Unit 3 Summary

Without a struggle, there is no progress. In the fiery crucible of slavery in the United States, the African American spiritual was born. This unique body of music-folk songs-that gave its community a true, valid, and useful song to sing, was a diamond in the rough. Not only did it keep its community of believers' spirit unbroken but it also provided solace, commentary on day-to-day activities, and a way to escape.

These early body of musical works that made use of vivid descriptive musical imagery, the call-and-response technique, wandering versus, and a unique variety of musical scales and other musical nuances eventually were studied by White Northerners and published in Slave Songs of the United States (1867). Other publications followed in quick succession, including The Jubilee Singers and Their Campaign for Twenty Thousand Dollars (1873), which brought the spotlight on the Fisk Jubilees Singers of Nashville, Tennessee. This group eventually toured internationally and brought more attention to the repertoire of spirituals. These early folk spirituals eventually gave way to the development of the arranged spiritual in the style of the Western art songs as sung and performed by Harry Thacker Burleigh-the first to arrange spirituals as a solo art song-Roland Hayes, Marion Anderson, and Paul Robeson.

During the post-Reconstruction era and coinciding with the Jim Crow era, the American musical soundscape soon found itself embracing the emergence of two new musical genres, blues and ragtime. In the vocal genre, blues, this new body of work was different from the spiritual in its formal and musical characteristics and in the topic and attitudes expressed in its lyrics. It has been stated that while the blues, like spirituals, were prayers, one was praying to God and the other was praying to man. The three broad styles of blues are Country, Classic, and Urban blues. Each style had their unique performers that included, but are not limited to, Charles Patton, Son House, and Robert Johnson (Country); Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith (Classical); and Muddy Waters (Urban Blues). William Christopher (W.C.) Handy (musician, songwriter, composer, and folklorist) is known as the "Father of the Blues" because of the number of contributions he had in popularizing blues music.

Ragtime, like blues, developed among the spread of many racial stereotypes surrounding Black music culture. Precursors to this style of music included coon songs, blackface minstrelsy, and the cake walk, each being influenced by racial undertones and impacting the growing Black social and cultural identity in the eyes of both Blacks and Whites. Furthermore, the emergence of individuals such as James Reese Europe, Scott Joplin, known as the "King of Ragtime," and James Lamb served to develop the genre through their stylistic choices, leading to distinct characteristics of the genre and the introduction of syncopated brass band music as a forerunner of jazz.

Can you imagine American music without the work of Black composers or without Black music in general? This lesson shows how the music of Black and Brown composers of the classical tradition is just as important as other genres. The music of Black composers covers the musical spectrum that is found in the traditional Western musical canon. The full flowering of the spiritual is evident not only in its diverse arrangements for the concert hall, but in it use as a catalyst in the development of many piano and orchestral arrangements. Music historians cannot deny the relevance of composers from the Old Guard, like Francis (Frank) Johnson-the first to have his band music published-to the New Artists on the Block, like Gary Nash.