12 Facts About Negro spirituals

1.

Ensembles such as the Fisk Jubilee Singers—established in 1871—popularized Negro spirituals, bringing them to a wider, even international, audience.

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2.

Term "Negro spirituals" is a 19th century word "used for songs with religious texts created by African slaves in America".

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3.

Gullah Negro spirituals are sung in a creole language that was influenced by African American Vernacular English with the majority of African words coming from the Akan, Yoruba and Igbo.

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4.

Evidence of the vital role African music has played in the creation of African American Negro spirituals exists, among other elements, in the use of "complex rhythms" and "polyrhythms" from West Africa.

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5.

The Negro spirituals provided some immunity protecting the African American religion from being colonized, and in this way preserved the "sacred as a potential space of resistance".

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6.

African-American Negro spirituals have associations with plantation songs, slave songs, freedom songs, and songs of the Underground Railway, and were oral until the end of the US Civil War.

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7.

The first collection of Negro spirituals was published in 1867, two years after the war had ended.

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8.

Negro spirituals was a baritone, who performed in many concert settings.

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9.

Negro spirituals introduced classically trained artists, such as Antonin Dvorak to African-American spirituals.

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10.

Negro spirituals coached African-American soloists, such as Marian Anderson, as solo classical singers.

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11.

Qualities of the Negro spirituals include mastery of the blending of voices, timing, and intonation.

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12.

The core of Jackson's argument supported by many musical examples, is that African-American Negro spirituals draw heavily on textual and melodic elements found in white hymns and spiritual songs.

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