History of spirituals

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 30 Sep 01 - 12:51 AM

Throughout these discussions, we have often referred to the wonderful SLAVE SONGS OF THE UNITED STATES. I thought I would share the discussion of historic matters and performance styles from the front of the Oak Publications edition-- which also includes guitar arrangements by Jerry Silverman.

~S~

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SLAVE SONGS OF THE UNITED STATES
Piano score, Irving Schlein; Guitar chords and music editing, Jerry Silverman
© 1965 Oak Publications
165 West 46th St., New York, N.Y
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 6522693


FOREWORD
The Slave Songs are in large measure a reflection of the suffering and deprivation the Negro slaves had to endure before their emancipation. "...the wild, sad strains tell, as the sufferers themselves could, of crushed hopes, keen sorrow, and a dull, daily misery which covered them as hopelessly as the fog from the rice swamps." They achieved in song what was denied them in real life: salvation and release from the daily, inhuman torture they had to endure at the hands of their white masters.

Strange indeed, that these identical Slave Songs should become the bedrock out of which our American music grew. The fructifying influence of the "sperichels" had its effect on no less a composer than Anton Dvorak, a Bohemian by birth, who came to this country in the late [18]90's, wrote the "New World" Symphony, in which he used Negro folk songs; this in turn became the beacon-light for the native American composer whom he awakened to the realization that in the Negro folk songs was embedded a rich source of inspiration.

The Slave Songs were first collected in book form by Allen, Ware and Garrison, in 1867. They appeared in their natural, melodic state without accompaniment, or any indication of chords. Since then they have remained in their pristine state, most of them as oddities encased in the archives of folklore societies. The venture was, according to the editors, the first attempt "to collect and preserve their (the Negro people's) melodies." For the most part, the melodies were "taken down...from the lips of the colored people themselves...some may even appear as variants of older melodies acquired in darkest Africa, and brought here by the slaves. As for the words, only one set was arranged by the editors to each melody; for the rest, one must make them fit the best he can, as the negroes themselves do."

My aim, at present, is to bring the Slave Songs out into the light, to release them from their one-hundred-year imprisonment by adding piano accompaniments to them. Singers can now sing the songs, with or without the comforting support of a piano background.

The question arises as to what would be the most appropriate type of accompaniment. There are generally two kinds: the arranger's and the composer's. The former writes a simple, unobtrusive harmonic background that permits the melody to soar freely, while the latter creates an original accompaniment that is more a reflection of the composer's mood and feeling engendered by the melody. The harmony becomes more colorful, with the added danger however that the simplicity and charm of the original melody may be lost amidst a welter of 'modernisms'. In these harmonizations I have tried to steer a middle course: I have allowed my imagination to expand within the bounds of reason and restraint. I have never lost sight of the simplicity of melody and words, which are of utmost importance in the Slave Songs. Nonetheless, modernisms may creep in as they do, very subtly. Perhaps, in future editions, other writers will refashion the songs in quite different harmonies, but the innate beauty of the Slave Songs themselves will always emerge through any kind of accompaniment. They are a tribute to a people who, one hundred years after their emancipation from slavery, are still fighting to secure the rights and privileges due every American citizen, regardless of the color of his skin.
~IRVING SCHLEIN

Irving Schlein is a composer, arranger and a conductor whose musical career has encompassed the concert hall, the stage, the screen, and the recording. He has composed orchestral works, chamber music, choral works, band pieces, stage music, film scores, and operettas. Patrons of the Broadway musical stage have seen him on the podium conducting the orchestra for such shows as "Silk Stockings," "Lost In The Stars," and the revival of "Knickerbocker Holiday."

PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD
Slave Songs of the United States is one of the great documents of America. Published shortly after the end of the Civil War, the songs were collected during the war, mostly from among Negroes living on the Islands off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina.

This new edition of SLAVE SONGS OF THE UNITED STATES is published at a most appropriate moment in our history. The tremendous tasks undertaken by the Emancipation Proclamation and Reconstruction are closer to fulfillment than at any other time. There is renewed interest in the life and culture of the Negro slaves. In particular, there is interest in the music of that period-- since so much contemporary musical expression of jazz, swing, rhythm-and-blues, rock-and-roll, and modern gospel song has its roots in these songs.

Because of this, we have not attempted to' 'translate" the original songs from the transcribed dialect into a more commonly-accepted usage. Rather, we believe that those who will sing these songs will make their own adaptations of the words. Similarly, the introduction has been photographically reproduced from the original edition. This section has remained intact, even to the archaic spelling of the word "Negro" with a small "n."

Today, when the songs of the Freedom Movement are heard in the churches and on the highways of the South, these songs serve as an inspiration and a memory of the living heart of history.

Printed in the United States of America for the Publisher by Faculty Press, Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y.
Paste-Up and Production, Jean Hammond; Illustrations selected by Irwin Silber.

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 30 Sep 01 - 12:19 AM

I received the following via PM. Thanks, Rich!

~S~

Hi,
Below is a listing of books I have that might be related to your assemblage of spirituals. You have some and maybe all of them, so pull out what you can use for your bibliography.
Rich

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Listing Created 29 Sep 101, at 21:56
Belden, Henry M; Hudson, Arthur Palmer (Eds.) (1952): The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folkore. Vol. III, Folk Songs From North Carolina. Duke Univ. Press, Durham, NC. 703 pages. (lib. cong. 52-10967)
Silverman,Jerry (Ed.) (1994): Slave Songs. Chelsea House, New York. 64 pages. (ISBN 0-7910-1853-9)
Scarborough,Dorothy (1925 (reprint 1963)): On The Trail of Negro Folk-Songs. Harvard University Press (reprint Folklore Associates), Cambridge, MA (Hatboro, PA). 295 pages.
Courlander,Harold (1960, 1963): Negro Songs From Alabama. Oak Publications, New York NY. 111 pages.
Parrish,Lydia (1942 (reprint 1992)): Slave Songs of the Georgia Sea Islands. Creative Age Press (Brown Thrasher Books, University of Georgia Press), (Athens, GA). 256 pages. (ISBN 0-8203-1389-0)
Odum, Howard W; Johnson, Guy B (1926 (reprint 1969)): Negro Workaday Songs. Univ. of North Carolina Press (reprint Negro Universities Press), Chapel Hill, NC (New York). 278 pages. ((ISBN 8371-1938-3))
Odum, Howard D; Johnson, Guy B (1925): The Negro and His Songs, A Study of Typical Negro Songs in the South. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC. 306 pages.
Allen, William Francis; Ware, Charles Pickford; Garrison, Lucy McKim; Schlein, Irving (1965 (1867)): Slave Songs of the United States. Oak Publications, New York. 176 pages. (Lib Cong 6522693) (reprint of 1867 original with new piano scores by Schlein)
Work, John W (1940): American Negro Songs and Spirituals. reprint Bonanza Books, 259 pages.
Johnson, James Weldon (1925): The Book of American Negro Spirituals. Viking Press, New York. 187 pages.
Solomon, Olivia; Solomon, Jack (Eds.) (1991): "Honey In The Rock", the Ruby Pickens Tartt Collection of Religious Folk songs from Sumter County, Alabama. Mercer Univ. Press, Macaon, GA. 176 pages. (ISBN 0-86554-336-4)

