Spirituals Performance Discussions

Subject: Spirituals Performance Discussions
From: wysiwyg
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 01:16 PM

This thread is part of the African-American Spirituals Permathread project at Mudcat. It's not a permathread itself, but I may lift some posts from this thread into that permathread, and edit/credit them there unless you specify otherwise. ~SH~

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At the African-American Spirituals Permathread, there's an essay you can see there, about performance. (Use the new table of contents in there to find it, please). I'd like to be able to add Mudcat voices to that essay.

In another thread discussing the spiritual generally known as "SING AHO, THAT I HAD THE WINGS OF A DOVE," I opined that ... "Sing Aho" is a typical effort at matching syllables to tune.... I think "Sing-a O" or even "Sing, O" would have been a more likely approach originally and that it became "Sing Aho" via transcription error when first written down for publication. Yes, I took the liberty of making that assessment... what can I say, this is my area of study after all...

Q responded: "DE WINGS OB A DOVE," "Sing a ho that I Had the Wings..." was published by Grey, [in] "Fifty Negro Spirituals," a rare book. 'Aho' is a run-together error, not committed by the collector. The sing-a in your text is OK; 'ho' was probably just an emphasized 'oh.'

Today, for a more elegant tune fit, I would probably sing it, "Singin' Oh, that I had...."

Similarly, when transcribing "RIDE UP IN THE CHARIOT" earlier today from a beautifully-sung version, I opined that the published repeating line "sooner in the morning" ... is a transcription choice made when a singer sang "soon-a" or "soon-er" in order to fill in/move around in the tune. As a singer myself, "soon-a" is easier to sing with this tune than "soo-oon"-- and "soon-er" is actually easier to sing than "soon-a."

What would be clearer, as I found when I tried to sing the particular song myself at full voice, is the spontaneously-sung "soon-in" where "soon" gets a very short note and "in" gets a dotted note to fill the space used in the tune by the phrase "sooner in."

Why does this matter? Because in a zillion spirituals (OK I'm using hyperbole), "SOON IN THE MORNING" is a concept, not just a line of text sung to fit the tune.... a text to which the tune has been fitted so it can be sung emphatically, as a key theme in the song.

I don't believe I am taking improper liberties with the material when I do this.

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What do YOU do in interpreting a spiritual, today, that might differ from or expand upon the material as you have received it?

What else is important to you, as an interpreter or performer of spirituals?

Thanks for joining the discussion!

~Susan

Subject: RE: Spirituals Performance Discussions
From: wysiwyg
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 12:34 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: Spirituals Performance Discussions
From: Cluin
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 03:22 PM

Can you sing a spiritual even if you don't believe?

Subject: RE: Spirituals Performance Discussions
From: wysiwyg
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 03:44 PM

Sure, why not? We've all had hard times, sorrow, and hope, and they are as much the basis for them as religious feeling.

Do you sing it differently if you "believe"? Probably, though not necessarily better.... as long as you believe something that the song represents to you?

~Susan

Subject: RE: Spirituals Performance Discussions
From: Bee
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 04:08 PM

I'm comfortable singing songs with elf-knights and the like in 'em. Belief in the subject matter wouldn't stop me singing any good song with feeling.

WYSIWYG, not that I am very informed about spirituals (more now, as I read the permathread materials), but would regional speaking accents come into the perfomance issues you are addressing? In the case of 'Sing Aho', or 'Sing-a O', I tried singing the sylables aloud and concluded, with my discernible Cape Breton accent, that I would be more comfortable leaving the 'h' sound out. Or am I making no sense out of ignorance?

Subject: RE: Spirituals Performance Discussions
From: wysiwyg
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 04:21 PM

regional speaking accents

Well, I learned some of the songs I sing from the singing of the Park New Choir-- they're in France, and God love 'em for putting their songs online. The French accent-- they're singing in English-- is interesting and I found it charming (in my patronizing way).

I can really only speak from my own experience, and I'm sure others might have a different view, but here's mine.

The people I've song-led these last 10 years here in North Central Pennsylvania have a certain way of speaking when they are relaxed and informal, that I am sure has rubbed off on me, a transplant from Chicagoland. So when I copy-edit old dialect as it was transcribed in the US south in the 1800's, so that a song will "sing" correctly for us in this time and in this place, I am sure I borrow not only the local accent but the local phrasing. Example....... thinking.....

"Oh Ah bin BUKED... an' AH bin scawned, 'n' Ah bin TALKed about, sure's yo BAWN," is how I learned the start of one song from a southern US African American singing group.

What I think I'm singin is, "Well I been BEWked, an' I been scorned, an' I been TALKed-about, SURE as you born."

And that's pretty much what I hear the people singing back to me.

~Susan