WHAT
IS A NEGRO SPIRITUAL?
Other
Articles
Black
American spirituals provide one source for much of the textual
content of today’s gospel music. For more than a century,
these Afro-American religious songs served as a dominant
medium through which the black American expressed his dissatisfaction
with his station in life, vented his longing desire to live
as a free man, and humbly sought peace and salvation from
God:
The
songs of the slave represent the sorrows, rather than the
joys, of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as
an aching is relieved by its tears. Sorrow and desolation
have their songs, as well as joy and peace. Slaves
sing more to make themselves happy, than to express their
happiness.(1)
As another
observer wrote:
They
sang so that it was a pleasure to hear; with all their
souls and with all their bodies in unison, for their bodies
wagged, their heads nodded, their feet stomped, their knees
shook, their feet stomped, their knees shook, their elbows
and their hands beat time to the tune and the words which
they sang with evident delight. One must see these
people singing if one is rightly to understand their life.
I have
seen their imitators….who travel about the country painted
up as negroes, and singing negro songs in the negro manner,
and with gestures, as it is said; but nothing can be more
radically unlike, for the most essential part of the resemblance
fails—namely, the life. (2)
The
method of compsosition, style of performance, and sociological
significance of black spirituals are vital parts of black
life and are easily recognizable through the texts of spirituals.
Strong evidence of dissatisfaction with this life can be
observed in the spiritual “Nobody Knows the Trouble I See”.
Additional examples of this discontent are expressed in
such spirituals as “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel” in which
blacks communicated directly with a God whom they believed
would deliver them from the evils of slavery, and “I’m Going
to Live with Jesus” where they tried to assuage their hardships
and grasp some hope for a better future.
Concentrated
on texts that gave attention to such important concerns
of Black Christians as worldly sorrows, blessings,
and woes, as well as the joys of the after-life…He also
allowed space for the inevitable improvisation of text,
melody, harmony, and rhythm so characteristic of Black American
Folk and popular music.(3)
Thomas
A. Dorsey (1899- ) was greatly influenced
by C. A. Tindley. In defense of his “bluesy” songs,
composed in a style similar to that of Tindley, he stated:
The
message is not in the music but in the words of the song.
It matters not what kind of music or what kind of movement
it has, if the words are Jesus, Heaven, Faith and Life then
you have a song with which God is pleased regardless of
what critics and some church folk say.(4)
Because
of the importance of the textual content, gospel singers
started a revival of interest in the spiritual during the
World War II and Martin Luther King, Jr. eras. In
the midst of these periods of severe hardships and struggles,
the gospel song, like the spiritual during slavery, was
a source of strength and vided twentieth-century gospel
singers with words that were strong in their spiritual convictions
and carried a message of the social pressures and frustrations
that had burdened black Americans since slavery. Such
a revival of interest serves to connect and pressures and
frustrations that had burdened serves to connect and preserve
an oral tradition passed down from the earliest existence
of the spiritual that continued through the 1940s.
Three
sections of the spirituals’ texts frequently borrowed for
the texts of gospel songs are the chorus, an incipit, and
part of an inner verse. In addition to these direct
borrowings, gospel texts often substitute or omit some of
the original words (see Appendix A).
“Oh,
Give Way, Jordan” is found in the collection Hampton and
Its Students, 1874, 1875, 1878.(5) There are two parts,
the chorus:
Oh,
give way, Jordan, Oh, give way, Jordan
Oh, give way, Jordan, I want to go across to see my Lord
and
the stanza:
Oh,
I beard a sweet music up above
I want to go across to see my Lord
An’ I wish dat music would come here,
I want to go across to see my Lord.
A gospel
song of the 1950s, “Oh, Get Away, Jordan”, borrows only
the text of the chorus. It is sung in a call and response
style:
CALL:
Get away
RESPONSE: Get away Jordan
CALL: Get away
RESOPNSE: Get away on chilly Jordan
CALL: Get away
RESPONSE: Get away Jordan
ALL: I want to cross over to see my Lord.
Some
of the words of the spiritual are omitted or substituted.
