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Spirituals: African-American Spirituals
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Spirituals were an intrinsic part of the African-American plantation life and were sung at all important occasions and events. This volume is the first index of spirituals to be compiled in more than half a century and will be an important research tool for scholars and students of African-American history and music.
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The Concert of African-American Spirituals, held in celebration of Black History Month, will begin at 4 p.m. at the Unitarian Church, 306 N. Aurora St., in downtown Ithaca. The concert is free and open to the public.
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Negro spirituals were primarily expressions of religious faith. They may ... have served as socio-political protests veiled asassimilation to white American culture. They were originated by enslaved African-Americans in the United States. Slavery was introduced to the European colonies in 1619, and enslaved people largely replaced indentured servants as an economic labor force during the 17th century. This labor force would remain in bondage for the entire 18th century and much of the 19th century. They were released with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution by United States Secretary of State William Henry Seward in 1865.
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The African-American tradition of spirituals and sacred music has continued and changed from Reconstruction to the present. The religious themes that were at the heart of the early spirituals continued with gospel, blues, and even pop singers. Marian Anderson was one of the most famous singers in her era. She didn't sing spirituals, per se, but was classically trained for operas! When she gave her signature performance in front of the Lincoln Memorial as a protest to the Daughters of the American Revolution, her place was set in the hearts of Americans. Now in the present era, the spiritual tradition is still kept alive in a variety of ways.
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African-American spirituals comprise one of the world's greatest and best-loved bodies of music, appealing to both performers and audiences across all boundries. This book is the first anthology to present a comprehensive survey of the genre's reperoire - its principal composers, themes and forums - in a way this is at once stylistally authentic, historically meaningful and intended for practical use both in worship and in concert. Included is a rich array of songs, both familiar and less familiar, arranged by twenty eight of the most significant composers and presented in chronological order from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. The selections illustrate the history of the spiritual as an art form - from the first serious attempts at notation in ways that approximated actual performance styles, through an arrangement by one of today's most exciting composer-arrangers Moses Hogan.
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Although the choral arrangements of the African-American spirituals constitute the largest group of folk song arrangements in western literature, they have received little scholarly attention. This book provides the needed historical and stylistic information about the spirituals and the arrangements. It traces the history and cultural roots of the genre through its inception and delineates the African and European characteristics common to the original folk songs and arrangements. Ensembles that have perpetuated the growth of the spiritual arrangements--from the Fisk Jubilee Singers of the 1870s through those currently active--are chronicled as well.
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African-American Spirituals