Help: USA Jubilee - Fisk Jubilee Singers

Subject: USA Jubilee - Fisk Jubilee Singers
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 27 Feb 00 - 07:04 PM

I am trying to track down the publication date of a music book that I own. It makes mention of another manuscript volume known as 'The Fisk Jubilee Songs. A collection of 66 JUBILEE and PLANTATION SONGS (Sacred and Secular) as sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers on their world's tour'.

Does anyone please have any idea what the Jubilee was? Does it somehow relate to an anniversary of US independence? When was the jubilee?

All help appreciated. Regards, John

Subject: RE: Help: USA Jubilee - Fisk Jubilee Singers
From: Stewie
Date: 27 Feb 00 - 09:56 PM

John

This is speculation on my part - I am unable to verify it at the moment- but I reckon the jubilee refers to year of the emancipation of the slaves. Henry Clay Work wrote 'Kingdom Coming' in 1862 and this was popular with white musicians under the title 'Year of Jubilo'. There is another song which may shed more light. The first verse and chorus is as follows:

'Sixty-Three Is the Jubilee' (1863) Words by J. L. Greene Music by D. A. French

Oh darkey's hab ye heard it, hab ye heerd de joyful news?
Uncle Abra'm's gwine to free us, and he'll send us where we chuse?
For de Jubilee is comin', don't ye sniff it in de air?
And sixty-three is de Jubilee for de darkeys eb'rywhere

Chorus:?
Oh, de jubilee is comin'?
Don't ye sniff it in the air?
And sixty-three is the jubilee?
For de darkeys eb'rywhere

You'll find midi and lyrics for both songs at the music of the civil war site:

http://pdmusic.org/civilwar.html

The Fisk University in Nashville (for black students) opened in January 1866. George L. White (a northerner and son of a blacksmith) was musical. At Fisk, he trained a mixed chorus of 11 students which by 1870 was giving concerts in nearby cities. Because the university was in dire need of funds, they took to the road for an extensive concert tour to raise money - New York, Boston etc. The first edition of 'Jubilee Songs As Sung by the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University' was compiled by Theodore F. Seward and published in 1872. It contained 28 spirituals. The second edition, published in the same year, had 64 spirituals and the last edition, in 1892, had 139. By that time, according to the publishers, 130,000 copies had been sold. There was also a collection published in 1874 relating to singers at the other major black university in Hampton, Virginia: 'Cabin and Plantation Songs as Sung by the Hampton Students'.

Some time in the late 1870s, the Fisk Singers went to England, where they joined forces with the famous white gospel team of Moody and Sankey, and then to Germany. The Jubilee singers severed their connection with Fisk University in 1878 and were reorganised as a stock company. By the 1880s they had become big business. In the spring of 1886, they sailed from England and concertised throughout Australasia, then to the Far East, India and Japan. Their chronicler wrote that they had 'made the circuit of the globe in six years and two months.

The above information about the Fisk Singers comes from Gilbert Chase 'America's Music: From Pilgrims to the Present' Revise Third Edition, Uni of Illinois Press pp225-228.

I hope the above is of some use to you.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Help: USA Jubilee - Fisk Jubilee Singers
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 27 Feb 00 - 11:28 PM

That's absolutley fantastic Stewie! From this I would conclude that my manuscript was published sometime before 1892 and possibly 10 - 15 years prior to this.

The (partial) contents of the Fisk Song Book were:

Steal away to Jesus
A great camp-meeting in the promised land
Bright sparkles in the churchyard
Chilly Water
Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel
Did not old Pharaoh get lost
Did you hear my Jesus ?
Gideon's Band
Good Lord, shall I ever be one ?
Gospel Train
Hard Trials
Humble yourself
I ain't got weary yet
I'll be there in the morning
In that great getting-up morning
In the River ot Jordan
I want to be ready
Keep me from sinking down
Lord's Prayer
My Lord's writing all the time
My Lord delivered Daniel
Nobody knows the trouble I've seen
Oh sinner, you'd better get ready
Oh, then my little soul's going to shine
Oh, was'nt that a wide river ?
Peter, go ring them bells
Reign, Master Jesus
Religion is fortune
Roll, Jordan roll
Run, Mary, run
Swing low, sweet chariot:
Tell Jesus
There's a meeting here to-night
Way over Jordan
We'll stand the storm
What kind of shoes are you going to wear

Many thanks, John

Subject: RE: Help: USA Jubilee - Fisk Jubilee Singers
From: harpgirl
Date: 22 Nov 00 - 01:49 AM

reread

Subject: RE: Help: USA Jubilee - Fisk Jubilee Singers
From: masato sakurai
Date: 11 Sep 01 - 01:39 AM

For the Jubilee Singers, The American Experience - Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory (PBS program) is a good start.

