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Spirituals inspired by african music
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Humans from the coast of West Africa arrived to the New World as slaves. Stripped of everything familiar, they brought with them their traditional ways of using music to record historic events, expressions, and to accompany rituals. While toiling in the tobacco fields of Virginia, slaves were not permitted to speak to each other. So, they resorted to their African tradition. They sang!
Today, these lyrics have crossed barriers and are sung in many churches across America as spirituals. However, such songs as Wade in the Water, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, and Follow the Drinking Gourd, were once used as an important tool of survival by the slaves of the antebellum era. The content of many Negro spirituals consisted of a religious theme. However, Negro spirituals were not intended to be religious. The primary purpose of Negro spirituals was to mislead an overseer or the plantation owner.
Slaves were not allowed to have a political voice, but singing was permitted. Slaves were free to sing while working in the fields, or while performing various duties about the plantation. White Southerners viewed songs with biblical themes as non-threatening. A spiritual-singing slave was perceived as joyous and content. However, the seemingly joyous" music of the Negro slave was that of an unhappy people" (Dubois).
Spirituals were used as a political tool for slaves to voice their contempt, or stand up to an irate master by mumbling his feelings through song.
mislead an overseer or plantation owner. Messages were secretly concealed in every verse! Spirituals were not written, but transferred from slave to slave orally. In 1871, a group of students from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, formed a choir called the Jubilee Singers. Fisk was an University designed to educate former slaves. This choir of Freedmen performed concerts to raise money for their school. The Jubilee singers helped to preserve the songs of the American slaves. Slaves were not allowed the opportunity of literacy, so spirituals were not written. This resulted in many forgotten lyrics.
escaping slaves during the antebellum era of the South.
Call and Response is a style of singing that was utilized by slaves under the watchful eye of an overseer. The West African culture traditionally used this style of singing in public gatherings and religious rituals (Wikipedia).
From the mid-1800s, most black institutions of higher education fielded a group of jubilee singers and/or a vocal quartet to sing spirituals. These groups toured the nation and "represented" the institution outside the local community. One of the earliest and most famous of these groups were the Jubilee Singers from Fisk University. According to Ray Funk, in his essay accompanying the Document compilation EARLY NEGRO VOCAL QUARTETS, there is only one recording from the 1890s extant of an African-American vocal group, the Standard Quartette.
We typically think of slaves as a mistreated African American. Thats not all they were, they sang, they read, they were a huge part of our history we don't even acknowledge. They contributed a lot to our music, you could say they were the roots of jazz and blues. Slaves sang almost every moment of their life, there is many different categories of their music, but one of the most interesting is field hollers. Field hollers contain a lot of information on the slave(s). This means emotion is strong in these songs. You can find three main subjects in their tunes, those three are; sad, happy, informative, or passing time.
The United States of America were not always united together; namely, during the Civil War. The country was divided on the issue of slave labor. The American Civil War is the fight between the Southern states and the Northern states. The south wanted to keep the slaves to continue to work on the plantations and farms. It was believed they were not capable of intelligence in order to be a contributing member of society. It would also cut into the profits of the owner labor costs. Northern states wanted the slaves to become free members of the United States. The civil war at its core involved millions of men, women, and children finding solace and strength were it was possible. Many found it comforting to play music or sing while waiting long periods of time. “Other songs motivated them as they prepared to do battle with the enemy.” (Waller & Edgington, 2001) Subsequently, The Battle Hymn of the Republic by Julia Ward Howe depicts the presence of religion and its important through the popular marching tune
The NAACP used their platform in society to move away from Black Nationalism into their own agenda of welfare and interracial political campaigning (Redmond 64). As with “Ethiopia”, the anthem was used to unite the political aspirations of the NAACP. Because of its presence in the black community in the south, “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” brought in that demographic that was missing from the NAACP. Without this the organization would not have been the powerhouse that it became which in turn helped with the agenda and brought the NAACP into the national foreground. While being a political stepping stone, the anthem brought together Japanese achievements that would in turn help with black culture (Redmond 82). Because of the interest in the anthem, the cultures of Japan and black America would help further the NAACP. Japan’s prominence in the world gave the blacks the international platform that they needed that gave more stability to their position as a political and cultural standing in society. “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” anthem showed that some of these anthems had their benefits to a political organization. Redmond stated the song “has retained the institutional title of anthem in the Black United States (273-274). Anthems can be beneficial to the political organization that they stand for and this song proves that. By staying in prominence “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” has established the NAACP as an organization is still influential today even though it has a long history that could have ended it trajectory into mainstream
The street balladry of the people who began migrating to America in the early 1600s is considered to be the roots of traditional American music. As the early Jamestown settlers began to spread out into the Carolinas, Tennessee, Kentucky and the Virginias, they composed new songs about day to day like experiences in the new land.