The original text, “Oh, give way, Jordan, I want to go across
to see my Lord, “becomes in the gospel song, “Get away,
Jordan, I want to cross over and see my Lord.”
The
second stanza appears as follows:
Oh,
stow back de powers of hell,
I want to go across to see my Lord
And let God’s children take de field,
I want to go across to see my Lord
I want to go across to see my Lord
Now stan’ back Satan, let me go by,
I want to go across to see my Lord
Gwine to serve my Jesus till I die,
I want to go across to see my Lord.
“Stow
back” means to shout backward.”(6) This term is used
in reference to the religious dance that was an integral
part of the early folk church worship. This shout
ceremony took place after the main part of the service:
After
the sermon they formed a ring, and with coats off sung,
clapped their hands and stomped their feet in a most ridiculous
and heathenish way. I requested the pastor to go and
stop their dancing. At his request, they stopped their
dancing and clapping of hands, but remained singing and
rocking their bodies to and fro. This they did for
about fifteen minutes.(7)
The
words “stow back” indicate that this spiritual was used
specificallyfor the shout ceremony. As the term is
pass down into gospel music, “stow back” becomes “step-back”:
CALL:
Oh, stepback
RESPONSE: Stepback Jordan
CALL: Step way back
RESPONSE: Stepback oh chilly Jordan.
When
this stanza is currently sung, the gospel singer may make
appropriate movements indicated in the text.
The
spiritual, Anybody Here, from Old Plantation Hymns by William
E. Barton (1899), is an example in which, again, only the
chorus is borrowed:
Is there
anybody here that love my Jesus
Anybody here that love my Lord?
Oh, I want to know if you love my Jesus?
I want to know if you love my Lord.
With
minor textual alterations, this chorus appears in the modern
gospel version (ca1979) as:
Anybody
here love my Jesus
Anybody here love my Lord
I want to know if you love my Jesus
I want to know if you love my Lord.
This
custom of borrowing texts was already commonplace among
black Americans during slavery:
We have
too, a growing evil, in the practice of singing in our places
of public and society worship, merry airs, adapted from
old songs, to hymns of our composing; often miserable as
poetry, and senseless as matter, and most frequently composed
and first sung by the illiterate blacks of the society.(8)
Similar
borrowings are found in spirituals. William Barton
stated:
One
song is satisfied to snatch a single line from any convenient
hymn, and pair it with one of its own in the refrain, while
borrowing couplets right and left for the stanzas.
While
the fitting together of couplets and refrains almost at
random leads to some odd and incongrous combinations, upon
the whole one is surprised to find with what good taste
the mosaic is made, especially when the singing is led by
an old-time leader with a wide range of couplets to choose
from. Some of these men when confronted by an inquirer
with notebook and pencil can hardly recall half a dozen
of these stanzas; but in the fervor of their worship they
not only remember them by the score but by a sort of in
from different sources without a second’s reflection or
hesitation.(9)
Three
spirituals that examplify these customary borrowings are
Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning, Rise and Shine, and
Jacob’s Ladder (see Appendix B).
Observe
Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning from the collection,
The Story of the Jubilee Singers with Their Songs by J.
B. Marsh (1887), as the parent spiritual. There are
two parts, the chorus:
Keep
your lamps trimmed and a-burning
Keep your lamps trimmed and a-burning
Keep your lamps trimmed and a-burning
For this work’s almost done.
And
the stanza:
Brothers,
don’t grow weary
Brothers, don’t grow weary
There
are two additional sections that are repeats of the chorus.
The second time the chorus is repeated, the text is changed.
Of the three lines of text, two are borrowed from the spiritual,
We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder:
Tis
religion makes us happy, (etc.)
We are climbing Jacob’s ladder, (etc.)
Every round goes higher and higher, (etc.)
For this work’s almost done.
Both
spirituals, We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder and Rise and
Shine, draw on the text of the chorus and on the stanza
of Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning.