Masato

Subject: RE: Help: USA Jubilee - Fisk Jubilee Singers
From: GUEST,a mad middle school student
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 02:00 PM

ahhhh wats da answer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Wish we could help....what's the QUESTION?? -Joe Offer, Forum Moderator-

Subject: RE: Help: USA Jubilee - Fisk Jubilee Singers
From: GUEST,pattyClink
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 03:02 PM

The Jubilee is a concept from the Bible.

citations

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Leviticus 25:8-55 describes the fiftieth, or Jubilee, year. "Jubilee" means "liberty." God owns the land, and in the Jubilee, He wants the return of every man to his possession. The land must be redeemed. Men must be returned to their land, their family. Beginning on the Day of Atonement with the sound of a trumpet, the Jubilee is a "holy" year, verse 12. Leviticus 27:14-34 describes the redemption of gifts and tithes, which are calculated based on the number of years to Jubilee.

Numbers 36:1-9 says that the purpose of Jubilee is to keep the inheritances separate, preventing dispossession.

Ezekiel 46:16-18 states that even the prince of Israel is not to dispossess people of their inheritance. Gifts from the prince shall revert back to the family of the prince at the year of liberty.

Subject: RE: Help: USA Jubilee - Fisk Jubilee Singers
From: mg
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 03:19 PM

in the 50th year you were supposed to free slave and wipe out debts I believe..hence the Year of Jubilee..which of course would be very importance to those in slavery...mg

Subject: RE: Help: USA Jubilee - Fisk Jubilee Singers
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 04:40 PM

Stewie's explanation is valid for the usage of 'jubilee with regard to the Fisk singers.
The first chapter of The Story of the Jubilee Singers with their songs is titled "The Year of Jubilee" and goes on to cover the significance of the war, the 'contrabands', the hunger for education, and the beginnings of schools such as Fisk to give the former slaves a "Christian" education.

In digression, it should be noted that the word 'jubilee' has come to have a different meaning today from its use in vernacular speech in 1840s-1860s.

The diaries and papers of the time often speak of having a "jubilation" or jubilee when people get together to have a dance or party. One I have been reading lately is the diary of Alfred Doten who sailed around the Horn to California in the Gold Rush in 1849 with a 'company' from his New England town. Several of his friends played instruments, and well-oiled get-togethers were fairly frequent, leaving the participants in the "jubilation" with sore heads the next day.

Subject: RE: Help: USA Jubilee - Fisk Jubilee Singers
From: Reinhard
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 04:49 PM

Incidentally, few days ago I found the Topic Records LP "Sprirituals" by the Fisk Jubilee Singers (12T39, recorded in 1955, published in 1958) at eBay. The tracklist is

I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray
O The Rocks and the Mountains
Rockin' Jerusalem
When I Was Sinkin' Down
You May Bury Me in the East
He Arose
The Angels Bowed Down
Theres a Great Camp Meeting
Where You There?
Done Made My Vow to the Lord
I'm A-Rolling Through an Unfriendly World
Lord I'm Out Here on Your Word

Seems the LP was licensed from Folkways Recording and is still available from Smithsonian Folkways as CD or digital download.

Subject: RE: Help: USA Jubilee - Fisk Jubilee Singers
From: Jack Campin
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 08:38 PM

This might help:

The Story of the Jubilee Singers

(I have a paper copy).

Subject: RE: Help: USA Jubilee - Fisk Jubilee Singers
From: Janie
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 10:41 PM

Thanks, Q. As ever, you prove to be a fountain of knowledge and a fine researcher.