General Notes on African-American Spirituals

Spirituals are the core of African-American music. Deriving from the experiences of African slaves, these songs attain a deeply moving pathos through simple melodic formulas, chant-like refrains, unison singing, and biblical citations. Early examples influenced and were influenced by the music of white southern revivalists, though similarities in terms of form and melody are offset by drastic differences in rhythmic complexity, notably the prevailing syncopated patterns of the Negro tradition.

The first spiritual heard this evening, “I Don’ Feel No-Ways Tired,” is performed in an arrangement by Jacqueline Hairston. Her setting is strophic with a good deal of sectional repetition. Hairston’s harmonization remains simple and diatonic, apart from the initial piano prefix and the concluding, allargando section. The song ends with a distinctive chromatic slide from a full 9th chord on G, through a colorful touch of Gf to the tonic, F. Such “blue” notes show a connection to other distinctive African-American musical genres, jazz and blues.

The second song, “Witness,” has been arranged by Hall Johnson, one of the most important African-American composers and choral conductors of the 20th century. The text opens like a recitative over a sustained chord in the piano. Johnson’s reliance on pedal tones gives this spiritual the aura of casual storytelling, akin to bare chords strummed on a guitar. A large part of the Nico-demus story, for instance, unfolds over a single harmony. The climax of the entire song comes only at the very end, with the final refrain, “My soul is a witness for my Lord.” Previous phrases set out high Fs as a ceiling begging to be pierced. Johnson withholds the breakthrough until the last moment when, overcome by fervent devotion, the voice cries out from high A, fortissimo, above a tingling, dissonant harmony.

(c) Jason Stell