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CHAPTER 50 Jubilees and Jubilation: The African-American
Spiritual Tradition
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. What was the Second Great Awakening?
a. a political movement seeking to free slaves
b. a musical movement that turned to European influences
c. a Christian movement at the turn of the 1800s
d. the national recognition that America had become a world power
2. Which of the following describes camp meetings?
a. They were Christian gatherings that could last for weeks.
b. African Americans and European Americans participated in such gatherings.
c. Songs of praise were common.
d. All answers shown here.
3. The tradition of the ring shout was brought to America from
a. Africa. c. Spain.
b. Mexico. d. Hungary.
4. African slaves in the nineteenth century created a genre of religious song called
a. soul. c. the blues.
b. the minstrel song. d. the spiritual.
5. Which of the following describes spirituals?
a. They had contrapuntal accompaniment.
b. They contained coded messages about earthly escape.
c. They won immediate cultural acceptance by Europeans.
d. all of the answers shown here.
6. Where is Fisk University located?
a. Memphis, Tennessee c. Washington, DC
b. Nashville, Tennessee d. Durham, North Carolina
7. Which European composer felt that an American school of music should be built around “Negro melodies”?
a. Dvo ák c. Brahms
b. Tchaikovsky d. Liszt
8. Which of the following describes the activities of Harry T. Burleigh?
a. He studied with Dvo ák.
b. He arranged spirituals for voice and piano.
c. He became a music publisher.
d. All answers shown here.
9. The spiritual Swing Low, Sweet Chariot reflects qualities of which tradition(s)?
a. Native American c. European American
b. African American d. All answers shown here.
10. The melody of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot is based on the ________ scale.
a. pentatonic c. chromatic
b. diatonic d. whole-tone
11. Which of the following is the source of the text of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot?
a. folk poems c. Harry T. Burleigh
b. the Bible d. the Harlem Renaissance
12. Which of the following distinguishes the Fisk Jubilee Singers’ arrangement of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot from that of Harry T.
Burleigh?
a. The Fisk Jubilee Singers perform a cappella.
b. The Fisk Jubilee Singers arrangement has more complicated harmonies.
c. The Fisk Jubilee Singers incorporate polyphony.
d. All answers shown here.
13. The Christian movement at the turn of the 1800s was known as the
a. Second Great Awakening. c. Second Great Revival.
b. Great Revival. d. Great Awakening.
14. The African tradition of ________ was brought to America by slaves.
a. rhythm c. the Great Awakening
b. the ring shout d. polyphony
15. ________ helped to create the genre of religious song called the spiritual.
a. Slaves from Africa c. Harry T. Burleigh
b. The Fisk Jubilee Singers d. Reverend Alexander Reid
16. Which genre of religious song contained coded messages about earthly escape?
a. the psalm c. the motet
b. the spiritual d. the hymn
17. When did spirituals gain a broader cultural presence?
a. before the Civil War
b. during the Civil War
c. in the early 1800s
d. immediately after the Civil War
18. The Fisk Jubilee Singers took their name from
a. their founder. c. their signature spiritual.
b. the arranger of their spirituals. d. their college.
19. How did the Fisk Jubilee Singers raise funds for their school?
a. They sold albums.
b. They toured the northern United States and Europe.
c. They sold raffle tickets.
d. All of the answers shown here.
20. Who wrote Swing Low, Sweet Chariot?
a. Harry T. Burleigh c. Wallace Willis
b. Alexander Reid d. The definitive author is not known.
21. How many notes are in a pentatonic scale?
a. three c. five
b. seven d. nine
22. Which composer studied with Dvo ák, arranged spirituals for voice and piano, and became a music publisher?
a. Alexander Reid c. Harry T. Burleigh
b. Wallace Willis d. George Gershwin
23. Who said, “In the Negro Melodies of America I discover all that is needed for a great and noble school of music”?
a. Dvo ák c. Harry T. Burleigh
b. Wallace Willis d. George Gershwin
24. When Fisk University was founded, it was a
a. college for freed slaves.
b. college open to anyone living in Nashville, Tennessee.
c. music school only.
d. college for slaves.
25. What school in Nashville, Tennessee, was founded as a college for freed slaves?
a. Nashville Technical College c. Belmont University
b. Fisk University d. Tennessee State University
1. African Americans and European Americans alike attended camp meetings.
2. The tradition of the ring shout is related to the African tradition of call and response.
3. The texts of spirituals deal exclusively with religion.
4. The rhythmic and melodic traits of spirituals fitted easily into European norms.
5. Fisk University was originally founded as a college for freed slaves in Nashville, Tennessee.
6. The fame of the Fisk Jubilee Singers rested on their renditions of European choral masterworks.
7. Harry T. Burleigh created art-song arrangements of spirituals.
8. The texture of the Fisk Jubilee Singers’ recording of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot is monophonic.
9. Harry T. Burleigh incorporated blues-related harmony in his arrangement of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.
10. The Fisk Jubilee Singers’ arrangement of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot is in strophic form.
11. African slaves played a significant role in the development of the spiritual.
12. Despite years of touring, the Fisk Jubilee Singers raised very little money to help their university.
13. Like many European and American composers, Dvo ák found little value in what he called Negro melodies.
14. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot is both a spiritual and an art song.
15. The history behind the well-known spiritual Swing Low, Sweet Chariot reflects only African American traditions.
1. Describe the transition of the spiritual from its roots in camp meetings to its status as an art-song genre.
2. What contributions to the spiritual were made by the Fisk Jubilee Singers and by Harry T. Burleigh?
3. Discuss why Swing Low, Sweet Chariot is a striking example of the cultural mixture and renewal that characterize the vernacular
music of the United States.
4. How does Swing Low, Sweet Chariot represent the complicated, intertwined histories of diverse groups of people living in the United
States?