Rise
and Shine, from Jubilee and Plantation Songs (1887), uses
two inner stanzas from the spiritual, Keep Your Lamps Trimmed
and Burning. The first phrase, “Keep your lamps trimmed
and burning,” appears as the second part of the second stanza:
You
may keep your lamps trimmed and burning, burning
You may keep your lamps trimmed and burning, burning
You may keep your lamps trimmed and burning, burning
For the year of Jubilee.
The
second inner stanza, substituting “children” for “Brothers,”
appears as the beginning of the third stanza:
Oh,
come on children, don’t be weary, weary
Oh, come on children, don’t be weary, weary
Oh, come on children, don’t be weary, weary
For the year of Jubilee.
Each
of these spirituals is being used in the twentieth century
as a gospel song or as a borrowed text for a gospel song.
The
gospel arrangement of Jacob’s Ladder uses the chorus of
Rise and Shine as one of its stanzas. This is achieved
by omitting the word “and” on the fourth beat of each measure
in the chorus and substituting “Soldier of the cross” for
“For the year of Jubilee” in the last four measures of the
chorus:
Rise,
shine give God the glory, glory
Rise, shine give God the glory, glory
Rise, shine give God the glory, glory
Soldier of the cross.
Keep
Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning, the gospel song, maintains
the original character of the spiritual, but incorporates
many gospel features. The text, “Keep your lamps trimmed
and burning,” is retained, but “For this nigh.” Also,
“Brother don’t get weary” becomes “Children don’t be weary.”
A new stanza is also added:
Christian
journey soon be over
Christian journey soon be over
Christian journey soon be over
The time is drawing nigh.
An example
of incipit borrowing occurs in the chorus of the spiritual,
I Don’t Feel Noways Tired, found in the collection, Hampton
and Its Students, (1903). The first phrase of the
chorus of the spiritual:
Lord,
I don’t feel noways tired
Children oh glory hallelujah
For I hope to shout glory when dis world is on fiah
Children on glory hallelujah.
Appears
as the first phrase of the chorus of the gospel version:
I don’t
feel noways tired
I’ve come to o far from where I started from
Nobody told me the road would be easy
I don’t believe he brought me this far to leave me.
In conclusion,
consideration will be given to the spiritual, The
old Ship of Zion. In examining nineteenth-century
sources for its relationship to gospel, it was discovered
that there are at least eight different versions of this
spiritual: The Chorus (1860)—I version; Homes of the
United States (Allen, Mckim, 1867)—2 versions; Army Life
in a Black Regiment (T. W. Higginson, 1870)—3 versions;
and Jubilee Singers (1877)—1 version.
According
to William Frances Allen in Slave Songs (1867), this spiritual
was sung approximately 150 years ago:
We have
received two versions of the Old Ship of Zion, quite different
from each other and from those given from Col. Higginson.
The first was sung twenty-five years ago by the colored
people of Ann Arundel Company, Maryland. The words
may he found in The Chorus (Philadelphia: A. S. Jenks, 1860),
p. 170.(10)
Based
on the publication data of the preceding quote, it is probable
that this version dates back to approximately 1842.
This
spiritual, popular among black Americans of the nineteenth
century, remains a favorite gospel song in the twentieth
century. The song, with textual variations, appears
in at least three gospel collections: Wings Over Jordan
(1940s)—I version: Thomas A Dorsey (1950)—l
Version:
and Modern Gospel (1985)—l version.
Although
some of the corresponding stanzas are not the same, there
is a common thread that connects the different v3ersions.
The primary connection is the chorus:
Tis
the old ship of Zion, hallelujah
Tis the old ship of Zion, hallelujah
which
appears in all but two or the versions. The second
connecting feature is the stanza:
King
Jesus is the Captain
King Jesus is the Captain
which
is borrowed from the spiritual for the gospel versions.
The
longevity and popularity of The Old Ship of Zion, as both
a spiritual and a gospel song, indicate the importance of
the text: when the black man of the twentieth century
needed to express his dissatisfaction with this world, he
often used the words inherited from the rich oral tradition
of the spirituals of the nineteenth century. Through
the power of the texts of these songs, dealing with the
struggle for survival, black Americans continue to find
hope and affirmation, and, according to W. E. B. DuBois,
“a faith in the ultimate justice of things.”(11)
