Spirituals (also known as Negro spirituals, African American spirituals, Black spirituals, or spiritual music) is a
genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
of
Christian music
Christian music is music that has been written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life and faith. Common themes of Christian music include praise, worship, penitence, and lament, and its forms vary widely aroun ...
that is associated with
Black Americans,
[Full text](_blank)
/ref> which merged sub-Saharan African cultural heritage with the experiences of being held in bondage in slavery, at first during the transatlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
and for centuries afterwards, through the domestic slave trade. Spirituals encompass the "sing songs," work songs
A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a form of work, either sung while conducting a task (usually to coordinate timing) or a song linked to a task which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song.
Definitions and ...
, and plantation songs that evolved into the blues and gospel songs in church. In the nineteenth century, the word "spirituals" referred to all these subcategories of folk songs. While they were often rooted in biblical stories, they also described the extreme hardships endured by African Americans who were enslaved from the 17th century until the 1860s, the emancipation
Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure economic and social rights, political rights or equality, often for a specifically disenfranch ...
altering mainly the nature (but not continuation) of slavery for many. Many new derivative music genres emerged from the spirituals songcraft.
Prior to the end of the US Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
and emancipation, spirituals were originally an oral tradition passed from one slave generation to the next. Biblical stories were memorized then translated into song. Following emancipation, the lyrics of spirituals were published in printed form. Ensembles such as the Fisk Jubilee Singers
The Fisk Jubilee Singers are an African-American '' a cappella'' ensemble, consisting of students at Fisk University. The first group was organized in 1871 to tour and raise funds for college. Their early repertoire consisted mostly of traditio ...
—established in 1871—popularized spirituals, bringing them to a wider, even international, audience.
At first, major recording studios were only recording white musicians performing spirituals and their derivatives. That changed with Mamie Smith
Mamie Smith (née Robinson; May 26, 1891 – September 16, 1946) was an American vaudeville singer, dancer, pianist, and actress. As a vaudeville singer she performed in multiple styles, including jazz and blues. In 1920, she entered blues histor ...
's commercial success in 1920. Starting in the 1920s, the commercial recording industry increased the audience for the spirituals and their derivatives.
Black composers, Harry Burleigh
Henry Thacker ("Harry") Burleigh (December 2, 1866 – September 12, 1949) was an American classical composer, arranger, and professional singer known for his baritone voice. The first black composer who was instrumental in developing cha ...
and R. Nathaniel Dett, created a "new repertoire for the concert stage" by applying their Western classical education to the spirituals. While the spirituals were created by a "circumscribed community of people in bondage," over time they became known as the first "signature" music of the United States.
Terminology
''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...
''—one of the largest reference works on music and musicians,—itemized and described "spiritual" in their electronic resource, Grove Music Online—an important part of Oxford Music Online, as a "type of sacred song created by and for African Americans that originated in oral tradition. Although its exact provenance is unknown, spirituals were identifiable as a genre by the early 19th century." They used the term without the descriptor, "African American".
The term "spirituals" is a 19th century word "used for songs with religious texts created by African slaves in America". The first published book of slave songs referred to them as spirituals.
In musicology and ethnomusicology in the 1990s, the single term "spirituals" is used to describe "The Spirituals Project".
The US Library of Congress uses the phrase "African American Spirituals", for the numbered and itemized entry. In the introductory phrase, the singular form is used without the adjective "African American." Throughout the encyclopedic entry the singular and plural form of the term, is used without the "African American" descriptor. The LOC introductory sentence says, "A spiritual is a type of religious folksong that is most closely associated with the enslavement of African people in the American South. The songs proliferated in the last few decades of the eighteenth century leading up to the abolishment of legalized slavery in the 1860s. The African American spiritual (also called the Negro Spiritual) constitutes one of the largest and most significant forms of American folksong."
Context
The transatlantic slave trade, which took place over 400 years, was the largest forced migration in recorded human history—most were taken from the West African coast to the Americas. From 1501 through 1867, approximately "12.5 million Africans" from "almost every country with an Atlantic coastline" were kidnapped and coerced into slavery, according to the 2015 ''Atlas'' based on about 35,000 slaving voyages. Roughly 6% of all enslaved Africans transported via the slave trade arrived in the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, both before and after the colonial era; the majority of these Africans came from the West African slave coast. The domestic slave trade
The domestic slave trade, also known as the Second Middle Passage and the interregional slave trade, was the term for the domestic trade of enslaved people within the United States that reallocated slaves across states during the Antebellum perio ...
that emerged after the United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
outlawed the international slave trade in 1808 and lasted until the U.S. Civil War destroyed generations of African American families. Slavery in the United States differed from the institution in other regions of the Americas, such as the West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
, Dutch Guiana and Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, where the majority of enslaved Africans were sent as part of the slave trade
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
. In the U.S., there was a "high and sustained natural increase in the slave population for a more than a century and a half—with numbers nearly tripling by the end of the domestic slave trade in the 1860s." During that period, "approximately 1.2 million men, women, and children, the vast majority of whom were born in America," were displaced—spouses were separated from one another, and parents were separated from their children. By 1850, most enslaved African Americans were "third-, fourth-, or fifth-generation Americans." In the 1800s, the majority of enslaved people in the British West Indies
The British West Indies (BWI) were colonized British territories in the West Indies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grena ...
and Brazil had been born in Africa, whereas in the United States, they were "generations removed from Africa."
The institution of slavery ended with the conclusion of the US Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
in 1865. The first enslaved Africans had arrived on current US soil in 1526, making landfall in present-day Winyah Bay
The Winyaw were a Native American tribe living near Winyah Bay, Black River, and the lower course of the Pee Dee River in South Carolina. The Winyaw people disappeared as a distinct entity after 1720 and are thought to have merged with the Wacc ...
, South Carolina
)'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
in a short-lived colony called San Miguel de Gualdape
San Miguel de Gualdape (sometimes San Miguel de Guadalupe) is a former Spanish colony in present-day Georgetown County, South Carolina, founded in 1526 by Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón.In early 1521, Ponce de León had made a poorly documented, disas ...
. They were the first to stage a slave rebellion. In 1619, the first slave ship had carried twenty people from the west central African kingdom of Kongo—to a life of enslavement in what is now, Mexico. The Kingdom of Kongo, at that time stretched over an area of in the watershed of the Congo River
The Congo River ( kg, Nzâdi Kôngo, french: Fleuve Congo, pt, Rio Congo), formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the second largest river in the world by discharge ...
—the longest river in Africa—and had a population of 2.5 million—was one of the largest African kingdoms. For a brief period, King João I of Kongo
Nzinga-a-Nkuwu João I (né Nzinga-a-Nkuwu), was the 5th ManiKongo of the Kingdom of Kongo (Kongo-dia-Ntotila in Kikongo language) between 1470 and 1509. He voluntarily converted to Roman Catholicism. He was baptized on 3 May 1491 and took the ...
, who reigned from 1470 to 1509, had voluntarily converted to Catholicism, and for close to three centuries—from 1491 to 1750—the kingdom of Kongo had practiced Christianity and was an "independent ndcosmopolitan realm." The descendants of the rice-plantation enslaved Gullah
The Gullah () are an African American ethnic group who predominantly live in the Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, within the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. Their language and cultu ...
people—whose country of origin is Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...
—were unique, because they had been much more isolated on the islands off the coast of South Carolina. Gullah spirituals are sung in a creole language that was influenced by African American Vernacular English
African-American Vernacular English (AAVE, ), also referred to as Black (Vernacular) English, Black English Vernacular, or occasionally Ebonics (a colloquial, controversial term), is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urba ...
with the majority of African words coming from the Akan Akan may refer to:
People and languages
*Akan people, an ethnic group in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire
*Akan language, a language spoken by the Akan people
*Kwa languages, a language group which includes Akan
* Central Tano languages, a language group ...
, Yoruba
The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
and Igbo
Igbo may refer to:
* Igbo people, an ethnic group of Nigeria
* Igbo language, their language
* anything related to Igboland, a cultural region in Nigeria
See also
* Ibo (disambiguation)
* Igbo mythology
* Igbo music
* Igbo art
*
* Igbo-Ukwu, a ...
.
Overview
In his 1845 ''Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
''Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass'' is an 1845 memoir and treatise on abolition written by famous orator and former slave Frederick Douglass during his time in Lynn, Massachusetts. It is generally held to be the most famous of a number ...
'', an essay on abolition and a memoire, Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...
(1818–1895)—a great orator—described slave songs as telling a "tale which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they were tones, loud, long and deep, breathing the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains… Those songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery, and quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds." His ''Narrative'', which is the most famous of the stories written by former slaves at that time, is one of the most influential pieces of literature that acted as a catalyst in the early years of the American abolitionist movement, according to the OCLC entry. Slave songs were called "Sorrow songs Sorrow songs expressed the suffering and unjust treatment of enslaved African Americans during the period of slavery in the United States
The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of Africans a ...
" by W.E.B. Du Bois
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up i ...
in his book, 1903 book, ''The Souls of Black Folk
''The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches'' is a 1903 work of American literature by W. E. B. Du Bois. It is a seminal work in the history of sociology and a cornerstone of African-American literature.
The book contains several essays on r ...
