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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