THE SLAVE MUSIC OF THE SOUTH.
By Rev. George H. Griffin, Milford, Ct.
If ever the real genius for music seems to have been born in the soul of an entire race, that race is the African. Explorers of the dark continent speak of a marked musical taste among the negroes on their native heath, but the American type of African is still more largely developed in that direction.
Some of the European races are naturally full of song, but in them the culture of music as a science is also illustrated.
The light and pleasing melodies of Italian operas or the grand and sonorous chords of German symphonies and sonatas show the results of a high degree of musical education.
But, in searching for that undefinable entity which is sometimes called the “soul of music,” or, in other words, that kind of music which finds a responsive thrill in every human breast, because it speaks most clearly the language of man’s best impulses and tenderest feelings, it seems to the writer that the slave songs of the South meet the demand more nearly than any other style of musical expression. These children of bondage knew nothing of the methods of the schools, yet, in the harmonious blending and balancing of the four parts, their vocalization is seldom equalled; while their skill in translating heart throbs into the descriptive language of the diatonic scale is rarely surpassed.
No exhaustive analysis of the slave music is here attempted.
It is, however, a very rich mine to explore. Suffice to indicate its principal features, namely these, among others: great simplicity, but richness in the harmony, coupled with much variety and originality of melody. Many of the “resolutions” of chords are abrupt and startling; some of them doubtless contrary to the principles of “thorough bass,” but all the more expressive on that account of the rough and rugged experiences which gave them birth. While the tempo of these songs is largely common, or four-four, there are strange points of emphasis put upon syllables and unexpected cadences in rhythm, which are well nigh unreducible to musical notation.
The ad libitum passages are numerous, and the musical intervals often abnormal, as in rapid changes from major to minor, and conversely, like “Roll, Jordan, Roll”; also in the use of a minor third, while singing on a major key, as in “Run to Jesus.”
Their general style is recitative and chorus, though a few are pure solos or unisonal measures.
The music and words of many of these songs were born together.
This is true, especially, of those associated with social worship, which, having been produced by the sudden inspiration of religious fervor came forth spontaneously from one voice, while the multitude caught the refrain and sang it out with a mighty chorus, as the sound of many waters.
Assuming the correctness of Geo. MacDonald’s definition of a song, as a composition in which the emotional largely overbalances the intellectual element, their songs, with their fullness of sentiment, seem to realize the ideal.
A proper classification of these products of slavery should distinguish between those songs which groan with the agonies of a hard and cruel thralldom, and those which palpitate with the joy of a present salvation, and the hope of a glorious home of freedom beyond the grave.
Among the selections belonging to the first of these divisions, the minor key naturally predominates. Indeed, this is the pitch upon which the majority of human hearts, the world over, are tuned. A more exquisite minor melody than “Nobody Knows the Trouble I See,” can hardly be conceived. So, too, for pure pathos nothing can excel “You May Bury Me in the East.” But for bold and thrilling grandeur, scarcely anything in all the musical conceptions of the ages can be considered superior to “Go Down, Moses, way down in Egypt Land.” As the slaves used to roar it out, it must have seemed like the very voice of Jehovah himself.
In these songs it is easy to trace the effects of a galling yoke crushing the poor body to the dust, while the soul rises triumphant over circumstances in the conviction of its true nobility and in the hope, though long deferred, of realizing, even on earth, its full liberty. The sweetest utterances of the sacred poets of all the centuries have been those “songs in the night” that came forth from the bitterest experiences of human woe.
It is related of a certain German nobleman that he had a number of wires stretched from turret to turret of his castle which acted like a great Æolian harp, bringing forth richest music, but only when the tempests played upon its quivering strings. So may it be said of the slaves in their forlorn condition, that they sang most sweetly when the storms of adversity beat upon them most fiercely.
Happily the days of slave music are past. The system which brought it into existence is abolished; but the world owes a great debt of gratitude to those who have made a study of these songs and put them in print for the benefit of future generations.
This article would not be complete without a single mention of the Fisk Jubilee Company, whose wonderful history—more romantic than the wildest fiction—furnishes a living illustration of our theme.
Their first performances doubtless represented the native music of the South more perfectly than the present cultured state of their voices will allow; but, while art has refined their methods, it has also served to adorn nature with a chaste and quiet beauty which wins a way to every soul that comes under its magic spell.
The evident enjoyment with which they pour forth their music like birds—their marvelous power of crescendo and diminuendo—their faultless articulation both of notes and words, even in the most piano and prolonged chords—stamp their style as a model for church choirs and all who engage in the service of sacred song.
God be praised that we live to see this day, when these long-despised and down-trodden sons and daughters of toil can visit our Northern cities in the full enjoyment of American citizenship, and teach us of the alleged and boasted superior race how to sing most expressively and effectively the Lord’s song in a strange land.