4. Negro spirituals

The ideology behind the negro spiritual started during the 19th century. The African slaves that were sent across to the United States had brought their own indigenous religions but in an attempt to “de-Africanise” them, use of native languages were prohibited and they were quickly converted to Christianity. This led to secret religious services at night when their masters were asleep and the singing of “work songs” while they were on the fields. These songs would go on to be called “spirituals”. These spirituals were a combination of the lyricism and context of Christian hymns and African elements, such as shouting in praise and “call and response”, which can still be seen in the “black music” of today. According to Floyd (1995, p.39), the spiritual was the most well known of all African-American genres during the early days or the “Africans’ transformation into African Americans”

Spirituals are said to come in two textual forms: sorrow songs and jubilees (Floyd, 1995). The sorrow songs discussed the pain and suffering of slaves while jubilees, made famous by groups such as Jubilee Singers of Fisk University, expressed optimism for a better life post-abolition. As Floyd discusses (1995, p.42), there were prominent links between the early spirituals and African performances, showing in songs like “Steal Away”, with its short repeating phrases that grow into larger melodies containing “multimeter, pendular thirds and descending phrase endings”. Negro spirituals were also notable for their so-called “code messages”. In songs such as “Swing Low Sweet Chariot”, the “home” described in the chorus wasn’t perceived to be the freedom of America – at least amongst the slaves themselves – but their original homeland, Africa (Powell, 1990). This type of social and cultural retaliation against the white slave owners reinforced the ideology behind “black music” being “for the people and by the people”

Where songs like these differ from European music is in their exuberant performances, physically and vocally. Spiritual hymns were often sung in churches or played in the form of sacred music and madrigals. The religious embellishments were portrayed through the instrumental and vocal music. However, when the African slaves infused these hymns with their style of physical praise, the musical devotion to God became more widespread. While there are arguments as to the magnitude of white influence on these spirituals, the key factors that make them stand out from these “white” hymns are their African characteristics. Courlander (1992) acknowledged the African traits within the spirituals and folk songs but explained that there were many different influences from Europe, in places like Louisiana with its French folk music and the French Caribbeans bringing similar styles. Courlander also mentioned something he called “feedback” (Courlander, 1992) where a recording artist sang a song and if it were particularly popular, it would receive airplay and effectively “influence” the style of the performers amongst its audience. In this sense, the media was shaping the sound of spirituals, albeit for financial gain. One of the influential groups to perform negro spirituals were the Fisk Jubilee Singers, an African-American a cappella group, made up of students from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. Their formal training made them stand out from the slaves who didn’t have that advantage. Journalist James Monroe Trotter described the performances as “fully developed by the singers” (Trotter, 1878, p.259), which was in contrast to how spirituals were perceived; for example, Floyd described jubilee spirituals as having “shuffling, angular, off-beat, additive, repetitive, intensive and unflagged rhythms” (Floyd, 1995, p.6)