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Spirituals (also known as Negro spirituals, African American spirituals, [1] Black spirituals, or spiritual music) is a genre of Christian music that is associated with African Americans, [2] [3] [4] which merged varied African cultural influences with the experiences of being held in bondage in slavery, at first during the transatlantic slave ...
- Steal Away
"Steal Away" is a standard Gospel song, and is found in the...
- Spiritual (music)
Spirituals (or Negro spirituals) are the songs which were...
- Steal Away
"Steal Away" is a standard Gospel song, and is found in the hymnals of many Protestant denominations. An arrangement of the song is included in the oratorio A Child of Our Time, first performed in 1944, by the classical composer Michael Tippett (1908–98).
It is considered one of the most important Negro spirituals. [1] It is listed as number 11823 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The song tells the Biblical story of Mary of Bethany and her distraught pleas to Jesus to raise her brother Lazarus from the dead. [1]
- Summary
- Origin
- Musical style
- Songs
- Quotes
- Influence
- Recordings
- Characteristics
A spiritual is a type of religious folksong that is most closely associated with the enslavement of African people in the American South. The songs proliferated in the last few decades of the eighteenth century leading up to the abolishment of legalized slavery in the 1860s. The African American spiritual (also called the Negro Spiritual) constitut...
Famous spirituals include \"Swing low, sweet chariot,\" composed by a Wallis Willis, and \"Deep down in my heart.\" The term \"spiritual\" is derived from the King James Bible translation of Ephesians 5:19: \"Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.\" The form has its roots...
Spirituals are typically sung in a call and response form, with a leader improvising a line of text and a chorus of singers providing a solid refrain in unison. The vocal style abounded in freeform slides, turns and rhythms that were challenging for early publishers of spirituals to document accurately. Many spirituals, known as \"sorrow songs,\" a...
Spirituals are also sometimes regarded as codified protest songs, with songs such as \"Steal away to Jesus,\" composed by Wallis Willis, being seen by some commentators as incitements to escape slavery. Because the Underground Railroad of the mid- nineteenth century used terminology from railroads as a secret language for assisting slaves to freedo...
As Frederick Douglass, a nineteenth century abolitionist author and former slave, wrote in his book My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) of singing spirituals during his years in bondage: \"A keen observer might have detected in our repeated singing of 'O Canaan, sweet Canaan, I am bound for the land of Canaan,' something more than a hope of reaching h...
The publication of collections of spirituals in the 1860s started to arouse a broader interested in spirituals. In the 1870s, the creation of the Jubilee Singers, a chorus consisting of former slaves from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, sparked an international interest in the musical form. The group's extensive touring schedule in the Uni...
Many recordings of these rural spirituals, made between 1933 and 1942, are housed in the American Folklife Center collections at the Library of Congress. The collection includes such gems as \"Run old Jeremiah,\" a ring shout from Jennings, Alabama recorded by J. W. Brown and A. Coleman in 1934, which has a train-like accompaniment of stamping feet...
Black spirituals vary from white spirituals in a variety of ways. Differences include the use of microtonally flatted notes, syncopation and counter-rhythms marked by handclapping in black spiritual performances. Black spiritual singing also stands out for the singers' striking vocal timbre that features shouting, exclamations of the word \"Glory!\...
A spiritual is a type of religious folksong that is most closely associated with the enslavement of African people in the American South. The songs proliferated in the last few decades of the eighteenth century leading up to the abolishment of legalized slavery in the 1860s.
A spiritual is a type of religious folksong that is most closely associated with the enslavement of African people in the American South. The songs proliferated in the last few decades of the eighteenth century leading up to the abolishment of legalized slavery in the 1860s.
People also ask
What are Negro spirituals?
What is an African American spiritual?
What is African American spiritual sung?
What does black spiritual mean?
Spirituals (or Negro spirituals) are the songs which were sung by the black slaves in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries. The words to many Negro spirituals have Christian themes.
