RE: Tempo & Mood Considerations

Wow, it's amazing how different these sound at different speeds. I'm listening through all the non-rowing songs submitted, to estimate possible best tempo and take a quick look for any huge errors requiring I bounce them back to the inputters.

I'm finally starting to understand (as a musician) a lot of the written commentary that has accompanied printed collections of spirituals--- "... songs .... expressing the deepest feelings...." A lot of that comes from the tempo choices.... and so many of these can sound so many different ways, just by changing the tempo! The same song that a weary mother uses to rock a baby to sleep late at night can rouse the field hands before first light, with simple tempo changes!

As I listen, I'm mindful of interpretations by people such as the Lomax sources (LOC) and the Georgia Sea Islanders. In these, some songs are solos and some are leader/group; some are all-group. I think tempo would have a lot to do with mood and setting, but also whether solo or group. A number of them are so sprightly or so obviously calling-out/announcing, it's easy to see that they may have been used to gather people up for a meeting. Others are so mournful they make me picture someome weary and soulsick, very, very alone-- singing just to try to take the edge off the hurt.

Tempo also depends on whether the piece mostly consists of quarter and eighth notes, or eighths and sixteenths. Some pieces have so many turns and trills and other ornaments indicated, there are certain speeds that would be unsafe to try!

I'm working out some ideas about how to post the MIDIs, with Mmario, since he has had so much experience via the Tune Hunt and since he's worked with Joe & Pene and Dick & Susan for quite some time now. What I think our posted MIDIs can aim for is tempo varieties, such that a representative picture of the possibilities emerges... to set tempo interpretively but making clear that people using these should adapt them as they see fit.... to provide a survey of moods but not, in any way, dictate interpretation, or suggest what is "right," or pretend to be "accurate." The genre itself defies these narrow limits, but now, so many years after their creation it can be easy (especially for notation-oriented folks) to see a piece and assume that how they encounter it is THE arrangement. So when we post these it will be important to clarify this point and encourage experimentation.

Here's how I am hearing many of the songs:

q32-44 Slow, mournful strain; prayer; exhortation. Real tearjerker; maybe sung when alone and weary, despairing.

q50 Serious; prayer; maybe a very slow shout; maybe a lullabye.

q56-60 Stately, dignified hymn; slow shout; some rowing tunes.

q68 Hymn in a "real" church setting.

q70-80 All-purpose; moderately fast shout; most rowing tunes.

q90-110 Call to meeting or worship, sung at the meeting entry to gather folks or sung by those coming to the gathering to pick up stragglers and indicate direction.

q130 Rousing hymn; celebratory.

q144 Playtime; keeping the children occupied or at work.

Of course tempo also would vary during the singing of a song. I know this because when I exercise in deep water, I have to start slow and easy and then come up to speed as I warm up and get loose. These work songs have the same effect.

At worship, or when passing this song to others for the first time, same thing; I know this from my own songleading-- start slow to teach the tune, singing all the parts; go faster and let the parts fall into a call/response pattern as people catch it and start to move with it.

Fiddle tune jams, the same-- play to the slowest common denominator to introduce the tune; and gain speed as people get some facility with the A and B parts and the switches between them; aim for the "groove" where most of the players are playing beyond their usual skill level and breaking a happy sweat in full communion with one another. Stay in the groove as long as it's working.

These features don't just pertain to tempo. Phrasing, blue notes, all of the interpretative aspects vary as to use and situation. When you bring one of these songs to life, it can be done so many ways, it's more than one life!

~Susan