Yale’s Oral History of American Music (OHAM) collection—an ongoing oral history project, which began in 1969—is home to over 2,800 audio and video interviews with key contributors to our twentieth and twenty-first century American musical landscape. OHAM’s interviewees are primarily composers, but include a number of music critics, music theorists, record producers, executives, and innovators in the field of music technology. This critical research guide highlights the African American voices in OHAM’s collection, as well as those whose work has been influenced by and/or indelibly shaped African American music from the early twentieth century through today.
OHAM collections can be located through Archives at Yale. Once located, recordings for most interviews can then be streamed online via OHAM’s AV Access System, Aviary.
Streaming Audio and Video:
Access to Aviary from Archives at Yale is provided by clicking on the OHAM logo or video image provided for an interview. See this example.
Yale users can simply log in with their Yale University netID, and play the interview recording in Aviary.
Non-Yale users should follow the steps outlined in this video to gain 30 days free access to interviews.
Transcripts:
If you would like transcripts of any of these interviews, click here to fill out a request form and a staff member will provide you with any available PDFs for download.
Tables of Contents:
Tables of Contents for many interviews are available in Archives at Yale, under the "External Documents" header for each interview (when available).
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