Dialect and Messages of Negro

Spirituals

Presented byClarence Jones

NEGRO SPIRITUALS EMANATED

From the hearts of the Ante-Bellum Slaves The House/Field Negros

Religious Passion Overflowing Faith in God

Oral Tradition – One Generation to Another The “Invisible Church”

THE PRE-LITERATE ERA OF SLAVERY Preaching Inspired These Songs Singing Sacred Songs

Jubilees – “Great Day the Righteous Marching” Folk Songs – “Study War No More” Shout Songs – “Every Time I Feel the Spirit” Sorrow Songs – “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless

Child” Slave Songs – “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” Minstrel Songs – “Cotton Pickin’ Songs” Religious Songs – “Were You There When They Crucified

My Lord” Negro Spirituals – “Steal Away”

CONDITIONS THAT INFLUENCE NEGRO SPIRITUALS Negative

“The Blind Man Stood on the Road and Cried” Degrading

“Master Going to Sell Us Tomorrow” Dyer Conditions

6,000 Independent Spirituals Exist Today

HANDED DOWN SPIRITUALS SPEAK OF… Life – “Scandalize My Name” Death – “I Want to Die Easy, When I Die” Suffering – “I’ve Been ‘Buked” Sorrow – “A City Called Heaven” Love – “God is God! God Don’t Never Change!” Judgment – “In That Great Getting Up Morning” Grace – “Fix Me, Jesus” Hope – “Heaven, Heaven” Justice – “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel” Mercy – “Standing in the Need of Prayer”

SPIRITUALS WERE… Songs of A PEOPLE WEARY AT HEART Songs of UNHAPPY PEOPLE BEAUTIFUL EXPRESSION of Human

Experience

AFRICAN’S LIVES CELEBRATED THOUGH MUSIC

Marriage – “ Marry a Woman Uglier Than” Birth – “Mary Had A Baby” Death – “I’m So Glad There’s No Dying

Over There” Work – “Children, Don’t Get Weary ‘Til

Your Work Is Done” Play – “All I Do the Church Keep A’

Grumbling” Public Humor – “Jerry, The Arkansas Mule”

RHYTHM Important to Music Words Primary

Derived From Particular Event Content & Mood Dictated Instrumentation

Use Ex. Hand clapping

NEGRO SPIRITUALS TELL OF… Exile – “Let My People Go” Trouble – “I Been in the Storm So Long” Strife – “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody turn Me

‘Round” Hiding – “No Hiding Place Down There” Groping (toward some unseen power) –

“Over My Head I Hear Music in the Air” Sigh For Rest (at the end of life) – “Soon I Will Be Done”

“But through all the sorrow of the sorrow songs there breathes a hope - a faith in the ultimate

justice of things.”

William E. B. Dubois

MUSICAL FORM OF THE NEGRO SPIRITUAL Rhythm Intricacy (of Rhythm) Written in Quadruple & Duple Meter Syncopation

3 CLASSIFICATIONS OF NEGRO SPIRITUALS Call & Response

Chant & Response By Choir Syncopated

Fast Tempos Body Movements Rhythm That Swings

Slow & Sustained Long-phrased Melodies Slow Tempos Long & Sustained Phrases, Nostalgic, Dignified

SPIRITUALS ARE… Vocally Diatonic Highly Ornamental Plaintive Nostalgic Dignified Beautiful Appealing

TYPES OF SCALES USED IN SPIRITUALS Conventional Major & Minor Scales

Pentatonic Scale

Mixed & Modal Scales

Flatted Thirds Flatted Sevenths Flatted Sixths I, IV, and V7 Chords

MUSICAL TEXTUTES Horizontal – Melodic Vertical – Harmonic Monophonic

Single melodic line without accompaniment Polyphonic

2 or more simultaneous melodies Homophonic

Single melody with accompaniment

VOCALIST/SOLOIST Most vital factor Techniques – Had No Bounds or Rules

Chants Hums Wailings Shouts Glides Turns Groans & Moans Word Interjections

IMPROVISATION Main Stylistic Feature/Tool of Folk Songs

Permitted in Lyrics

Words of the Negro Spiritual… Generally represent the feeling of the songs

HOWARD THURMAN SUGGESTS Majority of Text Came From… Old Testament of the Bible

“Go Down Moses” “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel”

New Testament of the Bible “Were You There When They Crucified My

Lord” “He Never Said a Mumblin’ Word” “Go Tell It On the Mountain” “De Glory Manger”

The World of Nature “Deep River” “Roll, Jordan Roll” “The Promised Land” “Heaven” “Over Jordan”

Freedom from slavery and freedom from life

were often synonymous.

“Oh Freedom”“Bound for Canaan Land”

“Deep River”“Swing Low Sweet Chariot”

“Steal Away to Jesus”

Release in death sometimes became the ultimate hope and goal.

“Steal Away”“Swing Low Sweet Chariot”

“I Want to Die Easy, When I Die”

HILDRED ROACH informs us that despite the

overabundance of biblical words used in the majority of

spirituals, their functions were not purely religious.

