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| Horace Pippin, Domino Players, oil on board, 1943 |
SPIRITUALS, WORK SONGS & GOSPEL
Download:
S&P Work Songs / Spirituals / Gospel:
https://berkeley.box.com/s/1t39p985qfw9qju1bjxo
These songs will be important for the rest of the semester and beyond.
Reading: Leroi Jones (Amiri Bakara): Blues People reader pps. 117-146.
You should also take a look at W.E.B Dubois, Souls of Black Folk, particularly what he writes about Sorrow Songs--and the Black American experience in general. Published in 1903. This is an important book. Here's the online text: Souls of Black Folk.
Songs. For our S&P class, the songs themselves are the best introduction. Some are on your original S&P CD, some on the new download above. Listen up! Note that the lyrics are in your tan S&P songset.
Here are the songs I want to be able to sing together:
Mary Don't You Weep (Swan Silvertone's version, on your S&P CD)
Lay My Burden Down (Mississippi John Hurt's version, on your S&P CD)
Do Lord (also on S&P CD)
and from your new download, above:
Balm in Gilead
Swing Low Sweet Chariot
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen
Project. For Week 3, I want you to dive into the breadth of this material, as reflected music-wise on the download. (During Week 4, we'll concentrate on one song in particular--Mary Don't You Weep--where it comes from, in its many versions, and what it represents.) This week we go for range. Note: there are many wonderful songs on the download that you can choose to work from for your project, in addition to the ones above:
Look Down That Lonesome Road (this is an amazing song, listen carefully to the call and response form, and the poignancy of the verses. Lomax recording, 1930s. )
John the Revelator (Blind Willie Davis version)
If You See My Saviour (the song is by the Reverend Thomas Dorsey, whose version is available on youtube, see below). Here sung by Alex Bradford. This is pure Gospel music.
Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer, by John Spence, from Andros Island in the Bahamas... A World War II song recast by a powerful Caribbean guitar-playing musician...
YES, this is a lot of material. I want you to begin to absorb it, and to keep on returning to it over the course of the term. These African American songs will be one of our key sources!
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Here are some related YouTube videos:
Spirituals:
▶ Negro spirituals - YouTube
Work songs:
▶ Work Songs in a Texas Prison - YouTube
▶ Gandy Dancers - YouTube
Gospel:
There are MANY gospel songs on youtube--it's a whole world. Look up the difference between "spirituals" and "gospel songs" and consider.
Let's start with a beautiful example by the Rev. Thomas Dorsey (one of the Gospel song originators) singing with Miss Sallie Martin. This is one of his classic songs, here sung very late in life, "Standing by the Bedside of a Neighbor" (also known as "If You See My Savior"). The video excerpt is from a documentary film, Say Amen, Somebody--you'll see their personalities shining through.
And a Rev. Thomas Dorsey's audio recording of the song:
▶ Thomas Dorsey- If You See My Savior - YouTube
Here's another compelling gospel song by a young girl in the Adventist Church:
▶ Four Days Late - YouTube (Alisa) The Story of Jesus and Lazarus. Four Days Late has a backstory which I'll present in class. Also, it will figure again in Week 4 when we look at Mary Don't You Weep.
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plus one wild card (we may discuss this in class too!):
שניאור שיף צילום וידאו מקצועי 0525960011 ריקוד חסידי ▶ - YouTube (Hassidic dance, by contrast)
