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The Gospel Truth about the Negro Spiritual
What is the difference between Negro spirituals and gospel
music?
It seemed like a simple question, but it was immediately
apparent that the answer was far from simple. First, it is
complicated by the fact that both exist because of a deep-seated
need to express faith in song.
Secondly, one genre has used the other for source material.
Also, the history of one genre blends into the other.
The times and environment in which the spiritual was nurtured
were starkly different than that of black gospel music. Gospel
music is clearly rooted in the spiritual, and Gospel musicians
have drawn on the spiritual for source material. But are gospel
songs simply jazzed-up spirituals? What is the gospel truth?
The Negro Spiritual: From Cotton Field to Concert Hall
Negro spirituals are songs created by the Africans who were
captured and brought to the United States to be sold into
slavery. This stolen race was deprived of their languages,
families, and cultures; yet, their masters could not take away
their music.
Over the years, these slaves and their descendents adopted
Christianity, the religion of their masters. They re-shaped it
into a deeply personal way of dealing with the oppression of
their enslavement. Their songs, which were to become known as
spirituals, reflected the slaves need to express their new
faith.
The songs were also used for secret communication without the
knowledge of their masters. This was particularly the case when
a slave planned to escape bondage via the Underground Railroad.
Spirituals were created extemporaneously and were passed orally
from person to person. They were improvised as suited the
Real SpiritualityMy fiancee' and I frequent a restaurant in L.A. called Real Food Daily. The concept behind the name is ..... singers. There are approximately 6,000 spirituals; however, the
oral tradition of the slaves ancestorsand the prohibition
against slaves learning to read or writemeant that the actual
number of songs is unknown.
With the end of the American Civil War in 1865, most former
slaves distanced themselves from the music of their captivity.
The spiritual seemed destined to be relegated to slave
narratives or to a handful of historical accounts by whites who
had tried to notate the songs they heard.
The performance of spirituals was reborn when a group of
students from newly founded Fisk University of Nashville,
Tennessee, began to tour to raise money for the financially
strapped school. The Fisk Jubilee Singers carried spirituals to
parts of the U.S. that had never heard Negro folksongs, and they
performed before royalty during tours of Europe in the 1870s.
Their success encouraged other Black colleges and professional
singers to form touring groups. Collections of plantation songs
were published to meet the public demand.
While studying at the National Conservatory of Music, singer and
composer Harry T. Burleigh came under the influence of the Czech
composer Antonn Dvo#345;k. Dvo#345;k visited the United
States in 1892 to serve as the conservatory's new director and
to encourage Americans to develop their own national music.
Dvo#345;k learned of the spiritual from Burleigh and later
recommended that American composers draw upon the spiritual for
their inspiration.
In 1916, Burleigh wrote "Deep River, for voice and piano. His
setting is considered to be the first work of its kind to be
written specifically for performance by a trained singer.
"Deep River" and other spiritual settings became very popular
with concert performers and recording artists, both black and
white. It was soon common for recitals to end with a group of
spirituals. Composers published numerous settings of Negro
spirituals specifically for performance on the concert stage,
and solo and choral singers successfully recorded them for
commercial release.
Additionally, the spiritual has given birth to a number of other
American music genres, including Blues, Jazz and gospel.
Spirituals played a major role of buoying the spirits of
protesters during the Civil Rights Era of the 1950s and 1960s.
The Music
Spirituals fall into three basic categories:
Call and response A leader begins a line, which is then
followed by a choral response; often sung to a fast, rhythmic
tempo (Aint That Good News, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot)
Slow and melodic Songs with sustained, expressive phrasing,
generally slower tempo (Balm in Gilead, Calvary)
Standing In The GapIm weary of saying No to my children. Not just the everyday Nos. Dont hit your brother and No, you cannot have 5 pieces of candy. I am .....
Fast and rhythmic Songs that often tell a story in a faster,
syncopated rhythm (Evry Time I Feel the Spirit, Joshua Fit
the Battle of Jericho)
The lyrics dealt with characters from the Old Testament (Daniel,
Moses, David) who had to overcome great tribulations and with
whom the slaves could easily identify. From the New Testament,
the slaves most closely identified with Jesus Christ, who they
knew would help them.