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 30 Sep 01 - 12:11 AM

I can strongly recommend this one.

~Susan

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Index to Negro Spirituals, published in 1937 by the Cleveland Public Library and reissued through The Center for Black Music Research, Columbia College, Chicago, 1990.

FOREWORD TO THE REVISED EDITION
The first collection of Negro slave songs appeared in 1843, without musical notation, in a series of three articles by a Methodist Church missionary known only as "c." Collections that included musical notation began to appear in the 1850s, and such collections proliferated following the Civil War. Many of the collections are not represented in this Index-The Harp of Freedom (1859), by George Washington Clark, and the Old Plantation (1859) by James Hungerford, among them. In 1864 the anonymous article titled "The Original Negro War" included eleven spirituals among its thirteen songs. In 1867, what would become the most important of all collections of spirituals was published-- Slave Songs of the United States, by William Frances Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison.

In 1871 The Fisk Jubilee Singers of Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, which had been founded just five years earlier, began to introduce the spirituals to the public in their concert tours in order to raise money for their financially troubled school. Beginning in 1872, editions of the slave songs ''as sung by the Jubilee Singers" began to appear, and in that same year a proliferation of such collections began, with publications of the songs by other Fisk-inspired college and professional singing groups, including those of Hampton Institute and Tuskegee Institute.

Later, black collectors and composers such as John and Frederick Work, at Fisk University, and the brothers James Weldon and I. Rosamond Johnson began to anthologize the spirituals, and Harry T. Burleigh began to treat them as art songs. Singers such as Roland Hayes, Paul Robeson, Marian Anderson, and others began to include them on art song recitals and even, in Robeson's case, to present entire recitals made up of spirituals. Composers of concert music had also begun to use the spirituals and other slave songs in their extended works. R. Nathaniel Dett, for example, used them in his The Chariot Jubilee, a cantata, in 1919, and William Grant Still based the themes in the last movement of his AfroAmerican Symphony on spirituals. The slave song had become acceptable to the black middle class and to the larger society and was important to performers, composers, and scholars alike.

So it was apropos, in the 1930s, that the WPA saw fit to sponsor a project to index the songs that had been included in collections. The result was Index to Negro Spirituals, published in 1937 by the Cleveland Public Library. The Center for Black Music Research is pleased and honored to bring out this publication in a new printing, newly typeset for the use of scholars, performers, and other users. This revised edition is dedicated to the Cleveland Public Library for its
early sponsorship of such a project, its guardianship of the publication, which was never widely distributed, and for granting permission for its reissue.

The original edition of the Index to Negro Spirituals included call numbers of the books, referencing locations in The Cleveland Public Library. This revised edition has omitted the call numbers because they are no longer valid for the Cleveland library, due to reclassification of the collection, and because of our intention to provide information that is useful to a wider audience. All other editing has been guided by the intention of providing consistency of style throughout the work and has been limited strictly to stylistic matters.

Samuel A. Floyd, Jr.
Center for Black Music Research
Columbia College, Chicago
September 1, 1990


PREFACE
The aim in arranging this Index to Negro Spirituals has been threefold: First, to list the books in which any given spiritual may be found; second, to aid in locating quickly a song that is requested under a different title; and third, to note as variants spirituals which, though they may have identical titles, are slightly different.

Cross references are given to songs similar in theme, tune, or wording but not enough alike to be listed as variants under the same title. The same treatment is given spirituals in no way related but having similar titles. If several entirely different spirituals have an identical title, a Roman numeral has been placed after the title to indicate these different songs.

Thirty popular collections, including those most widely duplicated in branches, have been indexed. No attempt has been made to compile an exhaustive index. The work of indexing was initiated at Sterling Branch Library and supplemented and duplicated for general distribution as a Works Progress Administration project.

Detailed information, such as the locality in which a song originated, has not been included. Supplementary information of this type may readily be found in the collections themselves as many of the books indexed contain both music and exposition.


