Negro Spirituals
For this blog I have decided I would like to speak on African - American Spirituals. Or better known and often referred to as Negro Spirituals. Personally, I have a few years of experience with Negro Spirituals. Most of my singing experience has definitely came from singing Negro Spirituals in a youth vocal ensemble from my hometown church. We sang many Spirituals over the years that had to do with many different things. Whether they fit in with black history month or they are for Christmas season or even easter. Im excited to talk about this because it gives me a chance to share one of my top 5 genres with you guys and tell you all some of my favorite negro spirituals that I have sang.
In its basic essence, Negro Spirtuals are folksongs that were sung by slaves on the plantation. A lot of the lyrics are based on being free one day and are coherent with stories of the bible. Starting around the 1860s is around the time that the syncrethistm of white sharecroppers and black slaves was beginning (pre-blues). And whilst they singing about their hard times of being slaves, the slaves had no where to put their hope of freedom any where but the bible. So when they were giving praise or musically voicing their pleading hope, it came out in a song of stories and tales of god's people being freed from enslavement.
During this time of slavery Negro Spirtuals became a regular tradition and a regular part of worship for slaves. So at the end of the day at night time and everyone is hanging around eating, you’re singing negro spirtuals while praying for freedom from enslavement. This is just something that got passed on throughout generations and would be continually sung in religious situations and rememberance of the slaves and the things that kept them hopeful through those deep times of tragedy .
In this blog i actually will be giving a lot of examples of Negro spirtuals just because this is an oppurtiny to showcase my favorite spirtuals so im going take it!
First example is a spiritual called “were you there” which says “were you there when they crucified my lord” in a series of different accompanying text. I say this is a good example because ot gives a good idea of how these former slaves were able to put their sorrow and also their religon into the text. This piece is obviously very emotional.
The physical constructs of negro Spirtuals has always been cool to me. The fact that they are all acapella and are most commonly arranged and require a 4 part harmony at the basic. Whether it be SSTB or TTBB or SSAA. It all shows the complex harmonies that were able to come from these slaves. But in future times when they were recorded and written down they have been arranged in many different forms even with instrumental accompaniment . These spirituals can get quite complex. Especially when it comes to many voices doing many polyrhythms that can get quite complex. Also one thing that I believe ties in to the basic construct is the specific story that is being told. Where if you are singing about the birth of Mary, you will obviously hear more sustained notes that have a more solemn feeling throughout the music. But when singing about maybe the Battle of Jericho, you will hear a lot of fast notation and upbeat rhythms (especially in the bass and tenor) . Also the articulation of voices comes into play very much. Normally spirituals are sung in a call and response manner. Basically portraying a leader putting out a verse of hope and a group of people responding to it. This is something that made it very hard for future documenters of music to document because they would be different in each spiritual or each small piece of documentation of each song. This structure is something I find to be very cool because of the religious practices that they had to abide by once they were moved to North America. When in Africa, we obviously know how illustrious and upbeat music is but when they were taken to North America, slave owners were not very appreciative of their upbeat worship. And when they were introduced to christianity, they were forced to have more solemn and reverent worship in order to abide by the law of their owners. But it is very evident in a lot of the music how rich the African culture is.
This next example is a spiritual song named “The battle of Jericho” arranged by a famous gospel composer Moses Hogan. In this I would advise you to listen a few times and try to follow each voice part (SSAATTBB). Just to get an idea of all the cool things that they are doing inside of the piece. Hogan gives a good introduction of the piece of this awesome arrangement.
Another example I have is a spiritual called “Deep River”. Which is quite popular because of the way it tells of a home far away from where they are. With their song hopefully bringing them closer one day. I use this because it shows 1. The religious schemes of this culture are embedded in the soft flowing harmonies in SATB. But also it has a contrasting structure to the previous piece. Something very slow and solemn that allows you to really feel what the singers are trying to portray.
One last thing I will touch are the people who have made negro Spirtuals accesible to us today. Since obviously when these were created, Black people did not necessarily have the means to write down lyrics to keep with for years to come. But luckily with passing generations and singing these songs in effort to bring light and hope into their lives. They were able to stay afloat until black composers got their chance to get their hands on them. Most notably Moses Hogan, who arranges a lot of music mainly negro spirtuals and makes them more accessible for choirs and soloist to sing beautiful songs from their culture. Also societies of gospel choirs and the barbershop Harmony society have done a great job in keeping these renditions common today.
I did not realize that African American spirituals began in the 1860s. I found the history of these spirituals to be very interesting. I find it cool that the music is built upon a four part harmony. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE LOVE the first two songs that were played, they are some of my favorites to sing. I actually sang “We’re you there” SATB at my previous college and it gives me chills every time I hear it. There is so much interesting things that come with Negro Spirituals and how much soul and meaning they put into their music is just amazing.
ReplyDeleteI love this Jordan, I think my favorite was also "Rockin' Jerusalem." I think that it gave something modern to go with something that does seem to be older. For me spirituals were never something I really heard except for in history class so I'm glad to see that it is something you are invested in and could teach me something about
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