Dialect and Messages of Negro Spirituals Presented by Clarence Jones.
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Transcript of Dialect and Messages of Negro Spirituals Presented by Clarence Jones.
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.”