'' .["Sorrow Songs"](_blank)
''American Passages: A Literary Survey'', Annenberg Learner. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
Hansonia Caldwell, the author of ''African American music, spirituals: the fundamental communal music of Black Americans'' and ''African American music: a chronology : 1619–1995'', said that spirituals "sustained Africans when they were enslaved." She described them as "code songs" that "would announce meetings, as in "Steal Away
"Steal Away" ("Steal Away to Jesus") is an American Negro spiritual. The song is well known by variations of the chorus:
Songs such as "Steal Away to Jesus", "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", "Wade in the Water" and the " Gospel Train" are songs with ...
," and describe the path for running away, as in " Follow the Drinkin' Gourd." "Go Down Moses
"Go Down Moses" is a spiritual phrase that describes events in the Old Testament of the Bible, specifically Exodus 5:1: "And the LORD spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may se ...
" referred to Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and social activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 slaves, including family and friends, u ...
– that was her nickname—so that when they heard that song, they knew she was coming to the area...I often call the spiritual an omnibus term, because there are lots of different ubcategoriesunder it. They used to sing songs as they worked in the fields. In the church, it evolved into the gospel song. In the fields, it became the blues." Hansonia Caldwell, who was a professor of music at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) from 1972 to 2011, also oversaw an Archive of Sacred Music at CSUDH—an extensive collection of music, books, periodicals, documents, audio & visual materials, and oral histories."
"The African American spiritual (also called the Negro Spiritual) constitutes one of the largest and most significant forms of American folksong," according to a Library of Congress 2016 article.
Spirituals were originally oral, but by 1867 the first compilation, entitled "Slave Songbook", was published. In the book's preface, one of the co-compilers, William Francis Allen, traced the "development of Negro Spirituals and cultural connections to Africa." The 1867 publication included spirituals that were well-known and regularly sung in American churches but whose origins in plantations, had not been acknowledged. Allen wrote that, it was almost impossible to convey the spirituals in print because of the inimitable quality of African American voices with its "intonations and delicate variations", where not "even one singer" can be "reproduced on paper". Allen described the complexity of songs such as "I can't stay behind, my Lord", or "Turn, sinner, turn O!" which have a "complicated shout" where there are no singing parts, and no two singers "appear to be singing the same thing." The lead "singer starts the words of each verse, often improvising, and the others, who "base" him, as it is called, strike in with the refrain, or even join in the solo, when the words are familiar."
In their 1925 book, ''The Books of American Negro Spirituals'', James Weldon Johnson
James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871June 26, 1938) was an American writer and civil rights activist. He was married to civil rights activist Grace Nail Johnson. Johnson was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peop ...
and Grace Nail Johnson said that spirituals, which are "purely and solely the creation" of African Americans, represent "America's only type of folk music...When it came to the use of words, the maker of the song was struggling as best he could under his limitations in language and, perhaps, also under a misconstruction or misapprehension of the facts in his source of material, generally the Bible." The couple were active during the Harlem Renaissance James Weldon Johnson was the leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...
(NAACP).
Arthur C. Jones, a Professor in the Musicology, Ethnomusicology and Theory Department at the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver
The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...
, founded "The Spirituals Project" to preserve and revitalize the "music and teachings of the sacred folk songs called spirituals," "created and first sung by African Americans in slavery". Spirituals were created by a "circumscribed community of people in bondage", over time they became known as the first "signature" music of the United States. Forbidden to speak their native languages, they generally converted to Christianity. With narrow vocabularies, they used the words they did know to translate biblical information and facts from their other sources into song.
Cultural origins
African foundation
J.H. Kwabena Nketia (1921–2019) described by the ''New York Times'' in 2019, as a "pre-eminent scholar of African music", said in 1973 that there is an important, interdependent, dynamic, and "unbroken conceptual relationship between African and African American music".
Enslaved African Americans "in the plantation South drew on native rhythms and their African heritage." According to a May 2012 PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
interview, "spirituals were religious folks songs, often rooted in biblical stories, woven together, sung, and passed along from one slave generation to another".PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
correspondent Bob Faw said this in a ''Religion & Ethics Newsweekly
''Religion & Ethics Newsweekly'' was an American weekly television news-magazine program which aired on PBS.
History and content
Premiering in 1997, ''Religion & Ethics Newsweekly'' was devoted to news of religion and spirituality, along with ...
'' May 2012 interview with members of the Morehouse College Glee Club The Morehouse College Glee Club, founded in 1911, is the official choral group of Morehouse College. The Glee Club has a long tradition of many notable public appearances, having performed at Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral, President Jimmy Carter ...
—the official choral group of the historically black Morehouse College, in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...
[Spirituals originated with the enslaved Africans who were brought to ]British North America
British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland, then further south at Roanoke and Jamestow ...
and the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Slavery was not abolished in the U.S. until 1865 through the enactment of the Thirteen Amendment when all enslaved people were legally emancipated. See History of slavery in the United States
The legal institution of human Slavery#Chattel slavery, chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of List of ethnic groups of Africa, Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States, United States of America ...
.[According to a Library of Congress 2016 article, music was central to and permeated every aspect of everyday life and major life events in Africa. Enslaved Africans in America were no longer permitted to worship as Christian colonialists feared "African-infused way of worship". Gatherings had to be conducted in a clandestine manner. During these meetings, worshipers would sing, chant, dance and sometimes enter ecstatic trances. Along with spirituals, shouts also emerged in the Praise Houses. Shouts begin slowly with the shuffling of feet and clapping of hands (but the feet never cross because that was seen as dancing, which was forbidden within the church). Drums were used as they had been in Africa, for communication. When the connection between drumming, communication, and resistance was eventually made, drums were forbidden.]
According to Walter Pitt's 1996 book, spirituals are a musical form that is indigenous and specific to the religious experience African slaves and their descendants in the United States. Pitts said that they were a result of the interaction of music and religion from Africa with music and religion of European origin.
In a May 2012 PBS interview, Uzee Brown, Jr. said that spirituals were the "survival tools for the African slave". Brown said that while other similarly-oppressed cultures were "virtually wiped out", the African slave survived because of spirituals by "singing through many of their problems", by creating their own "way of communicating". Enslaved people introduced a number of new instruments to America: the bones, body percussion, and an instrument variously called the bania, banju, or banjar, a precursor to the banjo but without frets. They brought with them from Africa long-standing religious traditions that highlighted the importance of storytelling.
Evidence of the vital role African music has played in the creation of African American spirituals exists, among other elements, in the use of "complex rhythms" and "polyrhythms" from West Africa.
Religion in everyday life
According to the beliefs of slave religion—the "material and the spiritual are part of an intrinsic unity". Music, religion, and everyday life are inseparable in the spirituals, and through them, religious ideals were infused into the activities of everyday life. The spirituals provided some immunity protecting the African American religion from being colonized, and in this way preserved the "sacred as a potential space of resistance". A 2015 article in the ''Journal of Black Studies'' said that it was not surprising therefore that "spirituals were sung primarily as rowing songs, field songs, work songs, and social songs, rather than exclusively within the church." The article described how, "through the use of metonymy (substituting associated words to ostensibly alter the semantic content), spirituals acted as a form of religious education, able to speak simultaneously of material and spiritual freedom", for example in the spiritual, "Steal Away to Jesus".
In William Eleazar Barton's (1899–1972) ''Old Plantation Hymns'', the author wrote that African American "hymns seldom make allusion to the Bible as a source of inspiration. They prefer "heart religion" to "book religion". Barton, who attended services with African Americans, said that they did not sing the "ordinary" hymns that strengthened "assurance by a promise of God in Holy Scripture"; rather, in the African-American hymns, they appeal to a more personal "revelation from the Lord." He cites the examples of "We're Some of the Praying People" and a hymn from Alabama—"Wear a starry crown". He also notes that both these songs have a "threefold repetition and a concluding line." In the latter, we find the "familiar swing and syncopation" of the African American.
Spirituals were not simply different versions of hymns or Bible stories, but rather a creative altering of the material; new melodies and music, refashioned text, and stylistic differences helped to set apart the music as distinctly African-American.
The First Great Awakening
The First Great Awakening (sometimes Great Awakening) or the Evangelical Revival was a series of Christian revivals that swept Britain and its thirteen North American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. The revival movement permanently affecte ...
, or "Evangelical Revival"—a series of Christian revivals in the 1730s and 1740s swept Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...
and its North American colonies, resulted in many enslaved people in the colonies being converting to Christianity.[ A connectED program for Grades 1–8.] During that time northern Baptist
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...
and Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...
preachers converted African Americans, including those who were enslaved. In some communities African Americans were accepted into Christian communities as deacons. From 1800 to 1825 enslaved people were exposed to the religious music of camp meetings on the ever-expanding frontier. As African religious traditions declined in America in the 18th and 19th centuries, more African Americans began to convert to Christianity. In a 1982 "scathing critique" of Awakening scholars, Yale University historian, Jon Butler, wrote that the Awakening was a myth that has been constructed by historians in the 18th century who had attempted to use the narrative of the Awakening for their own "religious purposes".
Biblical themes
By the 17th century, enslaved Africans were familiar with Christian biblical stories, such as the story of Moses and Daniel, seeing their own stories reflected in them. An Africanized form of Christianity evolved in the slave population with African American spirituals providing a way to "express the community's new faith, as well as its sorrows and hopes."
As Africans were exposed to stories from the Bible, they began to see parallels to their own experiences. The story of the exile of the Jews and their captivity in Babylon, resonated with their own captivity.