List of Books Fully or Partially Analyzed in the Index

Abbot, F. H. Eight negro songs. New York: Enoch & Sons, 1923.
Allen, W. F. Slave songs of the United States. New York: A. Simpson & Co., 1867.
Ballanta-Taylor, N. G. Saint Helena Island spirituals. New York: G. Schirmer, 1925.
Burleigh, H. T. Negro spirituals. London: G. Ricordi, 1917-1919.
------------ . Plantation melodies old and new. New York: G. Schirmer, 1901.
Burlin, N. C. Hampton series negro folk-songs. New York: G. Schirmer, 1918-1919.
Dann, H. E. Fifty-eight spirituals for choral use. Boston: C. C. Birchard, 1924.
Dett, R. N. Religious folk-songs of the negro, as sung at Hampton Institute. Hampton, Va.: Hampton Institute Press, 1927.
Diton, Carl. Thirty-six South Carolina spirituals: Collected and harmonized by Carl Diton for church, concert, and general use. New York: G. Schirrner, 1928.
Fenner, T. P. Religious folk songs of the negro. Hampton, Va.: The Institute Press, 1909.
Fisher, W. A. Seventy negro spirituals. Boston: Oliver Ditson Co., 1926.
-----------------.Ten negro spirituals. Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1925.
Frey, Hugo. Collection of 25 selected famous negro spirituals. New York: Robbins-Engel, 1924.
Grey, Gerald. Fifty negro spirituals. York, Nebr.: J. A. Parks Co., 1930.
Grissom, M. A. Negro sings a new heaven. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1930.
Jessye, E. A. My spirituals. New York: Robbins-Engle, 1927.
Johnson, Hall. The Green pastures spirituals. New York: Carl Fischer, 1930.
Johnson, J. R. Utica jubilee singers spirituals. Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1930.
Johnson, J. W. The book of American negro spirituals. New York: Viking Press, 1925.
---------------. The second book of negro spirituals. New York: Viking Press, 1926.
Jubilee and plantation songs: Characteristic favorites, as sung by the Hampton students, Jubilee Singers, Fisk University students, and other companies; also a number of new and pleasing selections. Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1887.
Kennedy, R. E. Mellows: A chronicle of unknown singers. New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1925.
-------------------. More mellows. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1931.
Krehbiel, H. E. Afro-American folksongs: A study in racial and national music. New York: G. Schirmer, 1914.
McIlhenny, E. A. Befo' de war spirituals: Words and melodies. Boston: Christopher Publishing House, 1933.
Niles, J. J. Seven negro exaltations. New York: G. Schirmer, 1929.
Noble, G. C. Most popular plantation songs. New York: Hines, Noble & Eldredge, 1911.
Sandburg, Carl. The American songbag. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1927.
White, C. C. Forty negro spirituals. Philadelphia: Theodore Presser, 1927.
Wier, A. E. The Scribner radio music library, volume seven. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1931.
Work, F. J. Folk songs of the American negro. Nashville: Work Bros. & Hart Co., 1907.

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Sep 01 - 11:41 PM

Thanks, Masato.

rich r just sent me a list of his holdings... I think I will add them, and a few other lists I have.

There may be some duplication-- I am just going to dump them in here and edit them into a single list later, for the permathread.

So if anyone else has sources not already posted, please go ahead and post them. Please give full biblio info, and specify whether you have them or just know of them.

~Susan

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: masato sakurai
Date: 29 Sep 01 - 11:36 PM

Susan, I made it myself. I've been consulting those discographies, and have read the books (actually, only parts of them).

~Masato

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Sep 01 - 11:16 PM

That's excellent, Masato. The biblio I gave was from the dictionary entry-- in other words, part of the entry. How did you get your list?

~Susan

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: masato sakurai
Date: 29 Sep 01 - 10:52 PM

The above bibliography should be updated.

Revised and later discographies are:
Robert M.W. Dixon, John Godrich & Howard W. Rye, eds., Blues and Gospel Records 1890-1943, 4th edition (Oxford, 1997)
Cedric J. Hayes & Robert Laughton, eds., Gospel Records 1943-1969: A Black Music Discography, 2 vols. (Record Information Services, 1993). [Hayes' discography above is far from comprehensive]
Other gospel books include:
Horace Clarence Boyer, How Sweet the Sound: The Golden Age of Gospel (Elliott & Clark, 1995)[republished as The Golden Age of Gospel, by University of Illinois Press; good introduction]
Viv Broughton, Black Gospel: An Illustrated History of the Gospel Sound (Blandford Press, 1985)
Bernice Johnson Reagon, ed., We'll Understand It Better By and By: Pioneering African American Gospel Composers (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992) [collection of essays, with detailed bibliography]
Michael W. Harris, The Rise of Gospel Blues: The Music of Thomas Andrew Dorsey in the Urban Church (Oxford UP, 1992)

~Masato

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Sep 01 - 03:40 PM

This post also appears in the thread, "Blues Related to Spirituals."

~S~

What is Gospel Music?

According to the New Harvard Dictionary of Music, Belknap Press, 1986:

Gospel.
[Lat. evangelium].

(1) In all of the Christian liturgies, a reading or lesson from one of the four Gospels of the Bible. In the Roman Catholic Mass, it may be chanted to a simple tone (Tonus Evangelii, LU, pp. 106-9). A liturgical book in which such lessons are copied in the order of the liturgical year is called an evangeliary.

The Gospels have been the source of texts for much music, including motets and, especially, Passion music.

(2) Anglo-American Protestant evangelical hymns from the 1870s to the present; also gospel hymns, gospel song.

In revival meetings, preacher Dwight Moody (1837 - 99) and singer Ira Sankey (1840 - 1908) popularized simple, strophic melodies set homophonically to strong tonal progressions in major keys.

The sentimental poetry of Fanny Crosby (1820-19115) exemplified the texts, each assembled around a biblical idea. Texts are often in the first person and concern the Christian life and the anticipated joys of heaven. Among the best-known examples is George Bernard's "The Old Rugged Cross" (1913)

(3) Black American Protestant sacred singing and an associated 20th-century sacred genre; also gospel music, gospel song.

In this style, vocalists radically embellish simple melodies, and in full and falsetto voice, they shout, hum, growl, moan, whisper, scream, cry. By adding florid melismas and tricky syncopations, altering given pitches with blue notes and glissandos, and interpolating formulaic phrases ("Lord have mercy," "well, well, well"), they freely extend or repeat any fragment of the text. Spontaneous or choreographed dancing, clapping, and stomping may accompany the singing.

Mingled functions, performing media, and repertories confuse stylistic distinctions within the genre "black gospel music." Musicians perform for religious stimulation and for commercial profit, in boisterous services and concerts or in silent recording studios.

Vocalists may be a preacher and congregation (as in the mono and heterophonic music of numerous Holiness and Sanctified sects), soloists (Mahalia Jackson, Marion Williams), singer-guitarists (Blind Willie Johnson, Rev. Gary Davis, Rosetta Tharpe), quartets and quintets (the Dixie Hummingbirds, the Soul Stirrers, the Clara Ward Singers, the Mighty Clouds of Joy), or choirs (led by James Cleveland, Alex Bradford). Accompanying instruments, if present, are piano, Hammond organ, or guitar, alone or with bass, drums, and tambourine.

Performances may include open-ended ostinatos, in which a soloist's improvised comments alternate with a repeated phrase of text. Many "gospel songs" (exemplified by the compositions of Thomas A. Dorsey) have 16-bar antecedent and consequent tonal schemes. These structures represent only two facets of a repertory that initially drew upon 18th- and 19th century hymns, Negro spirituals, blues, barbershop singing, ragtime, pop tunes, country and western, and jazz. Later, after creating (through male quartets) the basis for rhythm and blues and Soul, black gospel drew upon those secular genres for new material.

