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teur singers, and succeed in performance. Pieces like part is interesting and rewarding to sing. The melodies
Ain’-a That Good News and Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit are are memorable, the harmonies interesting and well-
so familiar today that we can take their high quality for voiced, the rhythms satisfying. In short, these would be
granted and forget how groundbreaking they were. As model works for high school and college choir no mat-
Vernon Huff has written, Dawson’s spiritual arrange- ter what genre of music they belonged to.
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ments “completely transformed the genre.” The fact that they are spirituals, however, makes
These pieces are wide-ranging in their appeal and Dawson’s arrangements a profound demonstration of
popularity, but Dawson created most of them with a sensitivity to his Black students’ needs. For example,
very specific community in mind: his students, almost he approaches dialect differently from one piece to an-
all of whom were Black. His first published arrange- other, sometimes using exclusively Standard American
ments, including King Jesus Is A-Listening and I Couldn’t English (There Is a Balm in Gilead), sometimes including
Hear Nobody Pray (H.T. FitzSimons, 1925 and 1926), elements of African American Vernacular English (Soon
were written for his choir members at Lincoln High Ah Will Be Done). He never turns a folk song’s “ain’t”
School in Kansas City, Missouri. The majority of his or “a-turnin’” into more formal language that would
most famous choral works, of course, were composed render it stiff and awkward, and he carefully writes
for the Tuskegee Institute Choir. Dawson’s artistic en- each text to yield the right pronunciation (I Wan’ To
gagement with the folk songs of his enslaved ancestors Be Ready). In his published essay on the meaning and
is a powerful sign of commitment to his race—as was performance of spirituals, Dawson emphasizes that the
his decision in 1930 to leave behind a flourishing career distinctive speech patterns of the enslaved resulted from
in Chicago and join the Tuskegee faculty. their preference for the “soft and euphonious vocables
Exactly like the folk songs upon which they were of [their] native African speech” over the “harsh and
based, Dawson’s pedagogically attuned choral works guttural sounds” of English. Respect for the aesthetic
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met the needs of the community that sang them. He agency of the songs’ creators is evident in Dawson’s
gave students two or more generations removed from own careful choices about his song texts, rejecting the
slavery a way of engaging positively with their fore- thoughtless, derogatory linguistic caricatures that were
bears’ experiences, spirituality, and artistry. Through commonly found in mass media depictions of African
Dawson’s music, young African American singers en- Americans.
countered and embodied music that proved the value Counteracting racist stereotypes was part of the la-
and beauty of their cultural heritage. The high stan- bor done by touring HBCU choirs all the way back to
dard of excellence Dawson upheld in rehearsals, and the Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1871. With their formal attire,
his own stature as one of the most accomplished Black restrained bearing, and polished performances, these
musicians of his generation, showed that spirituals choirs consciously performed what should have been a
were worthy of the same respect as European classics, self-evident fact: that Blackness could coexist with edu-
which the Tuskegee choir also sang. cation, artistry, and self-control. Such a performance
The energy Dawson expended on arranging and took part in what is sometimes termed “the politics of
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performing African American religious folk songs re- respectability.” As Michelle Alexander explains, “This
flects his care for his students’ spiritual, psychological, political strategy is predicated on the notion that the
and political wellbeing. Wonderfully, the music itself goal of racial equality can only be obtained if [B]lack
also provides abundant evidence of his care. On the people are able to successfully prove to whites that they
most basic level, his arrangements typically provide are worthy of equal treatment, dignity and respect.”
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both accessibility and challenge, setting young singers It is sobering to contemplate the anti-Black racism giv-
up for success while building their skills. Dynamics and ing rise to such a strategy and the burden borne by
articulations are notated with great specificity, develop- those employing it, including Dawson, his students, and
ing students’ musicality and attention to detail. Daw- countless others.
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son’s mastery of polyphony ensures that every vocal Far more than any message the Tuskegee Institute

CHORAL JOURNAL September 2024 Volume 65 Number 2 33