The lyrics of Christian spirituals reference symbolic aspects of Biblical images such as Moses and Israel's Exodus
Exodus or the Exodus may refer to:
Religion
* Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible
* The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan
Historical events
* Ex ...
from Egypt in songs such as "Michael Row the Boat Ashore
"Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" (also called "Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore", "Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore", or "Michael, Row That Gospel Boat") is a traditional African-American spiritual first noted during the American Civil War at St. Helen ...
". There is also a duality in the lyrics of spirituals. They communicated many Christian ideals while also communicating the hardship that was a result of being an enslaved.
The river Jordan in traditional African American religious song became a symbolic borderland not only between this world and the next. It could also symbolize travel to the north and freedom or could signify a proverbial border from the status of slavery to living free.
Syncopation, or ragged time, was a natural part of spiritual music. Songs were played on African-inspired instruments.[
]
Collections of lyrics of the spirituals
African-American spirituals have associations with plantation songs, slave songs, freedom songs, and songs of the Underground Railway, and were oral until the end of the US Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
. Following the Civil War and emancipation, there has been "extensive collection and preservation of spirituals as folk song tradition". The first collection of Negro spirituals was published in 1867, two years after the war had ended. Entitled ''Slave Songs of the United States
''Slave Songs of the United States'' was a collection of African American music consisting of 136 songs. Published in 1867, it was the first, and most influential, collection of spirituals to be published. The collectors of the songs were Nor ...
'', it was compiled by three northern abolitionists—Charles Pickard Ware Charles Pickard Ware (1840–1921), was an American educator and music transcriber. An abolitionist, he served as a civilian administrator in the Union Army, where he was a labor superintendent of freedmen on plantations at Port Royal, South Carolin ...
(1840–1921), Lucy McKim Garrison
Lucy McKim Garrison (October 30, 1842 – May 11, 1877) was an American song collector and co-editor of ''Slave Songs of the United States'', together with William Francis Allen and Charles Pickard Ware.
Early life
Lucy was born in Philadelphia, ...
(1842–1877), William Francis Allen
William Francis Allen (September 5, 1830December 9, 1889) was an American classical scholar and an editor of the first book of American slave songs, '' Slave Songs of the United States.''
Allen was born in Northborough, Massachusetts in 1830, the ...
(1830–1889)[Part I of the collection included songs from the South-Eastern Slave States, including ]South Carolina
)'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
, Georgia and the Sea Islands
The Sea Islands are a chain of tidal and barrier islands on the Atlantic Ocean coast of the Southeastern United States. Numbering over 100, they are located between the mouths of the Santee and St. Johns Rivers along the coast of South Caroli ...
. Of these Charles Pickard Ware Charles Pickard Ware (1840–1921), was an American educator and music transcriber. An abolitionist, he served as a civilian administrator in the Union Army, where he was a labor superintendent of freedmen on plantations at Port Royal, South Carolin ...
collecting songs from the Gullah
The Gullah () are an African American ethnic group who predominantly live in the Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, within the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. Their language and cultu ...
people of Port Royal Islands, South Carolina
)'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
. These songs including "Roll, Jordan, Roll
"Roll, Jordan, Roll" (Roud 6697), also "Roll, Jordan", is a spiritual created by enslaved African Americans, developed from a song written by Isaac Watts in the 18th century which became well known among slaves in the United States during the 1 ...
", "Jehovah, hallelujah,
I hear from heaven to-day
, "Blow your trumpet", "Gabriel", "Praise, member", "Wrestle on, Jacob", "The lonesome valley", "I can't stay behind", "Poor Rosy", "The trouble of the world", "There's a meeting here tonight", "Hold your light", "Happy morning", "No man can hinder me", "Lord, remember me", "Not weary yet", "Religion so sweet", "Hunting for the Lord", "Go in the wilderness", "Tell my Jesus" "Morning", "The graveyard, "John, John, of the holy order", "I saw the beam in my sister's eye", "Hunting for a city", "Gwine follow", Lay this body down", "Heaven bell a ring", "Jine 'em", "Rain fall and wet Becca Lawton", "Bound to go", "Michael row the boat ashore", "Sail, o believer", "Rock o' jubilee", "Stars begin to fall", "King Emanuel", "Satan's camp a-fire", "Give up the world", "Jesus on the water-side", "I wish I been dere", "Build a house in paradise", "I know when I'm going home", "I'm a-trouble in de mind", and "Travel on".
William Francis Allen
William Francis Allen (September 5, 1830December 9, 1889) was an American classical scholar and an editor of the first book of American slave songs, '' Slave Songs of the United States.''
Allen was born in Northborough, Massachusetts in 1830, the ...
collected these songs on Port Royal Islands: "Archangel open the door", "My body rock 'long fever", "Bell da ring", "Pray all de member", "Turn, sinner, turn o'", "My army cross over", "Join the angel band",
I an' Satan had a race
ROUD # 11993
"Shall I die?", "When we do meet again", "The white marble stone", "I can't stand the fire", "Meet, o Lord",
Wait, Mr. Mackright
, "Early in the morning", "Hail Mary
The Hail Mary ( la, Ave Maria) is a traditional Christian prayer addressing Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical passages featured in the Gospel of Luke: the Angel Gabriel's visit to Mary (the Annunciation) and Mary's ...
", "No more rain fall for wet you", "I want to go home", "Good-bye brother", "Fare ye well", "Many thousand go", "Brother Moses gone", "The sin-sick soul", "Some valiant soldier", "Hallelu, hallelu", "Children do linger", "Good-bye", "Lord, make me more patient", "The day of judgement", "The resurrection morn", "Nobody knows the trouble I've had", "Who is on the Lord's side", "Hold out to the end", "Come go with me", "Every hour in the day", "In the mansions above", "Shout on, children", "Jesus, won't you come by-and-bye!", and "Heave away". Part II included songs from the Northern Seaboard Slave States, including Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, such as "Wake up, Jacob", "On to glory", "Just new", "Shock along, John", "Round the corn, Sally", "Jordan's mills", "Sabbath has no end", "I don't feel weary", "The hypocrite and the concubine", "O shout away", "O'er the crossing", " Rock o' my soul", "We will march through the valley", "What a trying time", "Almost over", "Don't be weary, traveller", "Let God's saints come in", "The golden altar", "The winter", and "The heaven bells". Part III includes songs from the Inland Slave States, including Tennessee, Arkansas, and the Mississippi River, such as "The gold band", The good old way", I'm going home", Sinner won't die no more", "Brother, guide me home", "Little children, then won't you be glad?", "Charleston gals", "Run, n*, run", " I'm gwine to Alabamy". Part IV includes songs from the Gulf States, including Florida and Louisiana: Miscellaneous: "My father, how long?", "I'm in trouble", "O Daniel", "O brothers, don't get weary", "I want to join the band", "Jacob's ladder
Jacob's Ladder ( he, סֻלָּם יַעֲקֹב ) is a ladder leading to heaven that was featured in a dream the biblical Patriarch Jacob had during his flight from his brother Esau in the Book of Genesis (chapter 28).
The significance of th ...
", "Pray on", "Good news, member", "I want to die like-a Lazarus die", "Away down in Sunbury", "This is the trouble of the world", "Lean on the Lord's side", "There are all my father's children", "The old ship of Zion", "Come along, Moses", "The social band", "God got plenty o' room", "You must be pure and holy", "Belle Layotte", "Remon", "Caroline", "Calinda", "Lolotte", and "Musieu Bainjo." The 1867 compilation built on the entire collection of Charles P. Ware, who had mainly collected songs at Coffin's Point, St. Helena Island, South Carolina
)'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
, home to the African-American Gullah
The Gullah () are an African American ethnic group who predominantly live in the Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, within the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. Their language and cultu ...
people originally from West Africa. Most of the 1867 book consisted of songs gathered directly from African Americans. By the 1830s at least, "plantation songs", "genuine slave songs", and "Negro melodies", had become extraordinarily popular. Eventually, "spurious imitations" for more "sentimental tastes" were created. The authors noted that "Long time ago", "Near the lake where drooped the willow", and "Way down in Raccoon Hollow" were borrowed from African-American songs. There had been a renewed interest in these songs through the Port Royal Experiment
The Port Royal Experiment was a program begun during the American Civil War in which former slaves successfully worked on the land abandoned by planters. In 1861 the Union captured the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina and their main h ...
(1861 - ), where newly-freed African American plantation workers successfully took over operation of Port Royal Island
Port Royal Island (historically Port Royal) is an island located in Beaufort County, South Carolina. It is considered one of the Sea Islands in the Lowcountry region and is the most populous island in northern Beaufort County, containing most of ...
plantations in 1861, where they had formerly been enslaved. Northern abolitionist missionaries, educators and doctors came to oversee Port Royal's development. The authors noted that, by 1867, the "first seven spirituals in this collection" were "regularly sung at church".
In 1869, Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Thomas Wentworth Higginson (December 22, 1823May 9, 1911) was an American Unitarian minister, author, abolitionist, politician, and soldier. He was active in the American Abolitionism movement during the 1840s and 1850s, identifying himself with ...
, who commanded the first African-American regiment of the Civil War, the 1st South Carolina Volunteers—"recruited, trained, and stationed at Beaufort, South Carolina
Beaufort ( , a different pronunciation from that used by the city with the same name in North Carolina) is a city in and the county seat of Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1711, it is the second-oldest city in South ...