Commercial white gospel recordings have sacred texts and occasional imitations of black gospel singing. They are otherwise stylistically indistinguishable from pop, country and western, or rock.

Bibl.:
(2) Sandra S. Sizer, Gospel Hymns and Social Religion (Philadelphia: Temple U Pr, 1978).

(3) John Godrich and Robert Dixon, comps., Blues and Gospel Records 1902-1942 (London: Storyville Pubs, 1969). Tony Heilbut, The Gospel Sound (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1971). Cedric J. Hayes, A Discography of Gospel Records 1937-71 (Copenhagen: Knudsen, 1973). David Evans, "The Roots of Afro-American Gospel Music," Jazzforschung 8 (1976): 119-35.

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 22 Sep 01 - 12:41 AM

Originally posted here:

Subject: RE: Links on Spirituals
From: masato sakurai
Date: 21-Sep-01 - 11:14 PM

From the announcement of Culture on the Margins: The Black Spiritual and the Rise of American Cultural Interpretation by Jon Cruz.

In Culture on the Margins, Jon Cruz recounts the "discovery" of black music by white elites in the nineteenth century, boldly revealing how the episode shaped modern approaches to studying racial and ethnic cultures. Slave owners had long heard black song making as meaningless "noise." Abolitionists began to attribute social and political meaning to the music, inspired, as many were, by Frederick Douglass's invitation to hear slaves' songs as testimonies to their inner, subjective worlds. This interpretive shift--which Cruz calls "ethnosympathy"--marks the beginning of a mainstream American interest in the country's cultural margins. In tracing the emergence of a new interpretive framework for black music, Cruz shows how the concept of "cultural authenticity" is constantly redefined by critics for a variety of purposes--from easing anxieties arising from contested social relations to furthering debates about modern ethics and egalitarianism.

In focusing on the spiritual aspect of black music, abolitionists, for example, pivoted toward an idealized religious singing subject at the expense of absorbing the more socially and politically elaborate issues presented in the slave narratives and other black writings. By the end of the century, Cruz maintains, modern social science also annexed much of this cultural turn. The result was a fully modern tension-ridden interest in culture on the racial margins of American society that has long had the effect of divorcing black culture from politics.

Jon Cruz is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the coeditor of Viewing, Reading, Listening: Audiences and Cultural Reception.

Review: "Culture on the Margins brilliantly [unravels] . . . a crucial strand in the history of how the white investment in the black came to organize not only culture and politics in the United States but also social science. . . .This theoretically exigent and beautifully written account also turns on claims about the meaning and use of spirituals for the slaves. For the emergence and disappearance of the black subject is the hinge of the story Cruz has to tell."--Michael Rogin, American Journal of Sociology

Endorsement: "A splendid and important book that clearly establishes Jon Cruz as one of the most significant cultural sociologists of his generation. The scope, depth, and originality of his theoretical analysis contributes to the general project of understanding cultural production, cultural `objects,' and cultural interpretation and appropriation. The richness of his deployment of historical materials--whether travel diaries, sermons, or early journal articles--brings his analytic framework alive. Because his book engages crucial debates in history, ethnic studies, and cultural studies as well as in sociology, it should have a wide readership among academics in many fields."--Elizabeth Long, Rice University

Masato

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 20 Sep 01 - 12:06 AM

Here is a great discussion of Deep River & Steal Away.

CLICK!

~S~

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 20 Sep 01 - 12:02 AM

EXCELLENT old thread here:

Songs on, or about slavery?

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 18 Sep 01 - 04:41 PM

Dicho, that's a good example of the folk (and de-folking) process at work, isn't it? I love it that you have a different source-- the more we look at different sources the more we can learn. I love it that through all the people working on this monstrously-sized project, none of us has to own all the books! Thanks for looking at yours-- this time and for others as they come in.

BTW, I copied your comments abovve, in this thread, in the thread the song appears in, as well. Hope that's OK?

There are, I am sure, comments needed on a lot of the spirituals already posted. Could you find the time to look at the list of those already posted, and go to the threads for them, and add commentary? (In their individual threads, not in the index thread.)

~Susan

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Sep 01 - 02:04 PM

Thread on Lyr. add You hear the lamb a-crying: If you look at the sheet music given by Fenner (he should be acknowledged as the 1870's compiler in references to the Hampton site), It is difficult to sing the line "Oh, shepherd feed my sheep" unless feed is rendered as feed-a, as in the 1870'lyrics Fenner gives. "fe-ed" just doesn't sing right. I fear Work's sanitization of the language in some cases creates a problem with the flow of the song.

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 07:08 PM

Message responding to Dicho HERE.

~S~

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 06:54 PM

Dicho, let's move to PM's or to the Permathread to scope out the work-- maybe the permathread since it is editable and we can zap out the stuff later?

~Susan

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 06:19 PM

Susan, would an alphabetized list of the songs in the older works be useful (with alternate titles as well)? Or have you already done that? There are 136 entries on the North Carolina site, but duplication and elimination of non-spiritual songs will yield perhaps 100. I think I have found a late ed. of Jubilee songs (about 139), which may just about be the verifiable total of older ones; at least it is a start. Any others will be scattered through a number of references. First lines may also help. Such a list might show the size of your project and help you to assign particular songs or song groups to people to work up. It will be an interesting task putting the data on the songs together because of the different versions used and different titles. Tain't easy, I'm thinkin'. As the songs are worked up, lyrics can be put in DT, followed by midi.

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 02:05 PM

Dico, I am prepared to do NWC files for anyone who requests on individual items, if they don't know how-- I am working first to be sure any in the DT that tuneless are identified and tune files made.

~S~

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 01:24 PM

For anyone who knows enough music to set midi's (the bare bones), the sheet music for these songs on the Hampton site is invaluable, since it was set in print in 1874. Some of these songs I've never heard. I wish I had the recordings of the Fisk and Hampton singers, I don't know how many are still available. One more comment- the dialect is called Negro, but the uneducated whites also used many of these pronounciations, e. g. gwine and jine. Misguided attempts to politically sanitize the language overlook this. Of course, even now the terminal "g" on many words is not always pronounced. I think I usually say goin' unless I am speaking formally.