Therefore, to endure the pains and sufferings the slaves had to use music. As illustrated above, the advent of music had far reaching results as it encouraged and gave them hope to continue working. The early music composers are the evidence of existence of early music which in turn has shaped today’s music like the blues and pop lyrics. In this case, the culture of the past has been rescued from getting lost.
“How Musical is Man?” was published in 1974. This book was written by John Blacking, a musician turned social anthropologist. His goal in writing this ethnography, and several other papers during this same time period, was to compare the experience of music-making that takes place within different cultures and societies throughout the world. In this book, he discusses and describes the musicology of the Venda people in South Africa. Though he does go to Africa to research and learn about the Venda people and their music, he specifically states that his book is “not a scholarly study of human musicality” (ix), but rather it is a summary (written from his point of view), which is both expressive and entertaining, of several different issues and ideas that he has seemingly been contemplating for some time.
Music played a very important role in the lives of people is diaspora communities. It served as a reminder for the immigrants of their homeland, which allowed them to proudly express their national and cultural identities. Diaspora refers to an international network of communities linked together by the identification of a common ancestral homeland and culture. People in these communities are no longer living in their homelands, with no guarantee of a return either. (Bakan, 19). Music played a large role in African diaspora communities. This was first started by the slave trades many years ago when slave traders traveled to the coast of West Africa to capture Africans and brought them back to the United States to be slaves on plantations. Slaves were more prone to loose a sense of their own culture because every new aspect of their lives was forced upon them, therefore they were undoubtedly forced to abandon their n...
The book America’s Musical Landscape starts by looking back to early North American Music from the American Indians, to the religious and non religious music of the European and African settlers. According to the book “Native American music was and is song, sometimes supported by instruments.”1 The Native American used different types of instruments to accompany their songs or chants such as the drums, flute and rattles. Like music for us today the Native Americans used music in all different aspects of their lives. The early European settlers br...
Music is found in every know culture, past and present. It is also, already being composed for the future. It is widely varied between all times and places. Since scientists believe that the modern humans arrived in the African culture more than 160,000 years ago, around 50,000 years ago, it is believed that the dispersal of music has been being developed between all cultures in the world. Even the most isolated tribal groups are thought to have had a form of music.
The fact that using song lyrics as a historical source provides the listeners or readers of the lyrics real and pure thoughts from the writers. The songs are stripped of any malicious intent and simply, “created by people without wealth or power” as said in the aforementioned history book. (152) Another benefit is that the song evolves overtime and that also makes it diverse for any town to listen to. However, it expresses a new way of telling stories and assists in conveying emotion to the listener and truly involves them into the song.
Also, music and dance in West African music have become synonymous with conversation. “Improvisation,” the fourth of the six Africanisms discussed in Chapter Ten is highly characteristic of Sub-Saharan African music because it is something that has been passed down each generation and became a musical feature that a listener would expect to hear. The lead drumming in Fontomfrom contains improvisation. “Timbral Variety,” the fifth of six Africanisms occurs when musicians try to reach a variety of timbral ranges. Singers attempt to influence their voices and instruments to achieve a variety of
Small, Christopher. Music of the Common Tongue: Survival and Celebration in African American Music. Hanover, NH: U of New England, 1998. Print
Every West African village had its own professional musicians and singers who would perform for the community. Musicians were idolized in their villages. They normally sat with the king or chief because of their elevated status.
Music in the Caribbean was first developed by the Neo Indians around 1600 the Neo Indians died taken their culture and music. Music then reemerged when the African slaves came to the Caribbean. The type of music the Africans brought was both lively and entertaining. The slaves found a rhythm in everything they did from cutting cane to taking care of the homes of the planter class. They sang to keep their spirits up, because they were taken way from family back in Africa and the harsh working and living conditions affecting them.