" from 1862 to 1863. Higginson admired the former slaves in his regiment saying, "It was their demeanor under arms that shamed the nation into recognizing them as men." He mingled with the soldiers and in published his 1869 memoir ''Army Life in a Black Regiment'' in which he included the lyrics of selected spirituals. During the Civil War, Higginson wrote down some of the spirituals he heard in camp. "Almost all their songs were thoroughly religious in their tone, ...and were in a minor key, both as to words and music."
Starting in 1871, the Fisk Jubilee Singers began touring, creating more interest in the "spirituals as concert repertory". By 1872, the Jubilee Singers were publishing their own books of songs, which included "The Gospel Train
"The Gospel Train (Get on Board)" is a traditional African-American spiritual first published in 1872 as one of the songs of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. A standard Gospel song, it is found in the hymnals of many Protestant denominations and has b ...
".
Reverend Alexander Reid had attended a Fisk Jubilee Singers' performance in 1871, and suggested they add several songs to their repertoire. Reid, who had been a superintendent at the Spencerville Academy in Oklahoma in Choctaw Nation territory in the 1850s, had heard two workers enslaved by the Choctaw people, —an African-American couple—Wallace Willis
Wallace Willis was a Choctaw freedman living in the Indian Territory, in what is now Choctaw County, near the city of Hugo, Oklahoma, US. His dates are unclear: perhaps 1820 to 1880. He is credited with composing (probably before 1860) several ...
and his wife Minerva—singing "their favorite plantation songs" from their cabin door in the evenings. They had learned the songs in "Mississippi in their early youth." Reid provided the Jubilee Singers with the lyrics of " Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", Roll, Jordan, Roll
"Roll, Jordan, Roll" (Roud 6697), also "Roll, Jordan", is a spiritual created by enslaved African Americans, developed from a song written by Isaac Watts in the 18th century which became well known among slaves in the United States during the 1 ...
, "The Angels are Coming", "I'm a Rolling", and " Steal Away To Jesus", and others that Willis and his wife had sung. The Jubilee Singers popularized Willis' songs.
Popularization
Fisk Jubilee Singers popularized spirituals
The original Fisk Jubilee Singers, a touring '' a cappella'' male and female choir of nine students of the newly established Fisk school in Nashville, Tennessee who were active from 1871 to 1878, popularized Negro spirituals. The name "jubilee" referred to the "year of jubilee" in the Old Testament—a time of the emancipation of slaves. On January 9, 1866, shortly after the end of the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
(1861 to May 9, 1865), the American Missionary Association founded the Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, the historically black college
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. M ...
. As a school-fundraiser, the Fisk Jubilee Singers had their first tour on what is now called Jubilee Day—October 6, 1871. The first audiences were small, local, and skeptical, but by 1872, they performed at Boston's World Peace Festival and at the White House, and in 1873 they toured Europe.
In their early days, the Jubilee Singers did not sing the slave songs. Sheppard—who also composed and arranged music—explained how slave songs, like those published in the 1867 ''Slave Songs'', had not initially been part of the Singers' repertoire because the songs, "were sacred to our parents, who used them in their religious worship and shouted over them." Shephard said that, "It was only after many months that gradually our hearts were opened to the influence of these friends and we began to appreciate the wonderful beauty and power of our songs." Eventually their repertoire began to include these songs.
By 1878 the Singers had disbanded. In 1890 the Singers legacy was revived when Ella Sheppard
Ella Sheppard (February 4, 1851 – June 9, 1914) was an American soprano, pianist, composer, and arranger of Negro Spirituals. She was the matriarch of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers of Nashville, Tennessee. She also played the organ and the ...
, Moore—one of the original nine Fisk Jubilee Singers—returned to Fisk and began to coach new jubilee vocalists, including John Wesley Work Jr.
John Wesley Work Jr. (August 6, 1871 – September 7, 1925) was the first African-American collector of folk songs and spirituals, and also a choral director, educationalist and songwriter. He is now sometimes known as John Wesley Work II, to d ...
(1871–1925). In 1899, Fisk University president E. M. Cravath put out a call for a mixed (male and female) jubilee singers ensemble that would tour on behalf of the university. The full mixed choir became too expensive to tour, and was replaced by John Work II's male quartet. The quartet received "widespread acclaim" and eventually made a series of best-selling recordings for Victor in December 1909, February 1911, for Edison in December 1911, for Columbia is October 1915 and February 1916, and Starr in 1916. John Work Jr.—also known as John Work II—spent three decades at Fisk University, collecting and promulgating the "jubilee songcraft" of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers and in 1901 he co-published co-published ''New Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers'' with his brother, Frederick J. Work.
From 1890 through 1919, "African Americans made significant contributions to the recording industry in its formative years", with recordings by the Fisk Jubilee Singers and others.
Hampton Singers
In 1873, the Hampton Singers formed a group in Hampton, Virginia at what is now known as Hampton University. They were the first ensemble to "rival the Jubilee Singers". With Robert Nathaniel Dett
Robert Nathaniel Dett (October 11, 1882 – October 2, 1943), often known as R. Nathaniel Dett and Nathaniel Dett, was a Black Canadian-American composer, organist, pianist, choral director, and music professor. Born and raised in Canada until ...
(1882–1943) as conductor until 1933, Hampton Singers "earned an international following."
Tuskegee Institute Quartet
The first formal ''a capella'' Tuskegee Quartet was organized in 1884 by Booker T. Washington
Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...
, who was also the founder of the Tuskegee Institute. Since 1881, Washington had insisted that everyone attending their weekly religious services should join in singing African American spirituals. The Quartet was formed to "promote the interest of Tuskegee Institute". In 1909 a new quartet was formed. The singers travelled intermittently until the 1940s. Like the Fisk Jubilee Singers, the Tuskegee Institute Singers sang spirituals in a modified harmonized style.
The concert spiritual tradition
African American composers—Harry Burleigh
Henry Thacker ("Harry") Burleigh (December 2, 1866 – September 12, 1949) was an American classical composer, arranger, and professional singer known for his baritone voice. The first black composer who was instrumental in developing cha ...
, R. Nathaniel Dett, and William Dawson, created a "new repertoire for the concert stage" by applying their Western classical education to the spirituals. They brought spirituals to concert settings and mentored the next generation of professional spirituals musicians starting in the early 20th century.
Harry Burleigh
Henry Thacker ("Harry") Burleigh (December 2, 1866 – September 12, 1949) was an American classical composer, arranger, and professional singer known for his baritone voice. The first black composer who was instrumental in developing cha ...
's (1866–1949)—an African-American classical composer and baritone performed in many concert settings published ''Jubilee Songs of the United States'' in 1929, which made "spirituals available to solo concert singers as art songs for the first time". Burleigh arranged spirituals with a classical form. He was also a baritone, who performed in many concert settings. He introduced classically trained artists, such as Antonín Dvořák to African-American spirituals. Some believe that Dvorak was inspired by the spirituals in his ''Symphony From the New World''.[Pershey, Monica Gordon]
"African American spiritual music: A historical perspective"
''The Dragon Lode'', Vol. 18, No. 2, Spring 2000. He coached African-American soloists, such as Marian Anderson
Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897April 8, 1993) was an American contralto. She performed a wide range of music, from opera to spirituals. Anderson performed with renowned orchestras in major concert and recital venues throughout the United ...
, as solo classical singers. Others, such as Roland Hayes
Roland Wiltse Hayes (June 3, 1887 – January 1, 1977) was an American lyric tenor and composer. Critics lauded his abilities and linguistic skills demonstrated with songs in French, German, and Italian. Hayes's predecessors as well-known Afr ...
and Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, stage and film actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplish ...
continued his legacy.
Burleigh published ''Jubilee Songs of the United States'' in 1929, which made "spirituals available to solo concert singers as art songs for the first time".
R. Nathaniel Dett (1882–1943) is known for his arrangements that incorporated the music and spirit of European Romantic composers with African-American spirituals. In 1918, he said, "We have this wonderful store of folk music—the melodies of an enslaved people" but it will be of no value if it is not used. We must treat spirituals "in such manner that it can be presented in choral form, in lyric and operatic works, in concertos and suites and salon music". R. Nathaniel Dett was a mentor to Edward Boatner
Edward Hammond Boatner (1898–1981) was an American composer who wrote many popular concert arrangements of Black American spirituals.
Biography
Boatner was educated at Western University in Quindaro, Kansas, Boston Conservatory and recei ...
(1898–1981), an African American composer who wrote many popular concert arrangements of the spirituals. Boatner and Willa A. Townsend published ''Spirituals triumphant old and new'' in 1927. Boatner "maintained the importance of authenticity regarding the collection and transcription of spirituals, but also clearly identified with the new, stylized and polished ways in which they were arranged and performed".
William L. Dawson (18761938), a composer, choir director, music professor, and musicologist
Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some m ...
, is known, among other accomplishments, for the world premiere by the Philadelphia Orchestra of his 1934 ''Negro Folk Symphony
The ''Negro Folk Symphony'' is a symphony composed by William L. Dawson and completed in 1934.
The work consists of three movements:
Its world premiere on November 20, 1934, at Carnegie Hall in New York City was conducted by Leopold Stokowski a ...
'' which was revised with added African rhythms in 1952 following Dawson's trip to West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...
. One of his most popular spirituals is "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel
"Ezekiel Saw the Wheel" is an African American spiritual arranged by William L. Dawson.