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 11:40 AM

Thank you Dicho.

~Susan

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 11:37 AM

The compilation by Jean Sturm is a good one (13Sept01, 237PM) but has an error. The Fisk Singers were important to the modern revival, but the Hampton Singers, in their tours of the 1870s, hampered by lack of money and discrimination, were the first to bring the public's attention to the Negro spirituals. At the time, they were called "Cabin and Plantation Songs," not spirituals. The Hampton story and 50 of the songs are given on this site: http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/armstrong/armstrong.html#ham171. This is a big site, and may take long to load if you don't have a large drive. The songs start on p. 171. The institution is extremely important to Black education.

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 02:40 AM

Just came across a fantastic website that seems to fit in here. Looks really informative, even the Guestbook is worth a read. There is a woman, in Colorado Springs, with a book from the 1830s, who has offered anyone to come to her office and make copies of her very fragile book. Anyway, here it is: Negro Spirituals

kat

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 13 Sep 01 - 04:44 PM

Again, credit goes to the choralist cited above.

~S~

SOURCE:
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 07:51:55 -0700 (MST)
From: Terri Karlsson, Subject: Spirituals Compilation

"There is a large body of Spirituals that were sung
(a) as encouragement for those who were deciding to leave,
(b) that alerted people that a group would be leaving or
(c) gave directions to those making the journey.

"Some examples are:
Run Mourner, Run
I'm on my way to Canaan Land
Steal Away to Jesus
Wade In The Water
I'm Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table
Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning
Git on Board Lil Children
Moses, Moses Don't let Pharoa O'ertake You
I've Been In The Storm So Long
I Am a Poor Pilgrim of Sorrow
I am Bound for the Promised Land
Walk Together Children, Don't you get Weary
This May be the Last Time
Free At Last, Free At Last
Come and Go With Me To That Land
Many Thousands Gone
Run, Mary, Run
All Night, All Night Angels Watchin Over Me
Oh, Freedom
Sheep Sheep Don't You Know the Road
Follow the Drinking Gourd

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 13 Sep 01 - 04:20 PM

The following material is adapted from material compiled by Jean Sturm in October of 1998, based on contributions from international subscribers to "[e-mail]." Apparently he and a number of others discussed the nature and history of spirituals and how they differ from other types of gospel music. The list below represents materials thought to be particularly helpful in that regard.

Mudcat has permission to post the following material, edited together from the contributions received. (Other topic sections included in the original material are posted elsewhere.) It is offered as a starting point for your own comments. Links to past Mudcat discussions would be especially helpful. Eventually, the best of ALL of this material will be edited together, and posted to the African-American Spirituals Permathread.


Mudcat has permission to post the following material, edited together from the contributions received. (Other topic sections included in the original material are posted elsewhere.) It is offered as a starting point for your own comments. Links to past Mudcat discussions would be especially helpful. Eventually, the best of ALL of this material will be edited together (duplicates removed), and posted to the African-American Spirituals Permathread.
~S~

RECOMMENDED BOOKS AND RESOURCES

American Negro Spirituals, Johnson, James Weldon & J. Rosamond, New York, NY: DaCapo Press 1989

The Songs Are Free, video, PBS Documentary
"… Bernice Johnson Reagan, a curator at the Smithsonian Institution, is interviewed by Bill Moyer. Ms. Reagan is a wonderful scholar but also the founder of the female ensemble called Sweet Honey in the Rock. Get some of the group's recordings and you'll also learn about the music. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that the PBS program may no longer be available for sale but try your best to find a "pirated" video of the program. You'll learn more about the music than you can find time to put in effect. If you can get a copy of the video, you'll probably want to show it to your singers. It is rich in wisdom and history." (Roger O. Doyle, University of Portland OR)

Performing the Musics of the Americas ",four video set, Music Educator's National Conference (MENC) "One is a 40 minute talk given by Bernice Johnson-Reagan. " (John Crever , Westminster Choir College, Princeton, NJ)

Black American Music: Past And Present (Second Edition-1992), Hildred Roach, Krieger Publishing Company, Box 9542, Malabar, FL 32902-9542

The Gospel Sound - Good News and Bad Times, Anthony Heilbut.

Negro Spirituals/from Bible to Folksong, Christa K. Dixon, 1976, Fortress Press, Philadelphia, ISBN 0-8006-1221-3.

The Music Of Black Americans: A History, Eileen Southern, New York, W.W.Norton & Company. 1971/1983. ISBN: 0-393-95279-7. (When the book was written, Ms. Southern was affiliated with Harvard University.)

Black American Music: Past and Present. Hildred Roach, Melbourne, FL, Krieger Publishing Co. 1992, ISBN: 0-89464-580-3. (When the book was written, Ms. Roach was affiliated with the University of the District of Columbia.)

Negro Slave Songs in the United States, M. M. Fisher (Russell & Russell, 1968) Credits for this contribution are due to:

Jean Sturm (Strasbourg), Executive Director, Musica International ("The International Database of Choral Repertoire") , and Jonathan Miller (Chicago), Peter Schleif (St Anthony, MN), David Griggs-Janower (Albany), Bob Griffith (Memphis), Saundra Hall Hill (Los Angeles), Craig Hawkins, Timothy Olsen (Schenectady), David W. McCormick (Richmond, VA), Allen H. Simon (Bay Area Lutheran Chorale), Richard Mix, and David Monk (CA).

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 13 Sep 01 - 02:44 PM

The following material is adapted from material compiled by Jean Sturm in October of 1998, based on contributions from international subscribers to "[e-mail]." Apparently he and a number of others discussed the nature and history of spirituals and how they differ from other types of gospel music.

Mudcat has permission to post the following material, edited together from the contributions received. (Other topic sections included in the original material are posted elsewhere.) It is offered as a starting point for your own comments. Links to past Mudcat discussions would be especially helpful. Eventually, the best of ALL of this material will be edited together, and posted to the African-American Spirituals Permathread.

Although you are welcome to post links to other sites' information about the subject, I am MOST interested in your own writing based on specific information you can cite. It will be much easier to incorporate YOUR work (because we can presume permission as long as it stays in Mudcat), as opposed to securing permission from multiple websites which, themselves, cite others from whom permission should be asked.

