Page 15 - June/July.indd

A Focus on Music in Worship

gospel arrangement, if one is familiar with the gospel the archetypal and transforming power of the spiritu-

idiom, this becomes apparent within the first few mea- als is not restricted to performance by African Ameri-
sures, especially if one listens to the recording GIA also cans. Jones asserts that it is possible for this transforma-
makes available. tive power to be conveyed by those outside of the Black
There is a universality to the spirituals that makes community. He recounts an instance where a non-Black
their message and appeal relatable to those outside of choir accompanies opera singer Jessye Norman in a re-
the African American community. Some of the themes cording of this music.
that are present in the spirituals that are not unique or
particular to the Black community are hope, joy, sorrow, In an interesting kind of irony, African Ameri-
mistreatment, disappointment, and affi rmation of the can conductor Willis Patterson is directing the

humanity of a person. One of the first times a non-Black Ambrosian Singers [of London] to sing back-
audience heard the music of enslaved Africans was when ground choral accompaniments for Norman. In
the Fisk Jubilee Singers of Nashville, Tennessee, sang the the process Patterson has shown that indeed this

music of their ancestors in the presence of a gathering in music can be performed effectively by singers
Oberlin, Ohio. While at a religious conference in Ober- outside of the African diaspora. In his unique
lin, during a pause in the program, the young people demonstration Patterson has also affi rmed the
from Fisk University began to sing the slave songs. Per- accessible, archetypal core of the spirituals,
haps they wanted to forget the painful history of slavery, which have the ability to speak to broad human

or maybe because this music had previously only been issues far afield from the specific context of Afri-
sung in community and never for an audience, there was can American slavery. 12
reluctance on the part of the singers to sing this music
aloud for others. Well, the response was undeniable. In What I will add to this statement is that one must study
his book Wade in the Water: The Wisdom of the Spirituals, this music and convey to the performer the many attri-
Arthur C. Jones describes the incident this way: butes necessary to sing the spirituals authentically, even
when singing concert/arranged spirituals. No matter
History had now been made. The singers, en- the subject matter of the music, whatever the apparent
couraged by the positive audience response, mood of the piece, spirituals are grounded in the pain

sang on and on, one spiritual after another. Con- and suffering of an enslaved people. Spirituals are rhyth-
trary to their apprehensions, there was no sign mic, rooted in the functionality of the drum, central to
of ridicule. The extraordinary power of music, African culture. Wendell Whalum states, “The rhythm
much of which had not been heard before in is most important, and that according to research of
a public arena, appeared to counteract the pre- John W. Work, ‘may be slow and pounding’ or ‘hard and
13
vailing negative racial atmosphere. Momentari- driving.’” James Cone asserts “The spiritual is the com-
ly forgetting that these were African American munity in rhythm, swinging to the movement of life.” 14
singers, many of the listeners cried, obviously There are other considerations such as tone and whether
touched by the music. Although created by Afri- or not to use dialect. I recommend omitting the use of
can Americans in slavery for exclusive use within Negro dialect unless one does the necessary research to
the African community, these songs nonetheless understand dialect and can perform it eff ectively with-
touched something deep in the psyches of this out it coming across as minstrelsy. Lastly, the spiritual
predominantly non-African audience, providing inevitably conveys the enslaved community’s desire for
one of the fi rst affirmations of the archetypal freedom, and in the midst of suff ering, an abiding hope

and transforming power of the spirituals outside and belief that “trouble don’t last always.”
of the context of slavery. 11 Black gospel music is a delicate balance of sacred and
secular elements. There is a theological grounding in sa-
Not only does this music have a universal appeal, but cred scripture and the acknowledgement of God’s sover-

CHORAL JOURNAL June/July 2021 Volume 61 Number 11 13