It has been recorded by such artists as Woody Guthrie, Paul Robeson, John Lee Hooker, the Dixie Hummingbirds, the Tillers, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, The ...
".
Spirituals in contemporary life
The Fisk Jubilee Singers continue to maintain their popularity in the 21st century with live performances in locations such as Grand Ole Opry House
The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a weekly American country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM. Currently owned and operated by Opry Entertainment (a divi ...
in 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2019 Tazewell Thompson presented an cappella musical entitled, ''Jubilee'', that is a tribute to the Fisk Jubilee Singers.
Spirituals remain a mainstay particularly in small black churches, often Baptist or Pentecostal, in the deep South.[
The latter half of the 20th century saw a resurgence of the spiritual. This trend was impacted strongly by composers and musical directors such as ]Moses Hogan
Moses George Hogan (March 13, 1957 – February 11, 2003) was an American composer and arranger of choral music. He was best known for his settings of spirituals. Hogan was a pianist, conductor, and arranger of international renown. His works ...
and Brazeal Dennard
Brazeal Dennard (January 1, 1929 – July 5, 2010) was an American singer, educator, Choral director, and musical arranger. He has been a significant contributor in the preservation and revitalization of the spiritual musical form. His ef ...
.
Arthur Jones founded "The Spirituals Project" at the University of Denver in 1999 to help keep alive the message and meaning of the songs that had moved from the fields of the South to the concert halls of the North.
Everett McCorvey founded The American Spiritual Ensemble in 1995, a group of about two dozen professional singers who tour performing spirituals in the United States and abroad. The group has produced several CDs, including "The Spirituals",[www.singers.com](_blank)
/ref> and is the focus of a public broadcasting documentary.
Stylistic origins and qualities
Qualities of the spirituals include mastery of the blending of voices, timing, and intonation.
Spirituals were originally unaccompanied monophonic songs. The tempo in some songs may be slowed down at times—''ritardando''—as in the case of "sorrow songs" and/or to showcase the "beauty and blending of the voices".
Along with the "solo call and unison response", songs may include "overlapping layers, and spine-tingling falsetto humming."
Stylistic origins include African music, Christian hymns
''Christian Hymns'' is a non-denominational Christian hymnbook.
It was first published in 1977 by the Evangelical Movement of Wales, with a second edition being published in 2004. Large print and music editions of both editions are also published. ...
, work songs
A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a form of work, either sung while conducting a task (usually to coordinate timing) or a song linked to a task which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song.
Definitions and ...
, field holler
The field holler or field call is mostly a historical type of vocal work song sung by field slaves in the United States (and later by African American forced laborers accused of violating vagrancy laws) to accompany their tasked work, to commun ...
,[ and ]Islamic music
Islamic music may refer to religious music, as performed in Islamic public services or private devotions, or more generally to musical traditions of the Muslim world. The heartland of Islam is the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, W ...
. According to a McGraw Hill publication for grade school, "Spirituals were sung as lullabies
A lullaby (), or cradle song, is a soothing song or piece of music that is usually played for (or sung to) children (for adults see music and sleep). The purposes of lullabies vary. In some societies they are used to pass down cultural knowledg ...
and play songs. Some spirituals were adapted as work songs.
Black spirituals "use of microtonally flatted notes, syncopation and counter-rhythms marked by handclapping in black spiritual performances." It "stands out for the singers' striking vocal timbre that features shouting, exclamations of the word "Glory!" and raspy and shrill falsetto tones".
Numerous rhythmical and sonic elements of spirituals can be traced to African sources, including prominent use of the pentatonic scale
A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale, which has seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale).
Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many an ...
(the black keys on the piano).
In his 1954 book '' Studies in African Music'', Arthur Morris Jones
Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980), was a missionary and musicologist who worked in Zambia during the early 20th century. He was stationed at St Mark's School in Mapanza, a community in the Southern Province of present-day Zambia (called Rhodesia ...
(1889–1980), a missionary and ethnomusicologist, said that in African music, the "complex interweaving of contrasting rhythmic patterns" was central to African music, just as harmonies were valued in European music. Jones described the drum is the highest expression of rhythms, but they can also be produced through hand-clapping, stick-beating, rattles, and the "pounding of pestles in a mortar".[A.M. Jones' (1889–1980) experience was in Zambia during the early 1900s. He was a missionary and musicologist.]
Over time "formal concert tradition has evolved," which included the work of the Hampton Singers under composer R. Nathaniel Dett.
In the 20th century, composers, such as Moses Hogan
Moses George Hogan (March 13, 1957 – February 11, 2003) was an American composer and arranger of choral music. He was best known for his settings of spirituals. Hogan was a pianist, conductor, and arranger of international renown. His works ...
, Roland Carter, Jester Hairston
Jester Joseph Hairston (July 9, 1901 – January 18, 2000) was an American composer, songwriter, arranger, choral conductor and actor. He was regarded as a leading expert on black spirituals and choral music. His notable compositions include " ...
, Brazeal Dennard
Brazeal Dennard (January 1, 1929 – July 5, 2010) was an American singer, educator, Choral director, and musical arranger. He has been a significant contributor in the preservation and revitalization of the spiritual musical form. His ef ...
and Wendell Whalum transformed the "cappella arrangements of spirituals for choruses" beyond its "traditional folk song roots".
Call and response
University of Denver
The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...
professor, Arthur Jones, who established "The Spirituals Project
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
in 1998, out of the university's Lamont School of Music, described how coded words could be introduced in the call and response overlap, which only insiders aware of the encrypted message could understand. He described "already existing spirituals" were employed "clandestinely" as one of the many ways people used in their "multilayered struggle for freedom."
Sorrow songs
Slave songs were called "Sorrow Songs" by W.E.B. Du Bois
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up i ...
in his book, 1903 book,''The Souls of Black Folk
''The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches'' is a 1903 work of American literature by W. E. B. Du Bois. It is a seminal work in the history of sociology and a cornerstone of African-American literature.
The book contains several essays on r ...
'' . Sorrow songs are spirituals, such as, "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
"Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child", also "Motherless Child", is a traditional Spiritual. It dates back to the era of slavery in the United States.
An early performance of the song was in the 1870s by the Fisk Jubilee Singers. "Blue Ge ...
," and "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen
"Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" is an African-American spiritual song that originated during the period of slavery but was not published until 1867. The song is well known and many cover versions of it have been done by artists such as Mar ...
"—songs that are intense and melancholic—are sung at a slower pace.
Jubilee songs
The Fisk Jubilee Singers had been so successful that other groups were created to perform similar music. Over time the term "jubilee" was used to refer to other ensembles who sang the original group's repertoire. In the early 1900s jubilee singers also referred to singers who performed gospel music, and hymns as well as spirituals. Examples of these early nineteenth century groups include the Norfolk Jubilee Quartet, the Utica Jubilee Singers, and the Tuskegee Institute Singers.
Jubilee songs, also known as "camp meeting songs," such as and " Fare Ye Well" and " Rocky my soul in the bosom of Abraham" are fast-paced, "rhythmic and often syncopated". Spiritual songs which looked forward to a time of future happiness, or deliverance from tribulation, were often known as 'jubilees.
In some churches, such as the Pentecostal
Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement church in the 1910s and 1920s in , there was no organ or choir and music was louder, more exuberant and included up tempo spirituals called "jubilees". They "used the drum, the cymbal, the tambourine, and the steel triangle. Everybody in there sang, and they clapped and stomped their feet, and sang with their whole bodies. They had a beat, a rhythm we held on to from slavery days, and their music was so strong and expressive."
Freedom songs
Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist and a former slave said that slave songs awakened him to the dehumanizing character of slavery, "The mere recurrence, even now, afflicts my spirit, and while I am writing these lines, my tears are falling. To those songs I trace my first glimmering conceptions of the dehumanizing character of slavery. I can never get rid of that conception. Those songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery, and quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds.
In a 2017 ''PBS Newshour'', segment entitled "Singing in Slavery: Songs of Survival, Songs of Freedom" said that, while it is "has not been proven, it is believed"—that "Wade in the Water
"Wade in the Water" (Roud 5439) is an African American jubilee song, a spiritual—in reference to a genre of music "created and first sung by African Americans in slavery." The lyrics to "Wade in the Water" were first co-published in 1901 in ...
" was one of the songs associated with the Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...
—a network of secret routes and safe houses used by slaves in the United States to find freedom. warn slaves to get off the trail and into the water to prevent bloodhounds
The bloodhound is a large scent hound, originally bred for hunting deer, wild boar and, since the Middle Ages, for tracking people. Believed to be descended from hounds once kept at the Abbey of Saint-Hubert, Belgium, in French it is called, ''l ...
—used by the slavers—from following their trail.
Jones described how during the years of the Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...
"already existing spirituals" were employed "clandestinely" as one of the many ways people used in their "multilayered struggle for freedom." He described how coded words could be introduced in the call and response overlap, which only insiders aware of the encrypted message.
A collaborative production by Maryland Public Television
Maryland Public Television (MPT) is the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member state network for the U.S. state of Maryland. It operates under the auspices of the Maryland Public Broadcasting Commission, an agency of the Maryland state gover ...
, Maryland Historical Society
The Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC), formerly the Maryland Historical Society (MdHS), . founded on March 1, 1844, is the oldest cultural institution in the U.S. state of Maryland. The organization "collects, preserves, and inte ...
