Themes and Eras
Voices Across Time is organized by historical eras derived from the National History Standards and themes adapted from the National Social Studies Standards. The themes are:
United/Divided: Politics, civil rights, diversity
This theme explores the great American paradox E Pluribus Unum: The many consequences of being a nation of diverse people with diverse backgrounds and opinions. Music has allowed even the most disenfranchised to speak up and be heard--that peaceful dissension that is at the heart of the democratic process. This theme will introduce songs of politics, suffrage, civil rights, and cultural pride and conflict.
War and Peace: Propaganda, patriotism, protest
During wartime, songs become weapons, rallying cries, and emotional support. As documents of patriotism, propaganda, and protest, they invite us to ask questions like: "What is peace?" "What is war?" "Why is the nation fighting?" "What am I fighting for?" "What is it like to be a soldier?" "How does it feel back home?"
Work: Labor, pride, conflict
Contrary to popular notions, the arts are not luxuries reserved for affluent times and people. Songs of work are perfect examples of music's role in helping people at all economic levels cope with hard labor, inhumane conditions, and unfair practices. Work songs like sea chanteys kept crews working together to a beat. Field hollers allowed communication between farm workers. Ballads memorialized heroes, decried working conditions, or expressed pride. Union songs recruited members to fight those conditions.
Home: Family, school, leisure
Everyday life has had a musical soundtrack from the days of singing away long winter evenings to today's world of Ipods ® and Muzak®. Songs can reveal much about relationships and values in the home and the drudgery of keeping them. Children learned lessons both moral and academic through songs. And everyone has used music to kick back and have a bit of fun! We put our ears to the doors that most textbooks keep closed to find out more about the human-ness of our ancestors.
Moving Along: Migration and transportation
Americans move! Everyone's ancestors undertook great voyages--either voluntarily or by force--to get here and we haven't stopped since. We listen to the songs of migration--from nation to nation, east to west, south to north (and back again!), farm to city, city to suburbs--to hear the reason for those moves. Then we listen to the songs of transportation and discover how technology--wagons, keelboats, steamboats, trains, automobiles, and planes--literally drives these movements over land and water.
Faith and Ideals: Religion, altruism, ethics, love of country
Nothing reveals what people believe quite as effectively as the songs they sing. Music is one of the primary ways people pass values from generation to generation. We look at songs of religious faith, devotion to country, ethical convictions, and altruistic ideas to try to understand the diverse beliefs and values that motivate Americans. What threads of shared beliefs can we find? In what ways are we different.
A helpful way to visualize this structure is through a grid combining eras and themes. This matrix populated by songs from each unit serves as a finding aid to help educators locate material that helps them meet their instructional objectives:
Themes->
Eras
|
United/ Divided |
War & Peace |
Work |
Home |
Moving Along
|
Faith & Ideals |
1
Worlds meeting
To 1763
|
Once More Our God Vouchsafe to Shine
|
Death of General Wolfe |
Tobacco's But an Indian Weed
Welcome, Welcome Brother Debtor
Round the Corner, Sally and Round the Corn, Sally |
Children in the Woods
New England's Annoyances
|
Friendly Invitation to a New Plantation
En roulant ma boule
La courte paille |
Alabado
God Save the King
Old Hundred
Let Us Break Bread Together |
2
New Nation
1750-1820s |
Rights of a Woman
Chester
Free America
The Liberty Song
Desponding Negro
Jefferson & Liberty |
Ballad of the Tea Party
Yankee Doodle
The Rebels
The Old Woman Taught Wisdom |
The Rolling Stone
|
Address to the Ladies
Johnny's Gone for a Soldier |
Michael Row the Boat Ashore |
Hail Columbia
President's March
Wayfaring Stranger |
|
United/ Divided |
War & Peace |
Work |
Home |
Moving Along |
Faith & Ideals |
3
Expansion & Reform
1801-1861 |
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
Darling Nelly Gray
Get Off the Track |
The Hunters of Kentucky
Star-Spangled Banner
Trail of Tears Song |
Greenland Whale Fishery
Song of the Shirt
Oh Dat Low Bridge |
Hard Times Come Again No More |
Trail of Tears
Shenandoah
Blue Juniata
Sweet Betsy from Pike
Glendy Burk |
Go Down Moses
Simple Gifts
Amazing Grace
America (My Country Tis of Thee)
Roll, Jordan, Roll
Follow the Drinkin' Gourd |
4
Civil War & Reconstruction 1850-1877 |
John Brown’s Body
Dixie
No More Auction Block for Me (Many Thousand Gone)
I’m a Good Old Rebel |
Marching Through Georgia
Bonnie Blue Flag
We’re Coming, Father Abraham |
Goober Peas
Just Before the Battle, Mother |
Vacant Chair
Song of the Southern Volunteers
When Johnny Comes Marching Home
Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye |
|
Deep River
Battle Hymn of the Republic |
|
United/ Divided |
War & Peace |
Work |
Home |
Moving Along |
Faith & Ideals |
5
Development of the Industrial U.S.