~Susan


SPIRITUALS AS CODES
According to Nina Gilbert (1994, [e-mail]): "Last week I posted a question about codes in Spirituals texts. I had read that 'Follow the Drinkin' Gourd' was a secret 'map song,' suggesting that people could 'follow' the Big Dipper as they headed northward, and I wondered if other Choralist subscribers knew further examples.

"Here's what I've learned:

I. General:

Michael Shasberger (Butler University) made the general suggestion that texts about journeys and such can be imaginatively traced to the immediate idea of escape. Also, I've seen suggestions that the "Jordan River" and "heaven" were direct allegorical references to the Ohio River and Canada. References to trains and chariots can also mean the Underground Railroad, of course, although I don't know about more specific details.

II. Specific songs:

Mallorie Chernin (Amherst) and Joshua Golbert (Music Teacher, Woodward Parkway Elementary School, Franklin Square NY) both mentioned Jeanette Winter's book Follow the Drinking Gourd (Dragonfly Books/Alfred Knopf). Joshua quotes the book:

"The drinking gourd is the Big Dipper, which points to the North Star. 'When the sun comes back and the first quail calls' meant spring, when travel might be least hazardous. As the runaway slaves followed up north, they would come across marks Peg Leg Joe had made in the mud... and they would know they were on the right trail. The river that 'ends between two hills' was the Tombigbee River. The second was the Tennessee River and the 'great big river' was the Ohio River, where Peg Leg Joe would be waiting to ferry them to the free states". Joshua adds, "According to Winter, Peg Leg Joe was a white man who helped the slaves escape (left foot, peg foot, traveling on)." And Mallorie comments, "'Drinkin' gourd' we sing every Passover (freedom and all that)."

Joan Sampson (The State Literacy Resource Center, Central Michigan University) adds a possibility about another song: "I don't know if it is proven, but I have heard that 'Michael Row the Boat Ashore' is a specific reference to the New England
Abolitionist Movement of returning slaves to Africa (Liberia) in the mid-1800's. The reference to 'Sister' is the woman (I've forgotten her name) who was active in the movement. I have also heard that many of the references to dying and going to heaven are also code for freedom or the North."

Cliff Ganus recalls: "We sang, a number of years ago, George Lynn's arrangement of 'Little black train,' the refrain of which says, 'Set your house in order, for the train's gonna be here tonight.' The verses refer to the 15-year extension on life given to Hezekiah, and the arrival of the train ostensibly represents death (in case any of the slaveowners were listening)."

According to Negro Slave Songs in the United States, M. M. Fisher (Russell & Russell, 1968):

"The song 'Deep River' originated in Guilford County (NC), where it was the name of both a body of water and of a meeting house of Quakers. A conservative slave told his Quaker benefactor that he wanted to `cross over' to Africa, the home of camp meetings." (p41) [the reference given is a ms. at Guilford College]

" [a letter] published in the report of the American Colonisation Society...asked...`Do you not know that the land where you are is not your own? Your fathers were carried into that to increase strangers' treasure, but God has turned it all to good, that you may bring the gospel into your country.' He added that Negro ministers were not doing the will of God by remaining in the US." (p43)

" Proslavery people tried their hands at making `spirituals'...Strangely enough, this song called the Atlantic an `ocean'. Previously , that body of water had been likened to the Red Sea... the Jordan...but it was never an `ocean'." (p63)

(Not exactly watertight reasoning but plausible enough. Of course it would be nice to see the source material or at least more extensive quotes, particularly from the ms. above, titled "Minutes of the Manumission Society of Northern Carolina". )

I have a bit of general reading to catch up on. In the archives books by Southern, Roach, and Dixon were recommended. Epstein (Sinful tunes & Spirituals) and Ricks (Social Implications...) may be valuable also… The series titled `Studies in 18th cent. Afro-American Music' on LaBrew's "Black Musicians..."(1977) is intriguing as well.

Saundra Hall Hill says: "This following is in response to the question regarding the African American spiritual, 'Steal Away', the text of which is:

Steal away to Jesus.
I ain't got long to stay here.
My Lord calls me,
He calls me by the thunder;
The trumpet sounds
Within-a my soul.
I ain't got long to stay here.

"Although this song is sacred in nature, it can also be described as a dual-message spiritual (or signal song).

"On one level, it's heard as evidence of the slaves' resignation to be content by meditating and praying (stealing away) to Jesus, who would pacify them through their hard times. Also, on the surface, it expresses a realization that some slaves felt: there could be no earthly reward to justify their horrible plight, and that they hoped their prayers would hasten them to Heavenly peace.

"On the other hand, slaves who were discontented with their misery, and intent on doing something 'earthly' about it, used songs such as 'Steal Away' to transmit 'coded' messages to one another: 'steal' (run away), 'to Jesus' (the North U.S. or Canada, or some passage via the Underground Railroad or other venue that would eventually get the runaway to the North); 'thunder' and 'trumpet' -- some pre-designated physical symbol such as the ringing of a bell, a field holler, calling the hogs-- or whatever could be used in the midst of the unsuspecting slavemasters
or overseers."


Credits for this contribution are due to:

Credits for this contribution are due to:

*Jean Sturm (Strasbourg), Executive Director, Musica International ("The International Database of Choral Repertoire")

and

Jonathan Miller (Chicago), Peter Schleif (St Anthony, MN), David Griggs-Janower (Albany), Bob Griffith (Memphis), Saundra Hall Hill (Los Angeles), Craig Hawkins, Timothy Olsen (Schenectady), David W. McCormick (Richmond, VA), Allen H. Simon (Bay Area Lutheran Chorale), Richard Mix, and David Monk (CA).

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 13 Sep 01 - 02:37 PM

The following material is adapted from material compiled by Jean Sturm in October of 1998, based on contributions from international subscribers to "[e-mail]." Apparently he and a number of others discussed the nature and history of spirituals and how they differ from other types of gospel music.

Mudcat has permission to post the following material, edited together from the contributions received. (Other topic sections included in the original material are posted elsewhere.) It is offered as a starting point for your own comments.

Links to past Mudcat discussions would be especially helpful. Eventually, the best of ALL of this material will be edited together, and posted to the African-American Spirituals Permathread.