, and Maryland State Archives entitled "Pathways to Freedom: Maryland and the Underground Railroad" had included a section on how songs that many slaves knew had "secret meanings" that they could be "used to signal many things". Certain songs were believed to have contained explicit instructions to fugitive slaves on how to avoid capture and the route to take to successfully make their way to freedom. Other spirituals that some believe have coded messages include "The Gospel Train
"The Gospel Train (Get on Board)" is a traditional African-American spiritual first published in 1872 as one of the songs of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. A standard Gospel song, it is found in the hymnals of many Protestant denominations and has b ...
", "Song of the Free
"Song of the Free" is a song of the Underground Railroad written circa 1860 about a man fleeing slavery in Tennessee by escaping to Canada via the Underground Railroad. It has eight verses and is composed to the tune of "Oh! Susanna".
Lyrics
T ...
", and " Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", " Follow the Drinking Gourd". James Kelley in his 2008 article said that there is a lack of corroborating sources to prove that there is a coded message in "Follow the Drinking Gourd".[ Kelley said that the 1928 popular account by H.B. Parks was implausible.]
One 1953 article by Sterling Brown said that there are scholars who "believe that when the Negro sang of freedom, he meant only what the whites meant, namely freedom from sin." Brown said that, to an enslaved person freedom would also mean freedom from slavery. When the enslaved person sings, "I been rebuked, I been scorned; done had a hard time sho's you bawn," he is not only referring to freedom from sin but from physical bondage. Brown cited Douglass, saying that Canaan stood for Canada; and "over and beyond hidden satire the songs also were grapevines for communications. Harriet Tubman, herself called the Moses of her people, has told us that "Go Down Moses
"Go Down Moses" is a spiritual phrase that describes events in the Old Testament of the Bible, specifically Exodus 5:1: "And the LORD spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may se ...
" was tabu
Tabu may refer to:
Cultural and legal concepts
*Taboo (spelled ''tabu'' in earlier historical records), something that is unacceptable in society
*Tapu (Polynesian culture) (also spelled ''tabu''), a Polynesian cultural concept from which the wor ...
in the slave states, but the people sang it nonetheless."
A 2016 Library of Congress article said that Freedom songs
Freedom songs were songs which were sung by participants in the civil rights movement. They are also called "civil rights anthems" or, in the case of songs which are more hymn-like, they are called "civil rights hymns."
Freedom songs were an impo ...
and protest songs, such as, Bob Marley
Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements o ...
's "Redemption Song
"Redemption Song" is a song by Jamaican singer Bob Marley. It is the final track on Bob Marley and the Wailers' twelfth album, ''Uprising'', produced by Chris Blackwell and released by Island Records. The song is considered one of Marley's gre ...
" and Billy Bragg's "Sing their souls back home'" were based on African American spirituals, and that became the musical backdrop of the call for democracy around the globe. Many of the freedom songs, such as " Oh, Freedom!" and " Eyes on the Prize," that defined the Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...
(1954–1968) were adapted from some of the early African American spirituals. Some such as, "We Shall Overcome
"We Shall Overcome" is a gospel song which became a protest song and a key anthem of the American civil rights movement. The song is most commonly attributed as being lyrically descended from "I'll Overcome Some Day", a hymn by Charles Albert ...
," combined the gospel hymn "I'll Overcome Someday" with the spiritual " I'll Be all right."
Work songs
In the 1927 anthology, '' The American Songbag'', compiled by Carl Sandburg
Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg ...
(1878–1967), the American poet and folklorist, he wrote that " Ain' go'n' to study war no mo'" was an example of a spiritual that African Americans used as work songs. He said, that, "As the singers go on, hour by hour, they bring in lines from many other spirituals. The tempo is vital. Never actually monotonous. Never ecstatic, yet steady in its onflow, sure of its pulses. It is a work song-spiritual. War is pronounced "wah" or "waw" as if to rhyme with "saw." Horse is "hawss." And so on with Negro economy of vocables in speech and song."
Field hollers
Field holler
The field holler or field call is mostly a historical type of vocal work song sung by field slaves in the United States (and later by African American forced laborers accused of violating vagrancy laws) to accompany their tasked work, to commun ...
music, also known as levee camp holler music, was an early form of African American music
African-American music is an umbrella term covering a diverse range of music and musical genres largely developed by African Americans and their culture. Their origins are in musical forms that first came to be due to the condition of slavery ...
, described in the 19th century. Field hollers laid the foundations for the blues, spirituals, and eventually rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...
. Field hollers, cries and hollers of the enslaved people
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
and later sharecroppers working in cotton fields, prison chain gangs
A chain gang or road gang is a group of prisoners chained together to perform menial or physically challenging work as a form of punishment. Such punishment might include repairing buildings, building roads, or clearing land. The system was no ...
, railway gangs (gandy dancer
Gandy dancer is a slang term used for early Rail transport, railroad workers in the United States, more formally referred to as "section hands", who laid and maintained Track (rail transport), railroad tracks in the years before the work was don ...
s) or turpentine camps were the precursor to the call and response
Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...
of African American spirituals and gospel music, to jug bands
A jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of conventional and homemade instruments. These homemade instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making sound, like the washtub bass, washboard, spoons, bones, stovepipe, ...
, minstrel shows
The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of racist theatrical entertainment developed in the early 19th century.
Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people spec ...
, stride piano
Stride jazz piano, often shortened to stride, is a jazz piano style that arose from ragtime players. Prominent stride pianists include James P. Johnson, Willie "the Lion" Smith, Fats Waller, Luckey Roberts, Mrs Mills and Mary Lou Williams.
...
, and ultimately to the blues, rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...
, jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
and African American music
African-American music is an umbrella term covering a diverse range of music and musical genres largely developed by African Americans and their culture. Their origins are in musical forms that first came to be due to the condition of slavery ...
in general.[
]
Derivatives
Blues and gospel music are derivatives of African American spirituals.
The blues
In the early 1960s, ''Blues People
''Blues People: Negro Music in White America'' is a seminal study of Afro-American music (and culture generally) by Amiri Baraka, who published it as LeRoi Jones in 1963. In ''Blues People'' Baraka explores the possibility that the history of bla ...
'' by Amiri Baraka—the chosen name for LeRoi Jones (1934–2014)—provided a history of African Americans through their music, beginning with the spirituals to the blues. By 1967, Jones had become the main spokesperson for African American intellectuals, displacing James Baldwin, according to a 1965 review of ''Blues People''.
The blues form originated in the 1860s in the Deep South—South Carolina
)'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
, Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
, Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County
, LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham
, area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...
, Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
, Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
, Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
, and Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
—states that were most dependent on the slave labor
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
on planations and that held the largest number of enslaved people. The form was collectively developed by generations and communities of enslaved African Americans starting as "unaccompanied work-songs of the plantation culture". The historical roots of the blues have been traced farther back to West African sources by scholars such as Paul Oliver
Paul Hereford Oliver MBE (25 May 1927 – 15 August 2017) was an English architectural historian and writer on the blues and other forms of African-American music. He was equally distinguished in both fields, although it is likely that aficion ...
and Gerhard Kubik
Gerhard Kubik (born 10 December 1934) is an Austrian music ethnologist from Vienna. He studied ethnology, musicology and African languages at the University of Vienna. He published his doctoral dissertation in 1971 and achieved habilitation in ...
—with elements such as the "responsorial 'leader-and-chorus' form". The blues became the "most extensively recorded of all traditional music types" and since the "early 1960s, —the "most important single influence on the development of Western popular music," and are now widespread.[According to Paul Oliver in '']The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...
'',
From obscure and largely undocumented rural American origins
..Influential in its development were the collective unaccompanied work-songs of the plantation culture, which followed a responsorial 'leader-and-chorus' form that can be traced not only to pre-Civil War origins but to African sources. Responsorial work-songs diminished when the plantations were broken up, but persisted in the southern penitentiary farms until the 1950s. After the Reconstruction era, black workers either engaged in seasonal collective labour in the South or tended smallholdings leased to them under the system of debt-serfdom known as sharecropping. Work-songs therefore increasingly took the form of solo calls or 'hollers', comparatively free in form but close to blues in feeling. The vocal style of the blues probably derived from the holler... Blues instrumental style shows tenuous links with African music. Drumming was forbidden on slave plantations, but the playing of string instruments was often permitted and even encouraged, so the musicians among slaves from the savanna regions, with their strong traditions of string playing, predominated. The ''jelli'', or ''griot
A griot (; ; Manding: jali or jeli (in N'Ko: , ''djeli'' or ''djéli'' in French spelling); Serer: kevel or kewel / okawul; Wolof: gewel) is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, and/or musician.
The griot is a repos ...
s'' – professional musicians who also acted as their tribe’s historians and social commentators – performed roles not unlike those of the later blues singers, while the banjo is thought to be a direct descendant of their '' banza'' or ''xalam
Xalam (in Serer, or khalam in Wolof) is a traditional stringed musical instrument from West Africa with 1-5 strings.
The xalam is commonly played in Mali, Gambia, Senegal, Niger, Northern Nigeria, Northern Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and ...
''. One musical influence that can be traced back to African sources is that of the plantation work songs
A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a form of work, either sung while conducting a task (usually to coordinate timing) or a song linked to a task which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song.
