Shout/Shouter
Integral to the idea of the ring shout is the shout A religious ritual with roots in Central and West Africa in which worshipers move in a circle to a syncopated rhythm while shuffling and stomping their feet and clapping their hands. itself. A shout can be defined as an external reaction to an internal feeling or connection. Religious in nature, the shout, somehow, employed a type of speech or declaration where words could not sufficiently express the feeling or emotion.
In the article "Slave Evangelicalism, Shouting, and the Beginning of African American Writing," author Douglas A. Jones explains about the shout:
These practices strove to conduct persons to the point of ecstatic bodily expression of communion with God through the Holy Spirit-that is, acts of shouting as the climax of worship-which slaves deemed, however unconsciously, as a ritual effort that aligned with that of traditional African worship such as spirit possession. Yet core theological differences between shouting and spirit possession are what propelled slave evangelicals toward a fundamentally American habitus.
(Jones 2018, 74)
Singing Style: Riffs, Moans, Grunts, and Other Vocables
It is necessary to highlight the stark difference between what is called a melisma with that which is deemed vocables in African and African American singing styles in the ring shout and beyond. VocalizationsSinging without words, to vowel sounds or humming (singing with closed lips). Most often done as an exercise for the voice. comprise moans, grunts, calls, cries, and hollers, or any form of vocal interjection that employs a definite pitch and rhythm. Therefore, they also have the same melodic and rhythmic function as riffs and runs. In his book The Power of Black Music, Samuel Floyd reminds us that:
...calls, cries, and hollers were reliable devices for transplanted Africans who were learning a new language, since their own languages were denied them by slave owners by prohibition and through the deliberate mixing of slaves who spoke different African languages. It was in these practical genres that African American musical expression in the United States first crystallized as it was being spread to and within the other musical forms that were emerging.
(Floyd 1995, 48)
Floyd categorizes the calls and hollers within the concept of vocables. They are indeed essential characteristics of African and African American religious or cathartic expressions.
Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Romans 8:26, NKJV
Perhaps one of the most iconic examples of a vocalization, or a series of syllables that expresses a particular feeling or emotion, can be heard in Nina Simone's "Feeling Good" at [02:18-02:37].
Händel uses melismaA group of many notes (usually at least five or six) sung melodically to a single syllable. to extend essential words and give melodic treatment to its definition. In this sense, melismas can be understood as a form of vocalization where one syllable is delivered by many pitches, as in the following example from Georg Friedrich Händel's Messiah 23, "His Yoke Is Easy," written in 1741.
Many musical styles use agogic accents Emphasis of a note by being longer in duration than the other notes around it. to place stress on important words or syllables that are already naturally accented on strong beats-one and three, in the case of this time signature. In light of what we have learned thus far, Händel treats the word "His" as an anacrusis. It serves as a pick-up into the downbeat, making "yoke" more pronounced, as it occupies beat three. The first syllable of "easy" flutters along effortlessly through a series of upper and lower neighbor tones. Notice the melisma heeds the function of beat three in the following measure.
The vocalization, like the melisma, is a series of notes/pitches that are typically sung on one syllable and transcribed with a slurA sign in musical notation consisting of a curved line drawn over or under a series of notes, indicating that those notes should be played legato. Also indicates the grouping and phrasing of a passage in a composition.. In this excerpt from "Let My People Go," Allen uses the minor form of the pentatonic scale A scale of five tones. with a flattened fifth on beat three to heed Pharaoh's warning:
A fermataA notation marking directing the performer or ensemble to sustain the note of a composition affecting all parts and lasting as long as the artistic interpretation of the conductor allows. The fermata is marked above the note or rest to be held. above a note tells the performer to hold the pitch as long as needed for effect. This does not mean to break the phrase with a breath. A slur groups notes that are of the same syllable. A caesura at the end of the measure means to come to a complete halt, i.e., to pause and take a breath.
Albert Raboteau
...even as the gods of Africa gave way to the God of Christianity, the African heritage of singing, dancing, spirit possession, and magic continued to influence African American spirituals, ring shouts, and folk beliefs.
Rev. Johnson
It was something in the religion of the oppressors the slaves saw which was deeper than that of the oppressors' presentation.