Although you are welcome to post links to other sites' information about the subject, I am MOST interested in your own writing based on specific information you can cite. It will be much easier to incorporate YOUR work (because we can presume permission as long as it stays in Mudcat), as opposed to securing permission from multiple websites which, themselves, cite others from whom permission should be asked.

~Susan


WHAT ARE AFRICAN-AMERICAN (NEGRO) SPIRITUALS?
A Spiritual is a sacred slave song, a rural, religious folksong of anonymous origin, often with some kind of biblical reference, conceived during the years of the slave era in America (late 1600's through 1860's), and passed on by oral tradition. They are usually considered to be songs which arose out of the slavery experience, and are direct descendents of African folk music.

In order to discuss this music, the terms Spirituals, Negro Spirituals, African-American Spirituals White Spirituals, and Gospel must be clearly delineated.

"Negro-Spiritual", "African-American Spiritual" and "Spiritual" are synonyms. Additional synonyms are "African-American Folk Song", "Afro-American Spirituals" and "Black Spirituals". All of these terms are used interchangeably in the following material, according to the usage of the individual contributor arising from their culture of origin.

These were originally called Negro Spirituals; when the word "negro" became unacceptable, these works were called African-American Spirituals or, to avoid such an unwieldy name, just "Spirituals". Many people now shun the term "Negro", as it comes from an era in which American black people were still considered sub-human and/or second-class citizens. In its place the term "African American" became more accepted, as it more accurately focused on the geographic origin (Africa) rather than on color (Negro = black). (Incidentally, "black" encompasses all black people, not just African Americans. It's interesting to note that the black race has been the only group anthropologists labeled by color, "Negro". All other groups have been referred to by geographic origin.) The most recent-- and therefore the "most acceptable"-- term seems to be "African-American".

These songs are known in the non-English speaking countries primarily as "negro-spirituals". Says Jean Sturm*, in Strasbourg, "The term [generally] used in Europe is definitively Negro-Spiritual. And there is no pejorative feeling at all by using the old term. I must point out that 'Afro-American Spiritual', [considered] as the correct term in USA, does not mean ANYTHING in Europe, except for people aware of your US problems in terminology."

CHARACTERISTICS
<> Limited texts-- often many stanzas where only a few words are different from other stanzas
<> Much repetition; more often than not with a refrain, stemming from the African call-and-response
<> Texts are often derived from Old Testament stories
<> Monophonic
<> Many of them were secret "signal songs," telling the slaves when the next escape attempt was planned

AFRICAN-AMERICAN SPIRITUALS (pre-1900)
According to Eileen Southern's Music of Black American" (3rd ed.,
W.W. Norton, NYC, 1997, p. 180): "It is not known precisely when the term spiritual was first used in print to apply to the religious folksongs of the black American. Obviously, the term points back to the three species of sacred song early set up in the history of Protestantism--psalms, hymns, and spirituals-- which, in turn, points to the Scriptures, Col. 3:16...."

Many spirituals refer to Jewish enslavement in Egypt; some have coded references to emancipation (crossing the river, last train's a-comin', etc.) These songs were often called "sorrow songs" because many of them express the lamentations of Africans kidnapped from their motherland and brought to America to a horrible life of slavery. With every aspect of their culture stripped from them, the Africans adapted their new "language" and religion into what would eventually be called the Spiritual.

Not until the Fisk Jubilee Singers toured the U.S. and Europe in the late 1800's, singing these songs, were they ever written down or arranged. Many blacks had regarded them as songs from a time they wished to forget, but the world was hungry to hear them.

Since then, they have been published, recorded, and performed as standard repertoire for many choral organizations. When we perform them in a choral arrangement, we're singing a piece of art music based on a spiritual theme-- singing a choral work, not really a spiritual. (This is similar to performing a symphony based on a folk tune; it's still a symphony, not a folk song.) There are really no performance practice considerations in the usual way, because spirituals weren't intended for public performance; to be authentic, they should be sung in unison while picking cotton. This is not to say there aren't some audience expectations about spirituals, based in part on stereotypes about black singers. It's up to the individual how to address those.

Songs that have been arranged for choirs are sometimes called "concert spirituals". The Fisk Jubilee Singers were the first to popularize the concept of performing spirituals in a concert.

WHITE-SPIRITUALS
Here the definitions become more imprecise and are even diverging for their origin; moreover there is some mixture with the definition of "white gospel" (see below).

Lots of what are called "white spirituals" are old Appalachian sacred works. Some people feel that since whites were not slaves, there is really no such thing as a white spiritual.

"White spiritual" generally connotes religious folk songs from the southern part of the United States. They are usually modal, frequently pentatonic, and sometimes have traceable roots in the British Isles. "White spiritual" is sometimes used to refer to composed sacred pieces from the white church tradition, sometimes called hymns, though they aren't the same as what we think of as hymns. They are old songs, like folk songs, but sacred. The were sung in rural churches and religious camp or "tent" meetings widely held in the 1800's.

GOSPEL
There is no short definition for Gospel music, any more than there is a short definition for classical music. For greater detail, read The Gospel Sound written by Tony Heilbut. It's a great comprehensive text on Gospel music.

Gospel hymnody is a development employing piano and other vernacular instruments in tent-meetings, pentecostal services, and actual concerts. They are late 19th or 20th century compositions, whereas the historic body of spirituals come from the slavery period (except of course the choral arrangements that are a later evolution).

Gospel's greatest early exponents are the Rev. Charles Tindley, Lucie Campbell, and the famous Thomas Dorsey (the first to use the term "gospel song"). As Gospel has progressed during the 20th century, it has incorporated all the features and traditions of contemporary pop styles-- electric guitars, synthesizers, heavy syncopation, etc.

There seems actually to be two kinds of Gospel: "white" and "black". Gospel music often contains many elements of the Spiritual: sacred text, syncopation, call and response.

There are white Gospel songs, again almost always with refrains, simple harmonies and repetitious rhythms, which arose out of the 19th century evangelistic meetings (often called camp meetings, because they were held in a large tent or other rustic
enclosure in a camp ground). One present-day extension of this music is what is now called Southern Gospel.

Black Gospel has many of the same characteristics, in some cases having arisen from the same source, but it is also heavily influenced by the "blues." Whether the blues originated in a sacred or very secular setting may be argued, but there certainly has been a lot of cross-fertilization. At first, many black churches of the time considered gospel "the devil's music" because it employed elements of secular music forms such as the blues, early jazz, and other popular idioms of the time.