1870-1900 |
No Irish Need Apply
The New America
Going to the Polls
Before I'd Be a Slave |
Stars and Stripes Forever
Break the News to Mother |
John Henry
Drill Ye Terriers Drill
The Farmer is the Man
Mule Skinner Blues
Arwhoolie |
Father's a Drunkard and Mother is Dead
The Bowery |
Home on the Range
Crossing the Grand Sierras
I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen
Thousands Are Sailing to Amerikay
Carry Me Back to Old Virginny |
America the Beautiful
Onward Christian Soldiers
Sun Dance Song |
| 6
The Emergence of Modern America
1890-1930 |
Alcoholic Blues
Woman's Doxology
What Did I Do to Be So Black and Blue
El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez
The Argentines, the Portuguese, and the Greeks
All Coons Look Alike to Me
The Japanese Sandman
So Long! Oo-Long (How Long You Gonna Be Gone?)
I'm an Indian |
Over There
I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier |
Solidarity Forever
Boll Weevil Song |
How You Gonna Keep Him Down on the Farm
Ain't We Got Fun
Hello Ma Baby St. Louis Blues
Down in Poverty Row
Ching-a-ling's Jazz Bazaar
Chinatown, My Chinatown > |
Henry's Made a Lady Out of Lizzie
Lindbergh (the Eagle of the USA)
He Lies in the American Land
Cancion mixteca |
We'll Understand It Better By and By
You're a Grand Old Flag
Can the Circle Be Unbroken
I'll Overcome Some Day
Lift Every Voice and Sing |
|
United/ Divided |
War & Peace |
Work |
Home |
Moving Along |
Faith & Ideals |
7
The Great Depression and World War II
1929-1945 |
Happy Days Are Here Again
Strange Fruit
Boll Weevil Song
Which Side Are You On?
I'm Marching Down Freedom's Road |
Goodbye, Mama (I'm Off to Yokohama)
Der Fuhrer's Face
Gee But I Wanna Go Home
A Slip of the Lip |
Corrido Pensilvanio
Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime?
El Deportado
Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
Rosie the Riveter
Seven Cent Cotton, Forty Cent Meat
|
Roll On Columbia
Cancion Mexicana
Hobo's Lullaby
Duration Blues |
Do, Re, Mi
Chattanooga Choo-Choo
El Corrido de Texas
Crossroad Blues
Take the A Train
I Feel Like Going Home |
God Bless America
You'll Never Walk Alone
Whistle While You Work |
8
Postwar United States
1945 to 1968 |
We Shall Overcome
Respect
The Times They Are A-Changin'
Say It Loud I'm Black & Proud
Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn me Around
Mississippi Goddamn
A Change is Gonna Come
People Get Ready
Now that the Buffalo's Gone
Japanese Rumba
The Sukiyaki Song
Okie From Muskogee |
Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag
|
Sixteen Tons
Get a Job
Los pachucos
Deportee |
Little Boxes
Los Chucos suaves
Wives and Lovers |
In America (West Side Story)
I Get Around
(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66
Special Delivery Blues
Call it Stormy Monday |
This Land is Your Land
Take My Hand Precious Lord
Keep On Pushing
What a Wonderful World
Get Together
If I Had a Hammer |
|
United/ Divided |
War & Peace |
Work |
Home |
Moving Along |
Faith & Ideals |
9
Changing America 1970-2000 |
I Am Woman
Gangsta's Paradise
Chocolate City
A.I.M. Song
Yellow Pearl
What's Going On
Self Destruction
Born in the USA
|
Russians
War
Ohio
If We Must Die
In America |
Workin’ 9 to 5
Allentown
El Corrido de Cesar Chavez
Contrabando y traicion
El Picket Sign |
Big Yellow Taxi
Living for the City
At Seventeen
Dear Mama
Mother Earth
Menominee Vietnam Veterans Song
Plastico
Love Child
Don't Let the Joneses Get You Down
To Be Young, Gifted, and Black
Ladies First
I Was Born This Way
Oye mi Canto
The Message
Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)
Small Town
Mountains 'O Things
Information Undertow |
Convoy
Traffic Jam
Clandestino |
Imagine
Controversy
We Are the World
The Greatest Love of All
Man in the Mirror
Fight the Power
God Bless the USA
From a Distance |
10
The New Millenium
|
The Corner
Silence is a Weapon
Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue |
Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning
Have You Forgotten?
Travelin Soldier
Light Up Ya Lighter
Violeta
War Song |
Workin’ America First
Words I Never Said
Rent Money |
24KTown
Brotha
Learn Chinese
The APL Song
Heroes of Earth
Black Happiness
Who I Am
Same Love
Mi Gente |
3rd Base, Dodger Stadium
Where You From
Monsters Calling Home
Descendants of Dragons
Wave
Somos mas Americanos
Who Discovered America
American Land
Electric Intertribal |
Where is the Love
Waiting on the World to Change
I Smile
No Rest for the Weary
Clouds |
|
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