FUNCTIONS OF BIBLICAL WORDS USED IN SPIRITUALS (According to

Hildred Roach)

Search of Freedom In Religious Services To Teach - To Gossip To Scold - To Signal To Delight in the Telling of Tales Relief in the Minds & Bodies of the Enslaved Inform Slaves of Their Own Affairs Social Politics - Deliverance - Escape - Satire

SPECIALIZATION IN MESSAGE OF SPIRITUALS

“God is a God”“God don’t never change!”

“God is a God”“An’ He always will be God!”

SPIRITUALS WITH DUAL OR DECODED MEAINGS “There’s a Great Camp Meeting” “Walk Together Children” “Children Don’t Get Weary” “Steal Away” “O Mary, Don’t You Weep, Don’t You

Mourn”

SPIRITUALS WITH AMAZING MEANINGS OR “WORD PAINTINGS” “Hush, Hush, Somebody’s Calling My

Name” “Keep A-Inchin’ Along” “Somebody’s Knocking at Your Door”

RELIGIOUS SONGS WITH SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE “De Gospel Train”

“Get on Board Little Children” “Steal Away” “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel” “Deep River”

EARLY SPIRITUALS… Not Just Songs Unceasing Variations on a Theme Religious (& Social) Songs

Sung by group of people Expressions of Feelings

Miniscule regard for sound effect, vocal beauty, or proper harmonic progression

SPIRITUALS BEYOND THE ACT OF EMANCIPATION The Fisk Jubilee Singers

Artistic metamorphosis in 1870’s Became permanent American art form

George L. White Caucasian music instructor at Fisk Organized, trained, and named original

“Fisk Jubilee Singers” “The Invisible Church”

Praise house songs artistic & “concertized” in choral form in U.S. and beyond

“The Hampton Institute Singers” Guidance of R. Nathaniel Dett Became extremely popular

Black Colleges & Churches Sacred music of the painful past

Anthemizes Spiritual Developed by black composers & musicians

who studied in conservatories

R. Nathaniel Dett “Listen to the Lambs” – 1914

Harry T. Burleigh One of the first to arrange & perform spirituals Style of the European Art Song “Deep River” - 1916 Became model for others

BLACKS WHO SING, FOLLOWED TRADITION & HELPED DEVELOP THE FORM

Marian Anderson Camilla Williams

Dorothy MaynorMattiwilda Dobbs

Roland Hayes

Paul Robeson

George Shirley

Leontyne Price

Simon Estes

Shirley Verrett

Robert McFerrin

Todd Duncan

BLACK COMPOSERS OF VOCAL & INSTRUMENTAL SPIRITUAL ARRANGEMENTS

Edward Boatner Native of New Orleans, LA Music Director, National Baptist Convention

Harry T. Burleigh Erie, PA Singer, Composer, Arranger

Clarence Cameron White Clarksville, TN Taught at West Virginia State & Hampton

Institute

Willis Laurence James Montgomery, AL Music Educator, Violinist, Musicologist Alabama State, Fort Valley State, Spellman,

Leland College Hall Johnson

Athens, AL Composer, Arranger Conductor of Famous “Hall Johnson Choir” Wrote Music for “Green Pastures” & “Run, Little

Chillun”

William Dawson Annestomn, AL Composer, Arranger Conductor of Famous Tuskegee Choir

John W. Work Tullahoma, TN Fisk Jubilee Singers Director

Frederick Hall Atlanta, GA Director of Music at Clark, Morris Brown,

Alabama State, and Dillard Universities

R. Nathaniel Dett Drummondville, Ontario Taught at Lane College, Lincoln, and Hampton

Institute Eva Jessye

Coffeyville, KS Composer, Conductor

James Weldon & Rosamond Johnson

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

William Grant Still Woodville, MS Conducted Major Symphony Orchestras

Florence Price Little Rock, AK Conductor, Arranger, and Composer for Instrumental &

Vocal Ensembles

Margaret Bonds Chicago, IL Pianist & Choral Arrangements

Undine Smith Moore Jarrat, VA Music Educator, Composer, Arranger Taught at Virginia State an VA Union

Lena McLin Chicago, IL Composer, Arranger, Music Educator

WHITE SYMPHONIC COMPOSERS Anton Dvorak

Czechoslovakian composer Greatly influenced by student -

Harry T. Burleigh

George Gershwin American Composer “Porgy & Bess”

First successful American Opera Written about the life of blacks Written in style of the Spiritual

SPIRITUALS: INFLUENCE & DEVELOPMENT Messages & Emotions

Penetrating in Popular & Classical MusicMinstrel Songs JazzBlues Country MusicPopular Songs Ring-Game SongsSwing White RockSoul Music GospelR&B Rap

OUT OF RESERVOIR OF NEGRO SPIRITUALS CAME… Freedom Songs of

“The Nonviolent Movement”

Songs that Demonstrate Justice & Human Dignity

The Foundation for Black Music in U.S.

SONGS of the SOUL AND OF THE SOIL ENRICHED AMERICAN MUSIC

Syncopated rhythm The Art of Jazz Music A Wealth of Materials used by Great

Composers They Articulate the Message of an Oppressed

People An Artful Expression that Enhanced

Christianity Patience Love, Freedom Faith Hope

IN CONCLUSION…The slaves were NOT simply

singing a song; they were

expressing a point of view:

“Go Down, Moses; Way Down in Egypt Land. Tell Ol’ Pharaoh to Let

My People Go.”