Since the rhythmonce establishedwas key to their songs, the
singers would add or delete syllables in words to make them fit
the song. Pioneers of spiritual art songs often chose to use
dialect, the manner slaves pronounced words, in their settings.
Early vocal settings reflected the goals of pioneering composers
to retain as much of the feel of the original spiritual as was
possible. Choral settings were ideally performed a cappella, and
solo vocal pieces allowed the use piano accompaniment for
support of the singer. They mainly composed in a steady 2/4 or
4/4 meter.
Over the years, however, settings have become more tonally and
rhythmically complex in the vocal line and accompaniment. This
approach presents more technical challenges to the performers,
and it places greater responsibility upon the performers to be
sensitive to the original intent of the music.
Gospel Music: Good News in the City
The gospel music of the African American had its beginnings
during the years following the Civil War. Many newly freed
slaves began seeking a new life away from the rural setting of
the Southern plantation. They sought opportunities for better
education and employment to the north and west.
From a religious standpoint, the freedmen took two very distinct
paths. Some formed churches affiliated with established white
denominations and used the same formal, structured liturgies.
They rejected the spiritual in its original form because the
songs not only reminded them of their former conditions, but the
songs did not fit well into the service. They chose to sing
hymns by Dr. Isaac Watt, John Wesley and Richard Allen, though
they sang them with a favor that hinted at their African roots.
Predominately in the South, the second path led poorer, less
well-educated African Americans to form their own Pentecostal
churches. From around 1870 until the turn of the century, hymns
began to appear that combined the syncopation,
call-and-response, and improvisation of Black music with the
formal structure of the white hymn. These gospel hymns
addressed the desires of African Americans who wanted songs that
more profoundly expressed their belief in the Good News found
in the four Gospels of the New Testament. Best known of these
composers was Charles A. Tindley, a Methodist minister who wrote
such hymns as Ill Overcome Someday and Well Understand It
Better By and By.
Tindley and his contemporaries copyrighted and published their
music in collections such as Gospel Pearls and New Songs of
Paradise. They also promoted their works in concerts and events.
Some churches allowed, for the first time, the use of
instruments such as the piano, drums and tambourine. Gospel
performing forces during this period consisted either of male
quartets or female gospel choirs.
In the early 20th century, many southern African Americans
migrated north, carrying their music with them. Chicago became
the center of gospel music in the 1930s with the arrival of
Thomas A. Dorsey, the Father of Gospel Music. Dorsey, who had
a very successful career writing and performing with blues diva
Ma Rainey, introduced blues elements to the sacred music he
wrote. He went from church door to church door, gradually
convincing ministers that this devils music was suitable for
their services. With the help of vocalists such as Sallie Martin
and Mahalia Jackson, he recorded his songs and generated an
international audience for his music. He composed over 400 songs
in his career, including his most famous song, Precious Lord,
Take My Hand.
Many of Dorseys contemporaries maintained secular and sacred
professional lives. For example, Blues great Blind Lemon
Jefferson was also known as Deacon L. J. Bates. Singing
preachers recorded gospel race records, and they visited urban
congregations around America.
By the 1950s, gospel music had undergone more changes. Electric
organ or guitars, brass and string instruments, and a variety of
percussion instruments accompanied choirs that now included male
singers. Male quartets performed with instrumental accompaniment
and added one or two members to their groups to allow four-part
harmony under the lead. Keyboardists were expected to
improvisation and to use a much greater range of chordal options
to enhance songs. Prominent performers included Clara Ward, the
Swan Silvertones, the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, and Wings
over Jordan. The Soul Stirrers, led by the suave singing style
of Sam Cooke, brought in an entirely new audienceteenaged
girls--to the world of gospel music.
Gospel performers recorded steadily to meet the growing demand
for their music over the radio. Unfortunately, as was the case
for African Americans in popular music, they were rarely fairly
compensated.
Gospel grew in prominence in other cities, especially
Philadelphia, Detroit, St. Louis, Memphis, Birmingham, and New
York. Performers took their music into locations outside the
usual church venues. Mahalia Jackson sang at Carnegie Hall
(1950), on the Ed Sullivan Show, and at the Newport Jazz
Festival in 1958Clara Ward and the Ward Singers had performed
there the year before; the Caravans and the Dixie Hummingbirds
appeared at the Apollo.
