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Spirituals: African-American Spirituals
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Rhythm and the characteristics engendered by rhythm appear to be more important than melody in African music and in the spirituals. The contributing reasons are several. First is the strong influence of dance and the resulting movements of the head, shoulders, arms, hands, hips, legs, and feet. Each movement of a part of the body, or of the entire body, led to the creation of rhythms unique to the particular functioning member. Africans, and later African-Americans, combined several of these often uneven, always diverse, rhythms in an additive process, creating a trait which is described in western nomenclature as polyrhythm.
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Information regarding spirituals in African-American history is often scant and difficult to obtain. Material on gospel music, being more recent and well documented, is easier to obtain. However, much of the material available on gospel music, and the spirituals for that matter, is often from an Eurocentric perspective. Without the contribution of African-American historians, you can never hope to arrive at some degree of balance and impartiality.
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Freedom is probably the most prominent theme in early African-American writing such as the slave narrative and in spirituals. In the spiritual above, freedom lies over the Jordan, or in the next life, in the hands of God. "Deep River" is a plea for deliverance out of oppression and sorrow.
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African-American Spirituals