Thefield holler orfield call is mostly a historical type ofvocalwork song sung byfield slaves in the United States (and later byAfrican Americanforced laborers accused of violatingvagrancy laws) to accompany their tasked work, to communicate usefully, or to vent feelings.[1] It differs from the collectivework song in that it was sung solo, though early observers noted that a holler, or ‘cry’, might be echoed by other workers. Though commonly associated with cotton cultivation, the field holler was also sung bylevee workers, and field hands in rice and sugar plantations. Field hollers are also known as corn-field hollers, water calls, and whoops. An early description is from 1853 and the first recordings are from the 1930s. The holler is closely related to thecall and response ofwork songs andarhoolies. TheAfro-American music form ultimately influenced strands ofAfrican American music, such as theblues and therebyrhythm and blues, as well asnegro spirituals.[2]
There had also been some instances where some white oat farmers in close proximity to black people in thesouthern United States adopted and employed the field holler.[3]
It was described byFrederick Law Olmsted in 1853 as a "long, loud, musical shout, rising and falling and breaking into falsetto", a description that would also have fitted examples recorded a century later. Some hollers are wordless, like the field call byAnnie Grace Horn Dodson.[4] Some have elaborated syllables andmelismas, such as the long example recorded at theParchman Farm penitentiary in Mississippi in 1947, by "Bama", of a Levee Camp Holler.[5]
Verbal, improvised lines were used as cries for water and food and cries about what was happening in their daily lives, as expressions of religious devotion, a source of motivation in repetitive work, and a way of presenting oneself over across the fields. They described the labor being done (e.g., corn shucking songs, mule-skinning songs) recounted personal experiences or the singer's thoughts, subtly insulted white work attendants, or used folk themes. An unidentified singer of a Camp Holler was urged on with shouts and comments by his friends, suggesting that the holler could also have a social role.[6] Call and response arose as sometimes a lone caller would be heard and answered with another laborer's holler from a distant field. Some street cries might be considered an urban form of holler, though they serve a different function (like advertising a seller's product); an example is the call of ‘The Blackberry Woman’, Dora Bliggen, in New Orleans.[7]
The field holler has origins in themusic of West Africa, where the majority of enslaved African in America originated. The historianSylviane Diouf andethnomusicologistGerhard Kubik also identifyIslamic music as an influence.[8] Diouf notes a striking resemblance between theIslamic call to prayer (originating fromBilal ibn Rabah, anAbyssinianAfrican Muslim in the early 7th century) and 19th-century field holler music, noting that both have similar lyrics praising God, melody, note changes, "words that seem to quiver and shake" in the vocal cords, dramatic changes inmusical scales, and nasalintonation. She attributes the origins of field holler music toAfrican Muslim slaves who accounted for an estimated 30% of African slaves in America. According to Kubik, "the vocal style of many blues singers usingmelisma, wavy intonation, and so forth is a heritage of that large region ofWest Africa that had been in contact with theArabic-Islamic world of theMaghreb since the seventh and eighth centuries."[8]
Field hollers, cries and hollers of theslaves and latersharecroppers working in cotton fields, prisonchain gangs, railway gangs (Gandy dancers) orturpentine camps are seen as the precursor to thecall and response of African Americanspirituals andgospel music, tojug bands,minstrel shows,stride piano, and ultimately tothe blues, torhythm and blues,jazz and toAfrican American music in general.[2]
The field holler may in turn have been influenced by blues recordings. No recorded examples of hollers exist from before the mid-1930s, but some blues recordings, such asMistreatin' Mama (1927, Negro Patti) by the harmonica playerJaybird Coleman, show strong links with the field holler tradition.[9][10]
A white tradition of "hollerin'" may be of similar age, but has not been adequately researched. Since 1969 an annualNational Hollerin' Contest has been held in Sampson County, North Carolina. The influence can be seen in thehumwhistle. A humwhistle, otherwise known as "whistle-hum", creates two tones simultaneously and is afolk art. The two-tone sound is related toInuit throat singing, and to a tradition ofyodeling that originated in theCentral Alps.[citation needed][original research?]