Subject: ? Sacred Rhythm Dancing: Many Cultures ?
From:
wysiwyg
Date: 03 Jan 04 - 04:30 PM
Sacred shuffling and stomping, with music/chant. How many forms of these do we know about, and what do we know of the music?
~S~
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EXAMPLES
Native Americans
Ceremonial/sacred dancing
Around the campfire, storytelling in movement.... I'm sorry, I do not have any authentic experience with this personally, just too many stereotyping movie scenes in my memory; but I know some of you will be able to speak to this more appropriately.
African slaves in the U.S.
Dancing/singing worship, the "Shout."
... the glorious shout, "I can't stay behind, my Lord," was struck up, and sung by the entire multitude with a zest and spirit, a swaying of the bodies and nodding of the heads and lighting of the countenances and rhythmical movement of the hands, which I think no one present will ever forget.... The most peculiar and interesting of their customs is the "shout," an excellent description of which we are permitted to copy from the N. Y. Nation of May 30, 1867: "This is a ceremony which the white clergymen are inclined to discountenance, and even of the colored elders some of the more discreet try sometimes to put on a face of discouragement; and although, if pressed for Biblical warrant for the shout, they generally seem to think 'he in de Book,' or 'he dere-da in Matchew,' still it is not considered blasphemous or improper if 'de chillen' and 'dem young gal' carry it on in the evening for amusement's sake, and with no well-defined intention of 'praise.' But the true 'shout' takes place on Sundays or on 'praise'-nights through the week, and either in the praise-house or in some cabin in which a regular religious meeting has been held. Very likely more than half the population of the plantation is gathered together. Let it be the evening, and a light-wood fire burns red before the door of the house and on the hearth. For some time one can hear, though at a good distance, the vociferous exhortation or prayer of the presiding elder or of the brother who has a gift that way, and who is not 'on the back seat,'--a phrase, the interpretation of which is, 'under the censure of the church authorities for bad behavior;'--and at regular intervals one hears the elder 'deaconing' a hymn-book hymn, which is sung two lines at a time, and whose wailing cadences, borne on the night air, are indescribably melancholy. But the benches are pushed back to the wall when the formal meeting is over, and old and young, men and women, sprucely-dressed young men, grotesquely half-clad field-hands --the women generally with gay handkerchiefs twisted about their heads and with short skirts--boys with tattered shirts and men's trousers, young girls barefooted, all stand up in the middle of the floor, and when the 'sperichil' is struck up, begin first walking and by-and-by shuffling round, one after the other, in a ring. The foot is hardly taken from the floor, and the progression is mainly due to a jerking, hitching motion, which agitates the entire shouter, and soon brings out streams of perspiration. Sometimes they dance silently, sometimes as they shuffle they sing the chorus of the spiritual, and sometimes the song itself is also sung by the dancers. But more frequently a band, composed of some of the best singers and of tired shouters, stand at the side of the room to 'base' the others, singing the body of the song and clapping their hands together or on the knees. Song and dance are alike extremely energetic, and often, when the shout lasts into the middle of the night, the monotonous thud, thud of the feet prevents sleep within half a mile of the praise-house. http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/allen/allen.html
The Shakers
"Laboring."
The Shakers' dancing during worship, which began as the spontaneous expression of spiritual transport, was regularized by community leaders beginning in the 1790's, and throughout the next hundred years, old and new dances and marches, each with their special songs, were a vital part of religious services. As the Shakers labored in the field or workshop to reap material sustenance, so in worship, they earnestly took part in the "laboring exercises," to prepare themselves to receive spiritual gifts. "I Will Walk WIth My Children" was received as a gift from the spirit of Father Joseph Meacham, the first American-born Shaker leader..... The Holy Order was one of the earliest "laboring manners," a formal dance received by revelation of God by Father Joseph Meacham in 1787 or 1788, which was a part of Shaker worship for a century, and was known throughout the settlements. This Holy Order Tune was transcribed at Mt Lebanon, N.Y. from the singing of Betty Babbet in 1826, who was paying a visit from Harvard, where she had been called to the ministry the year before. "How Beautiful O Zion" and the untitled "March" are also examples of the music to which the Shakers danced in religious observance. Please note "How Beautiful O Zion" is really called "Shaker March #59." http://www.gourd.com/amainframe.html?114L.HTML&2 The classification of "Simple Gifts" as a work song might be because Shaker dances were also called laboring songs. But that doesn't mean that they sang this song while working in the fields or ironing clothes. To the Shakers, laboring was a spiritual exercise to cleanse them of worldly thoughts and desires. http://members.aol.com/musbuff/page40.htm
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sj
