Spirituals and the Birth of a Black Entertainment Industry
Sandra Jean Graham
April 16, 2020
By Tarla Yarlagadda
When enslaved Africans were brought to the United States, they were forced to leave behind nearly all material possessions. But they retained their cultural traditions — including a tradition of vibrant, rhythmic communal music.
And that's how the black spiritual was born. Although white communities had their own folk spirituals, slaves used spirituals as a form of work song in order to boost their companions' spirits, convey their sorrows, convey secret messages, and seek comfort in God.
Sandra Jean Graham is an Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at Babson College and the author of "Spirituals and the Birth of a Black Entertainment Industry."
Although slaves came from many different African societies, there were
some common musical traditions that brought about the spiritual.
According to Graham, who we spoke to by email, these practices included
communal songs featuring call-and-response, in which some performers – or usually, the leader — would call a statement or ask a question, and other singers would respond.
Songs also exhibited a "flexible approach to pitch" and a
pattern of "repetition and variation" that allowed for overlapping
musical layers and "improvised embellishment of melodies and rhythm,"
according to Graham. Graham also cites black composer and scholar Olly
Wilson, who stated that there was a preference for a "heterogeneous sound ideal,"
or a combination of certain timbres of voices and instruments, which
was common to many African and African American musical traditions.
"In addition, music was usually linked to other arts — such as
dance, poetry, drama, clothing — and it played a prominent role in
social and political life. And finally, music had a spiritual aspect,
linked to ritual, the ancestors, the gods that inhabited the natural
world," says Graham.
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