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Related pages: Future_Concerts |
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Links: Songs of Hope & Freedom Concert, Moses Hogan, Program Notes Songs of Hope and Freedom
Over time, as the slaves learned English and became acquainted with the tenets of Christianity, they began to sing in their new language and to incorporate elements of both Old and New Testament religion into their songs. For people toiling under brutal conditions at tasks for which they would reap no reward, the biblical notions of liberation from bondage and of spiritual freedom even in the midst of captivity took on a deep significance. It was natural that these themes should emerge in the songs they sang as they worked, even if the messages had to be coded to some degree, so as not to earn the master's wrath. By design, few slaves were taught to read or write, as their masters recognized the dangers of too much education for a people whom they needed to keep in a state of submission. Therefore, the songs that grew from their experience were seldom written down, although some words and melodic patterns were undoubtedly handed on from generation to generation. Some of the songs were used to accompany work in the fields, where their rhythms were useful in coordinating certain types of activity that demanded a degree of synchronization. Other songs evolved within the framework of religious worship, which often had to be conducted in secret, due to fears that it would incite rebellion or encourage escape. In this context, the words of the slaves' songs often took on an added layer of meaning, as the growing Abolitionist movement and the accompanying activity to free slaves by every means possible demanded means of surreptitious communication. In order to communicate information about planned escapes, the songs that became known as Spirituals embedded such information in the form of subversive references to "heaven", or to "my Father's house", which might refer to Canada or to a stop on the Underground Railroad. Other coded terms included the River Jordan, which could refer to the Ohio River, the boundary beyond which slaves could begin to consider themselves relatively safe from recapture, and "the drinking gourd", which referred to the Big Dipper, used as a navigational aid by fugitive slaves traveling under cover of darkness. Thus, just as Christianity itself refers both to liberation of the spirit here and to eternal joy hereafter, the spirituals came to be vehicles for sustaining the spirits of those in bondage and for aiding the escape of some to a life of freedom in the North or in Canada. By the end of the Civil War, these songs had become a significant part of the cultural legacy of black people, and some in the predominantly black colleges established at that time recognized the value in preserving them. At institutions such as Fisk University in Nashville (TN), choral arrangements of these traditional, anonymously authored songs were developed for concert performance. When the Fisk Jubilee Singers embarked on their first tour or Europe and the United States in 1871, spirituals were an important part of their performance repertoire, quickly arousing the enthusiasm of many who heard them. The choral art form known as the Negro Spiritual underwent further development and refinement at the hands of a
number of skilled arrangers and conductors in the United States. It is indeed a tribute both to the suffering of the slaves and to their musical genius that they were able,
under conditions of unspeakable adversity, to wring from their hearts music of such poignancy and power. The songs Moses Hogan
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