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CHAPTERfi50 Jubilees and Jubilation: The African
American Spiritual Tradition
1. movement celebrating African American culture
and arts
2. overlapped with “art- song” arrangements
C. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
1. intersection of cultures:
a. possibly by Wallace Willis; slave in Indian
country of the West
b. 1840s: heard by Alexander Reid, white minister
c. suggested to Fisk Jubilee Singers by Reid
2. favorite of the Fisk Singers: recorded several times
3. reconfiguration by black composers, singers into
art song
a. arranged many times by several African Ameri-
can composers
4. prophet Elijah taken to Heaven in a whirlwind
and chariot of fire
a. biblical text: Second Book of Kings
b. melody uses pentatonic scale
c. several repetitions, text and music
5. Fisk arrangement: Euro- American harmonies,
unobtrusive accompaniment
6. Burleigh arrangement: more complex, blues-
related harmonies, polyphonic
D. LG 42: Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (1840s; a rrange–
ment from 1911)
1. duple meter, exible syncopations
2. Fisk arrangement:
a. strophic, first stanza as refrain
b. TTBB male quartet
c. simple harmonies
d. homophonic texture, lead singer
3. Burleigh arrangement/recomposition:
a. A– B- C- A′
b. soprano and piano
OUTLINE
I. Spirituals and the Jubilee Tradition
A. Second Great Awakening: Christian movement,
early 1800s
1. camp meetings: sing songs of worship
a. lasted days, weeks
b. African Americans, Eu ro pean Americans
gathered
c. hymns of praise to popu lar or folk tunes
2. ring shout: extended call and response
a. developed from African traditions
3. spiritual tradition
a. camp meetings of slaves
b. semi- improvisational tradition
c. worship, subversive po liti cal endeavor
d. community, solidarity: monophonic singing
(and heterophonic elaboration)
e. pop u lar ized by choral groups, African Ameri-
can colleges
B. Fisk Jubilee Singers
1. post–Civil War, freed slaves at Fisk University
2. toured US and Eu rope, sang arrangements of
spirituals
3. group continues to this day
II. Spirituals and the Art– Song Tradition
A. HarryT. Burleigh: African American composer,
singer, editor
1. worked with Dvořák, 1890s
2. “art- song” arrangements of spirituals
a. voice- and- piano settings
b. first published 1910s
c. concert staples, black and white singers
B. Harlem Re nais sance
ASSIGNMENT SUGGESTIONS
1. Review in the textbook the history of Swing Low, Sweet
Chariot. How did this spiritual come to be? What does this
example tell us about the connections among race, reli–
gion, and music in Amer i ca during the nineteenth century?
2. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot has been covered in versions
that range from an updated Fisk Jubilee Singers rendi-
tion backed by a large orchestra to gospel- pop (Sam
Cooke) to folk (Leadbelly, Pete Seeger) to reggae (Eric
Clapton). Search for recordings of this spiritual from a
variety of genres. How do the meanings of the song and
its lyrical content, as interpreted by these vari ous artists,
change from version to version?
TEACHING CHALLENGES
The challenge in this chapter is to pres ent this material in a
way that exposes the complex cultural forces at work in the
creation of the spiritual repertory while acknowledging the
spiritual tradition as an African American art form.
SUPPLEMENTAL REPERTORY
SUPPLEMENTAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cruz, Jon. Culture on the Margins: The Black Spiritual and the
Rise of American Cultural Interpretation. Prince ton, NJ: Prince-
YOUR TURN TO EXPLORE
Find two or three separate arrangements of a song from a folk
tradition, such as Amazing Grace, Greensleeves, or Yankee
c. blues and jazz harmonies
d. polyphonic interaction: piano, voice
OVERVIEW
This chapter pres ents the African American spiritual as
derived from the camp meeting and Jubilee traditions of the
nineteenth century. The story of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
illustrates the complex, cross- cultural history of the spiritual
and emphasizes the reconfigurations that spirituals often
undergo as they are disseminated aurally and through musi–
cal notation.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To understand the spiritual within the camp meeting and
Jubilee traditions of the nineteenth century
2. To understand the role that the art- song tradition
played as spirituals were arranged with musical
notation
3. To recognize Swing Low, Sweet Chariot as the product
of a complex, cross- cultural musical history
century camp meeting and the later notated arrange–
ments such as those by HarryT. Burleigh. Using Swing
Low, Sweet Chariot as an example, discuss the dif fer ent
musical approaches of the version by the Fisk Jubilee
2. Guide your students through a listening of Swing Low,
Sweet Chariot, focusing on the pentatonic character of
the melody. Review the pentatonic- inected music of
P ucci n i’s Madame Buttery (Chapter47) and discuss the
contrasting or similar impact that pentatonicism has
on listeners of these two works. As the textbook notes,
196 | Chapterfi50
2. Greensleeves, from the album The Vince Guaraldi Trio:
A Charlie Brown Christmas
over the form. In contrast to the earlier, “traditional” ver–
sion, this version includes a four– bar repeated interlude that
precedes each A and B section. The arrangement ends
with a vamp over the interlude. While the piano melody of
ody, or to the cultural tradition from which it is derived? Which
one do you think is most musically expressive and why?
1. Greensleeves, from the album Unicorns and Castles: A
Collection of Magical Medieval and Re nais sance Music
In this arrangement, the melody is sung very simply and