By the 1960s, gospel was performed in nightclubs, and gospel
plays had come to Broadway. Singers like James Cleveland,
Shirley Caesar, Aretha Franklin, the Mighty Clouds of Joy, and
the Staples Singers reached prominence.
However, there was also a shift towards the popular music of the
time that made gospel purists uncomfortable. Edwin Hawkins
closed out the decade with his release of Oh Happy Day, which
combined the elements of gospel with those of Rhythm and Blues.
Along with others in this new generation, such as Andrea Crouch
and Richard Smallwood, he brought a new generation of listeners
to gospel music.
Contemporary gospel has made further shifts over the years. The
dominant gospel groups are made up of large choirs with soloists
using amplified sound equipment designed for popular music
venues. On college campuses across the country, students have
created their own gospel groups. Churches that had resisted
gospel music for decades finally have acquiesced and started
gospel choirs. Choirs, such as Kirk Franklins, have integrated
Hip Hop into their sound.
The popularity of gospel music is showing no signs of waning in
the foreseeable future. The Music
Early gospel hymns used the call-and-response of the spiritual,
as well as syncopation and improvisation. The songs tended to be
in 2/4 or 4/4 meter and use diatonic harmony.
By the 1930s, performers were far less restrained in their use
of harmony, and vocalists and instrumentalists used more
improvisation. The lead singer took a much more active role,
singing whole verses while the other members of the ensemble
repeated words or phrases behind the leader in harmony.
Bass singers, a staple in the 1920s, were replaced by the
instrumental bass line by the 1950s. Mixed choirs consisted of
soprano, alto and tenor or baritone.
From the 1970s onward, soloists began the song in the middle
range of their voices and progressed to the farther ends of
their ranges for dramatic effect. With the advent of rap gospel,
the lead singer either speaks the text with choral and
instrumental accompaniment or alternates between sung and spoken
text.
So, What Is the Gospel Truth?
Spirituals often told stories about biblical characters and
events. These folk songs were born in the rural regions of the
American South, and their anonymous creators were inspired by
the hardships of slavery. These songs were usually created at
the moment using call-and-response between a leader and the
group. They were accompanied only by the slaves clapping hands
or stamping feet. The steady, usually duple, rhythm was the
driving force in the song, so words were often modified to fit
the beat. Additionally, spirituals had to be passed orally from
person to person.
In contrast, gospel music rose primarily from cities of the
North. The songs were accompanied first by keyboard instruments,
then by percussion and later electric and electronic
instruments. The words tend to focus on spreading the Good
News of salvation. Gospel songs provided solace to those who
faced low-paying jobs, poor housing, inadequate education, and
ill-treatment. Both singer and instrumentalist were expected to
improvise within the song.
Gospel music composers, even in the infancy of the genre,
published and recorded their songs. However, like spirituals,
most groups learned new gospel songs by rote. The progenitors of
the spiritual had no means of marketing or selling their music;
in the case of gospel music, Tindley, Dorsey and their
successors made a concertedand highly successfuleffort to
spread their musical message through commercial means.
Spirituals flourished in the vacuum of the plantation, where the
influence of other music styles was limited. Gospel music has
regularly adapted elements of the secular popular music: Blues,
Jazz, R&B, and most recently, Rap.
Despite these considerable differences, however, the most
significant similarity persists. Both spirituals and gospel
music address the need of a people to express their faith in a
dynamic, musical way. Simply put, the gospel truth is that
whether one wanted to Steal Away to Jesus or to ask, Precious
Lord, Take My Hand, a tormented soul found relief in a risen
Savior.
About the author:
Randye Jones is a native of Greensboro, North Carolina. She
received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education from
Bennett College in Greensboro, NC, and the Master of Music
degree in Vocal Performance from Florida State University,
Tallahassee. She currently serves as a library manager at the
George Washington University, Washington, D.C. She created and
maintains the much cited Web site, Afrocentric Voices in
Classical Music.
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