Friday, April 25, 2014

Spirituals and the Indomitable Human Spirit

American music history is so interesting!  Our melting-pot culture created unique conditions for the development of all kinds of vigorous musical styles.  But most fruitful of all were the dynamic shoots that sprang from the meeting ground of African rhythm and European melody.  Even though the dividing wall of slavery in this country was huge, almost insurmountable, it wasn’t quite; music leaped that wall in all sorts of ways.  Talented slaves were often taught to play European music on violin and piano for the entertainment of their masters.  Whites and blacks heard one another sing at church and camp meetings and at black holiday celebrations such as Pinkster (Pentecost) in the northeast, or Sunday afternoon dancing in New Orleans.  Sometimes they even sang together!

The first of those shoots, and the dearest to my heart, were spirituals.

I have a number of resources in my library here at home on American music, but none of them can pin down just how spirituals came to be.  They certainly owe their rhythmic pulse to the beat of Africa.  Listen for just a minute or two to this Yoruban music (or listen to the entire hour of you want!)...


...and then listen to this field recording of Run, Old Jeremiah.


The drumming of Yoruba finds its echo in the intense rhythm of pulsing voices and beating hands.

The black inhabitants of the Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina are said to have stayed closer than most to their African origins due to their isolation and extreme poverty.  Here is a powerful recording of a group of Sea Islanders singing Adam in the Garden Dancing.  Surely the dance and movement carry echoes of Africa.


The European musical link came through early American psalm tunes and European church hymnody, which early African Americans particularly loved.    Here is another recording of the Sea Islanders singing Daniel in the Lion’s Den; its poetry and cadences could have come straight out of a hymn book.


And here is one of a congregation singing Jesus on the Mainline, recorded in 1911, more than 100 years ago.


Spirituals were the first African American music to be appreciated, collected, studied, and printed in collections—and deservedly so—beginning in the early years of the Civil War.  It is from these origins that our modern spiritual arrangements came to be.  More on those in a later blog.

I find this music intensely moving, in part because of the rhythmic force that can’t be denied, but also because it grew out of great pain.  This is gritty stuff, music that came about not for fame or fortune but as an absolute necessity; it is the direct expression of the indomitable human spirit in the face of suffering and despair, and it is unforgettable.

If you are interested in resources on this and other aspects of American music, two fine books are American Music: A Panorama, by Daniel Kingman, and Music Melting Round, by Edith Borroff.  And if you live near Seattle, you can explore some of these connections in our Out of Africa concert on May 18.

Dr. Linda Gingrich
Artistic director and conductor
Master Chorus Eastside

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