By the 1920's, its popularity had grown, especially after Thomas A. Dorsey, an ex-jazz musician turned church musician and composer, revolutionized its development, and turned it into a marketable commodity by publishing and recording it. Gospel music developed through each decade into many genres (20s-30s focused on the solo gospel singer; 40's focused on male quartets; late 40's and 50's focused on male and female trios/quartets and radio choirs; 60's and 70's on mass choirs; the 80's and 90's brought just about every possibility with the incorporation of new secular styles (rock, country/ western, hip-hop, rap, new age, etc.)

Today's Black Gospel usually has a very heavy beat, a driving piano style bass, repetition ad infinitum, and a lot of opportunity for soloistic improvisational singing.
There are many "gospel style" pieces being composed today; although there are a few contemporary composers of songs in the style of Spirituals, Spirituals in general seem to be a fairly stable body of material upon which new arrangements continue to be based.

Credits for this contribution are due to:

*Jean Sturm (Strasbourg), Executive Director, Musica International ("The International Database of Choral Repertoire")

and

Jonathan Miller (Chicago), Peter Schleif (St. Anthony, MN), David Griggs-Janower (Albany), Bob Griffith (Memphis), Saundra Hall Hill (Los Angeles), Craig Hawkins, Timothy Olsen (Schenectady), David W. McCormick (Richmond, VA), Allen H. Simon (Bay Area Lutheran Chorale), Richard Mix, and David Monk (CA).

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 08 Sep 01 - 11:13 PM

From: African-American History with Jessica McElrath

Spirituals For more than 25 years, the Georgia Sea Island Singers have sang slave spirituals to audiences interested in hearing this unique form of song. Upon hearing a spiritual, it is apparent that such song not only helped slaves endure life, but that it was an expression of their joys, sorrows, hopes, and dreams.

Spirituals were influenced by the culture of Africa. Africans used songs to recite history, express feelings about each other, and it was tied it to all aspects of life. Influenced by traditions of Africa, spirituals were created by individual and group contribution. Songs were constantly re-created from bits of old songs and then formed into new songs with new tunes and lyrics. They were not always created in church, but were often constructed and sung while working.

The most notable spirituals were those that described slaves as the chosen people. This idea provided slaves with the comfort that God was with them and freedom would soon come. They sang: "We are the people of God" and "To the promised land I'm bound to go." Although their master's had told them they were the lowest of all people, these lyrics reinforced the belief that God chose them.

Hope of liberation was also commonplace; it was expressed in spirituals that were created from the books of the Old Testament and from Revelations of the New Testament. Slaves sang about the Red Sea opening so the Hebrew slaves could pass the Pharaoh armies, David's victory over Goliath with a stone, Noah building the ark, and Jonah obtaining his freedom from confinement through faith. These songs not only provided hope in the future and examples of oppressed people from the past, but also confirmed that God helped oppressed people. Just as God had delivered the people of Israel from Egyptian slavery, they believed that He would also deliver them from slavery.

Sorrow was also a prevailing theme and was expressed in songs about death. Because slaves did not have control over their lives and were subjected to the whims of their master's, death was a constant threat. However, death was not feared since they believed that Christ had died for all sinners and those who believed in Him would be accepted into the Kingdom of Heaven. Instead, death was viewed as the end to suffering on earth. Therefore, it is not surprising that they sang songs such as, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" which welcomed death.

After the Civil War, the prevalence of spirituals waned since many former slaves did not want to be reminded of the past. However, it was in the early 1870s when a group of students known as the Fisk University Jubilee Singers revived spirituals when they set out to raise money for the university. For the first time white people, non-southerners, and others were able to hear the significance of slave songs. Even today, spirituals provide a way to comprehend the joys, sorrows, and lives of slaves.

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 08 Sep 01 - 11:10 PM

Wish I had this one:

Cone, James H. The Spirituals and the Blues. New York: Orbis Books, 2000. This book reviews some important interpretations of slave songs by authors such as Allen (Slave Songs of the United States) and Richard Wallaschek (Primitive Music [1893]). Cone then goes on to discuss the theological interpretations of the spirituals in relation to the experience of black slaves. Cone states that his purpose is to, "Examine the statement of black experience in the blues as compared with that in the spirituals, investigating their similarities and dissimilarities from both theological and historical view points" (6). His work here is interesting because it examines the spirituals of slaves as an expression of their feelings and goes on to discuss the various meanings of God and Heaven in their songs.

Subject: RE: African-American Spirituals Permathread
From: wysiwyg
Date: 08 Sep 01 - 02:45 PM

Information added here will eventually be edited into the new permathread on African-American Spirituals. Please post what you know, especially links to good past discussions, here-- until it gets brought together in the permathread.

Thanks!

~Susan

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 02:01 AM

Don't miss THIS GREAT THREAD with OUTSTANDING links, including a timeline of the relevant music history, found by Stewie.

~S~

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Sep 01 - 11:14 PM

Here is a start on good resources for additional historical perspective on the genre:

CLICK HERE

Please post in that thread any great new links you have. But post what you find out, here, please!

Also please post here links to any other good thread info you know about. ~Susan

Subject: RE: History of spirituals
From:
Date: 01 Mar 99 - 05:45 PM

kdharris,

You might try The Land Where the Blues Began by Alan Lomax. He spends some time talking about Spirituals and their evolution.

You might want to look at some of his Southern Journey Series. If you go to places like CDNow and Amazon.com you will get some "clips" from the CD's.

Vol. 4 Brethren We Meet Again
Vol, 5 61 Highway Mississippi (Blues & Spirituals)
Vol. 6 Sheep, Sheep, Doncha Know the Road?
Vol. 9 Harp of a Thousand Strings
Vol. 10 Glory Shone Around
Vol. 11 Honor the Lamb

The Smithsonian had a recent touring exhibition called Wade in the Water, a history of African-American spirituals. Recordings at available at their web site. There are many clips available here.

For information about the traveling exhibition click here.

Good luck!

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: History of spirituals
From:
Date: 01 Mar 99 - 06:55 AM

I would like to introduce my students to some spirituals, and need some history and suggested recordings or songs that I could download from the net. Thank-you for your help!