Definitions and ...
with their call-and-response
Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...
format, and more especially the relatively free-form field hollers
The field holler or field call is mostly a historical type of vocal work song sung by field slaves in the United States (and later by African American forced laborers accused of violating vagrancy laws) to accompany their tasked work, to communi ...
of the later sharecroppers, which seem to have been directly responsible for the characteristic vocal style of the blues."
When Mamie Smith
Mamie Smith (née Robinson; May 26, 1891 – September 16, 1946) was an American vaudeville singer, dancer, pianist, and actress. As a vaudeville singer she performed in multiple styles, including jazz and blues. In 1920, she entered blues histor ...
's August 10, 1920, Okeh
Okeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name was spelled "OkeH" from the initials of Ott ...
recording of the composer Perry Bradford
Perry Bradford (February 14, 1893, Montgomery, Alabama – April 20, 1970, New York City) was an American composer, songwriter, and vaudeville performer. His most notable songs included "Crazy Blues," "That Thing Called Love," and "You Can't Kee ...
's (1893–1970) New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
''Crazy Blues
"Crazy Blues" is a song, renamed from the originally titled "Harlem Blues" song of 1918, written by Perry Bradford. Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds recorded it on August 10, 1920, which was released that year by Okeh Records (4169-A). The str ...
'' became a commercial success, it opened the commercial record market for music for an African American audience. Prior to the success of this recording, commercial recording companies featured non-African American musicians playing African-American music. Bradford's African-American band, the Jazz Hounds, "played live, improvised", "unpredicatable", "breakneck" music that was a "refreshing contrast to the buttoned-up versions of the blues interpreted by white artists across the 1910s".
A 1976 book, ''Stomping the Blues'' by Albert Murray, said that this interaction between Christianity and African-American spirituals occurred only in the United States. Africans who converted to Christianity in other parts of the world, even in the Caribbean and Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
, did not evolve this particular form.
Gospel songs
Sacred music includes both spirituals and gospel music, which "originated in the black church and has become a globally recognized genre of popular music. In its earliest manifestations, gospel music functioned as an integral religious and ceremonial practice during worship services. Now, gospel music is also marketed commercially and draws on contemporary, secular sounds while still conveying spiritual and religious ideas."
Well-known gospel singer Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson ( ; born Mahala Jackson; October 26, 1911 – January 27, 1972) was an American gospel singer, widely considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century. With a career spanning 40 years, Jackson was integral to ...
(1911–1972) was one of Gospel music's most prominent defenders. She said that, "Blues are the songs of despair. Gospel songs are the songs of hope. When you sing gospel you have a feeling there's a cure for what's wrong. When you're through with the blues you've got nothing to rest on." Horace Clarence Boyer traced the emergence of Gospel music as a "discrete musical style" to the Deep South in 1906 in Pentecostal churches. Through the Great Migration of African American from the south to the north, especially in the 1930s, gospel songs entered the "mainstream of American popular culture". Gospel music had its heyday from 1945 to 1955—the "Golden Age of Gospel."
Gospel Quartets, like the Golden Jubilee Quartet
Golden means made of, or relating to gold.
Golden may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
*Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall
*Golden Cap, Dorset
*Golden Square, Soho, London
*Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome, Stroud#Golden Val ...
and the Golden Gate Quartet
The Golden Gate Quartet (a.k.a. The Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet) is an American vocal group. It was formed in 1934 and, with changes in membership, remains active.
Origins and early career
The group was founded as the Golden Gate Jubilee Singe ...
, changed the style of spirituals with their innovative, jubilee style which included new harmonies, syncopation with sophisticated arrangements. An example of their music was their performance of "Oh, Jonah!" The Golden Gate Quartet—who were active from 1934 to the late 1940s—performed in the concert ''From Spirituals to Swing
''From Spirituals to Swing'' was the title of two concerts presented by John Hammond in Carnegie Hall on 23 December 1938 and 24 December 1939. The concerts included performances by Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson, ...
'' at Carnegie Hall in the late 1930s. Zora Neale Hurston, in her 1938 book ''The Sanctified Church'' , criticized what she called "Glee Club style" of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Tuskegee Institute Quartet, and Hampton Singers in the 1930s. She said they were using a style" that was "full of musicians' tricks" that were not authentic to their roots in the original African American spirituals. The authentic spirituals could only be found in the "unfashionable Negro church".
White spirituals
In his 1938 book, ''White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands'', Vanderbilt University's George Pullen Jackson
George Pullen Jackson (1874–1953) was an American educator and musicologist. He was a pioneer in the field of Southern (U.S.) hymnody. He was responsible for popularizing the term "white spirituals" to describe the "fasola" singing.
Early l ...
in Nashville drew attention to the existence of a white spiritual genre which differed in many aspects from African American spirituals. The core of Jackson's argument, however, supported by many musical examples, is that African-American spirituals draw heavily on textual and melodic elements found in white hymns and spiritual songs. Jackson extended the term "spirituals" to a wider range of folk hymnody but this does not appear to have been widespread usage previously. The term, however, has often been broadened to include subsequent arrangements into more standard European-American hymnodic styles, and to include post-emancipation songs with stylistic similarities to the original African American spirituals.
Islamic influence
The historian Sylviane Diouf
Sylviane Anna Diouf is a historian and curator of the African diaspora. She is a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, Brown University and a member of the Scientific Committee of the International Coalition of Si ...
and ethnomusicologist Gerhard Kubik
Gerhard Kubik (born 10 December 1934) is an Austrian music ethnologist from Vienna. He studied ethnology, musicology and African languages at the University of Vienna. He published his doctoral dissertation in 1971 and achieved habilitation in ...
identify Islamic music
Islamic music may refer to religious music, as performed in Islamic public services or private devotions, or more generally to musical traditions of the Muslim world. The heartland of Islam is the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, W ...
as an influence. Diouf notes a striking resemblance between the Islamic call to prayer (originating from Bilal ibn Rabah, a famous Abyssinian African Muslim in the early 7th century) and 19th-century field holler
The field holler or field call is mostly a historical type of vocal work song sung by field slaves in the United States (and later by African American forced laborers accused of violating vagrancy laws) to accompany their tasked work, to commun ...
music, noting that both have similar lyrics praising God, melody, note changes, "words that seem to quiver and shake" in the vocal chords, dramatic changes in musical scale
In music theory, a scale is any set of musical notes ordered by fundamental frequency or pitch. A scale ordered by increasing pitch is an ascending scale, and a scale ordered by decreasing pitch is a descending scale.
Often, especially in the ...
s, and nasal intonation. She attributes the origins of field holler music to African Muslim slaves who accounted for an estimated 30% of African slaves in America. According to Kubik, "the vocal style of many blues singers using melisma
Melisma ( grc-gre, μέλισμα, , ; from grc, , melos, song, melody, label=none, plural: ''melismata'') is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in this style is refer ...
, wavy intonation, and so forth is a heritage of that large region of West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...
that had been in contact with the Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
- Islamic world of the Maghreb
The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...
since the seventh and eighth centuries." There was particularly a significant trans-Saharan cross-fertilization between the musical traditions of the Maghreb and the Sahel.
There was a difference in the music performed by the predominantly Muslim Sahelian
The Sahel (; ar, ساحل ' , "coast, shore") is a region in North Africa. It is defined as the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south. Having a hot semi-arid cli ...
slaves and the predominantly non-Muslim slaves from coastal West Africa and Central Africa
Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo ...
. The Sahelian Muslim slaves generally favored wind and string instruments and solo singing, whereas the non-Muslim slaves generally favored drums and group chants. Plantation owners who feared revolt outlawed drums and group chants, but allowed the Sahelian slaves to continue singing and playing their wind and string instruments, which the plantation owners found less threatening. Among the instruments introduced by Muslim African slaves were ancestors of the banjo. While many were pressured to convert to Christianity, the Sahelian slaves were allowed to maintain their musical traditions, adapting their skills to instruments such as the fiddle and guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
. Some were also allowed to perform at balls for slave-holders, allowing the migration of their music across the Deep South.
See also
* African-American music
African-American music is an umbrella term covering a diverse range of music and musical genres largely developed by African Americans and their culture. Their origins are in musical forms that first came to be due to the condition of slaver ...
* Deep River Boys
The Deep River Boys were an American gospel music group active from the mid-1930s and into the 1980s. The group performed spirituals, gospel, and R&B.
Members
The original group consisted of Harry Douglass ( baritone), Vernon Gardner (first t ...
* Gospel music
* History of slavery in the United States
The legal institution of human Slavery#Chattel slavery, chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of List of ethnic groups of Africa, Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States, United States of America ...
* Original Nashville Students
The Original Nashville Students, also referred to as the Original Tennessee Jubilee and Plantation Singers, the Nashville Students, and H. B. Thearle's Nashville Students, were an ensemble of eight or nine African-American Jubilee Singers, jubilee ...
* Religious music
Religious music (also sacred music) is a type of music that is performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence. It may overlap with ritual music, which is music, sacred or not, performed or composed for or as ritual. Relig ...
* Songs of the Underground Railroad
Songs of the Underground Railroad were spiritual and work songs used during the early-to-mid 19th century in the United States to encourage and convey coded information to escaping slaves as they moved along the various Underground Railroad rout ...
