Son of a church choir director, Work grad­u­at­ed from Fisk Un­i­ver­si­ty (AB 1895, MA 1898). He taught La­tin and Greek at Fisk, be­com­ing chair­man of the La­tin & His­to­ry De­part­ments in 1906. From 1923 un­til his death, he served as pres­i­dent of Ro­ger Wil­liams Un­i­ver­si­ty in Nash­ville, Ten­nes­see.

Work was a pi­o­neer in col­lect­ing, per­form­ing, and pre­serv­ing Af­ri­can-Amer­i­can folk mu­sic. His works in­clude:

• New Ju­bi­lee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Ju­bi­lee Sing­ers (Nash­ville, Ten­nes­see: 1901)
• Folk Songs of the Amer­i­can Ne­gro (Nash­ville, Ten­nes­see: 1907)

Sources

Hymns

1. Go, Tell It on the Mount­ain