. Belle Layotte
 131. Remon
 132. Aurore Bradaire
 133. Caroline
 134. Calinda
 135. Lolotte
 136. Musieu Bainjo