Notes
Notable songs
These notable
Notability is the property
of being worthy of notice, having fame, or being considered to be of a high degree of interest, significance, or distinction. It also refers to the capacity to be such. Persons who are notable due to public responsibi ...
spirituals were written or widely adopted by African Americans:
* All God's Chillun Got Wings
* Bosom of Abraham
"Bosom of Abraham" refers to the place of comfort in the biblical Sheol (or Hades in the Greek Septuagint version of the Hebrew scriptures from around 200 BC, and therefore so described in the New Testament) where the righteous dead abided prio ...
* Children, Go Where I Send Thee
"Children, Go Where I Send Thee" (alternatively "Children, Go Where I Send You" or variations thereof, also known as "The Holy Baby", "Little Bitty Baby", or "Born in Bethlehem") is a traditional African-American spiritual song. Among the many d ...
* Deep River
* Dem Bones
"Dem Bones" (also called "Dry Bones" and "Dem Dry Bones") is a spiritual song. The melody was composed by author and songwriter James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) and his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson. It was first recorded by The Famous Myers Jub ...
* Didn't It Rain
"Didn't It Rain", sometimes given as "Oh, Didn't It Rain", is a spiritual about Noah's flood. In 1919 it appeared as sheet music in an arrangement for voice and piano by Henry Thacker Burleigh (1866–1949).
Modern versions
* The Galilee Sing ...
* Do Lord Remember Me
"Do Lord Remember Me" (also known as "Do Lord" or "Oh Do Lord, Oh Do Lord"), Roud 11971, is a 19th-century African-American Spiritual.
Recordings
Notable recordings include:
* Jimmie Strothers
* Mississippi John Hurt
John Smith Hurt (March ...
* Down by the Riverside
"Down by the Riverside" (also known as "Ain't Gonna Study War No More" and "Gonna lay down my burden") is an African-American spiritual. Its roots date back to before the American Civil War, though it was first published in 1918 in ''Plantation ...
* Down in the River to Pray
"Down in the River to Pray" (also known as "Down to the River to Pray," "Down in the Valley to Pray," "The Good Old Way," and "Come, Let Us All Go Down") is a traditional American song variously described as a Christian folk hymn, an African-Amer ...
* Every Time I Feel the Spirit
* Ezekiel Saw the Wheel
"Ezekiel Saw the Wheel" is an African American spiritual arranged by William L. Dawson.
It has been recorded by such artists as Woody Guthrie, Paul Robeson, John Lee Hooker, the Dixie Hummingbirds, the Tillers, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, The ...
* Follow the Drinkin' Gourd
* Go Down Moses
"Go Down Moses" is a spiritual phrase that describes events in the Old Testament of the Bible, specifically Exodus 5:1: "And the LORD spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may se ...
* Go Tell It on the Mountain
* Golden Slippers
* Gospel Plow
* The Gospel Train
"The Gospel Train (Get on Board)" is a traditional African-American spiritual first published in 1872 as one of the songs of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. A standard Gospel song, it is found in the hymnals of many Protestant denominations and has b ...
* He's Got the Whole World in His Hands
"He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" is a traditional African-American spiritual, first published in 1927. It became an international pop hit in 1957–58 in a recording by English singer Laurie London, and has been recorded by many other si ...
* I Shall Not Be Moved
"I Shall Not Be Moved", also known as "We Shall Not Be Moved", is an African-American slave spiritual, hymn, and protest song dating to the early 19th century American south. It was likely originally sung at revivalist camp-meetings as a slav ...
* I'm So Glad
"I'm So Glad" is a Delta blues-style song originally recorded by American musician Skip James in 1931. Blues historian Gerard Herzhaft notes "This spiritual probably dates back to the beginning of the blues".
Blues writer Stephen Calt describes ...
* Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho
"Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" (or alternatively "Joshua Fought de Battle of Jericho", "Joshua Fit the Battle" or just Joshua and various other titles) is a well-known African-American spiritual.
The lyrics allude to the biblical story of th ...
* Kumbaya
"''Kum ba yah''" ("''Come by here''") is an African American spiritual song of disputed origin, but known to be sung in the Gullah culture of the islands off South Carolina and Georgia, with ties to enslaved West Africans. The song is thought ...
* Lord, I Want to Be a Christian
Lord, I Want to Be a Christian is an African American spiritual. It was likely composed in 1750s Virginia by enslaved African-American persons exposed to the teaching of evangelist Samuel Davies. The music and lyrics were first printed in the 1 ...
* Michael Row the Boat Ashore
"Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" (also called "Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore", "Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore", or "Michael, Row That Gospel Boat") is a traditional African-American spiritual first noted during the American Civil War at St. Helen ...
* Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen
"Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" is an African-American spiritual song that originated during the period of slavery but was not published until 1867. The song is well known and many cover versions of it have been done by artists such as Mar ...
* Roll, Jordan, Roll
"Roll, Jordan, Roll" (Roud 6697), also "Roll, Jordan", is a spiritual created by enslaved African Americans, developed from a song written by Isaac Watts in the 18th century which became well known among slaves in the United States during the 1 ...
* Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down
* Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
"Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child", also "Motherless Child", is a traditional Spiritual. It dates back to the era of slavery in the United States.
An early performance of the song was in the 1870s by the Fisk Jubilee Singers. "Blue Ge ...
* Song of the Free
"Song of the Free" is a song of the Underground Railroad written circa 1860 about a man fleeing slavery in Tennessee by escaping to Canada via the Underground Railroad. It has eight verses and is composed to the tune of "Oh! Susanna".
Lyrics
T ...
* Steal Away
"Steal Away" ("Steal Away to Jesus") is an American Negro spiritual. The song is well known by variations of the chorus:
Songs such as "Steal Away to Jesus", "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", "Wade in the Water" and the " Gospel Train" are songs with ...
* Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
* There Is a Balm in Gilead
* This Little Light of Mine
"This Little Light of Mine" is a popular gospel song of unknown origin. It was often reported to be written for children in the 1920s by Harry Dixon Loes, but he never claimed credit for the original version of the song, and the Moody Bible Inst ...
* Wade in the Water
"Wade in the Water" (Roud 5439) is an African American jubilee song, a spiritual—in reference to a genre of music "created and first sung by African Americans in slavery." The lyrics to "Wade in the Water" were first co-published in 1901 in ...
* We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder
''We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder'' (also known as ''Jacob's Ladder'') is an African American slave spiritual based in part on the Biblical story of Jacob's Ladder. It was developed some time before 1825, and became one of the first slave spiri ...
* Were You There
"Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord)" is an African-American Spirituals, spiritual that was first printed in 1899. It was likely composed by enslaved African Americans in the 19th century.
The song was first published in William Elea ...
* We Shall Overcome
"We Shall Overcome" is a gospel song which became a protest song and a key anthem of the American civil rights movement. The song is most commonly attributed as being lyrically descended from "I'll Overcome Some Day", a hymn by Charles Albert ...
* When the Chariot Comes
* When the Saints Go Marching In
"When the Saints Go Marching In", often referred to as simply "The Saints", is a traditional black spiritual. It originated as a Christian hymn and is often played by jazz bands. This song was famously recorded on May 13, 1938, by Louis Armstron ...
Footnotes
Further reading
* Baraka, Amiri (1999). ''Blues People: Negro Music in White America''. Harper Perennial. .
* Bauch, Marc A. (2013). ''Extending the Canon: Thomas Wentworth Higginson and African-American Spirituals''. Munich, Germany.
*
*
* Koskoff, Ellen, Ed. The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music
''The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music'' is an academic reference work. It was initiated by editors at Garland Publishing in 1988 as a 10-volume series of encyclopedias of world music. The final volumes appeared in 2001, but editions have since ...
. Volume 3: The United States and Canada (New York and London: Garland Publishing, 2001) pp. 624–629; also pp. 523–524, pp. 68–69
* Nash, Elizabeth (2007). "Autobiographical Reminiscences of African-American Classical Singers, 1853–Present". Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press.
* Th
Performing Arts Encyclopedia
on the Library of Congress web portal contains many examples of digitized recordings and sheet music of spirituals.
* Th
also houses a special digitized American choral music collection which features arrangements of spirituals by composers like Henry T. Burleigh and R. Nathaniel Dett.
* Work, John W., ''compiler'' (1940), ''American Negro Songs and Spirituals: a Comprehensive Collection of 230 Folk Songs, Religious and Secular, with a Foreword''. New York: Bonanza Books. ''N.B.'': Includes commentary on the repertory and the words with the music (harmonized) of the spirituals and other songs anthologized.
External links
Sweet Chariot: the story of the spirituals
Fisk Jubilee Singers
Historical Notes on African American melodies
including 75 African American spirituals with downloadable arrangements for solo instrument
The Spirituals Database
searchable discography of spirituals for solo voice
Audio samples
* /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Colored_quartet.pharaoh%27s_army_got_drowned_EDIS-SRP-0198-12.oga "Pharaoh's Army Got Drowned" artists unknown (765 KB)
''Gordon Collection''
performed by unknown persons in the Bay Area of California in the early 1920s
* /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/DeepDowninMyHeart.ogg "Deep Down in My Heart" from the Library of Congress'
''Gordon Collection''
performed by W. M. Givens in Darien, Georgia
Darien () is a city in and the county seat of McIntosh County, Georgia, United States. It lies on Georgia's coast at the mouth of the Altamaha River, approximately south of Savannah, and is part of the Brunswick, Georgia Metropolitan Statisti ...
, on about March 19, 1926
{{Authority control
African-American cultural history
Slavery in the United States
Song forms