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- Gospel music
- hymn
spiritual
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What is spiritual music?
Spiritual music includes folk hymns that express religious ideas and may create contact with the divine. Synonyms for spiritual music include hymns, anthems, and psalms.
White spirituals originated from the practice of lining out psalms and the singing of hymns, which later evolved into spontaneous mass singing at camp meetings and revivals. Black spirituals developed mainly from white rural folk hymnody, with influences from African musical elements such as call-and-response patterns and polyrhythmic accompaniments. After the Civil War, Black spirituals evolved into harmonized versions or preserved the older traditional style.
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Where did spiritual music originate?
Spiritual music in North America originated from white and Black folk music traditions, evolving from English-language folk hymns. White spirituals stemmed from the "lining out" of psalms and the hymn singing of 18th-century religious dissenters. Black spirituals developed mainly from white rural folk hymnody, with shared camp meetings influencing revival songs.
Black gospel music can be traced to hymnals of the early 19th century. These included A Collection of Spiritual Songs and Hymns Selected from Various Authors (1801), intended for Black worship. The rise of Pentecostal churches at the end of the 19th century further energized Black gospel music, incorporating elements of African origin and welcoming diverse instruments.
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What are some common themes found in spiritual music?
Spiritual music encompasses a range of themes, including praise, worship, devotion, and introspection. Rooted in folk traditions, spirituals often express a longing for spiritual connection, explore themes of hope, redemption, and the journey toward enlightenment.
Many spiritual songs contain narratives and symbolism, drawing from religious texts and experiences. The themes may reflect the singers' cultural experiences, using music to express faith, resilience, and a sense of community. Whether expressed through hymns, gospel songs, or other forms, spiritual music seeks to uplift and inspire.
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How did enslaved African Americans use spiritual music?
Enslaved African Americans used spiritual music to express their longing for freedom and to cope with the harsh realities of slavery. These songs often carried double meanings, with lyrics that seemingly spoke of religious salvation but also alluded to the hope of liberation from bondage. They sang spirituals during worship and as work songs, using the texts to reflect their daily tasks. The call-and-response pattern, common in both African and white folk music, was a key feature, along with complex rhythms and improvisational melodies. After the Civil War, these spirituals were recognized and further developed, evolving into harmonized versions or preserving the traditional style in rural areas.
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What role did spirituals play in American history?
Spirituals, evolving from both Black and white folk music, significantly shaped American history. Emerging from Black spirituals and white hymnody, these English-language folk hymns were sung during worship and work, with lyrics often reflecting daily tasks. Post-Civil War, Black spirituals gained recognition, evolving into harmonized versions or preserving traditional styles. They paved the way for gospel music and influenced the civil rights movement, with songs like "I’ll Overcome Someday" inspiring "We Shall Overcome". Spirituals also showcased a blend of African and white musical elements, including call-and-response patterns and varied vocal styles.
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How has spiritual music influenced other styles of music today?
Spiritual music, originating from North American white and Black folk hymns, has significantly impacted various modern musical genres. White spirituals evolved from 17th-century psalm lining and 18th-century hymn singing, with improvisational embellishments and borrowed secular melodies. Black spirituals, developing from white rural folk hymnody, integrated African musical elements like call-and-response patterns and polyrhythmic accompaniments.
Gospel music, a 19th-century offshoot, was influenced by "correct" European music, featuring composed melodies, instrumental accompaniment, and harmonization. White gospel music combined Protestant hymnody, revival spirituals, and popular styles, while Black gospel music intertwined with secular Black music, incorporating jazz rhythms and improvisation. The blues, closely related to jazz, also show obvious blues tonalities and forms. Today, gospel music has evolved into a popular commercial genre, influencing country music and other contemporary styles.
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spiritual, in North American white and black folk music, an English-language folk hymn.
White spirituals include both revival and camp-meeting songs and a smaller number of other hymns. They derived variously, notably from the “lining out” of psalms, dating from at least the mid-17th century. Where congregations could not read, a leader intoned (lined out) the psalm text, one line at a time, alternating with the congregation’s singing of each just-given line to a familiar melody. The tune, sung slowly, was ornamented with passing notes, turns, and other graces, each singer producing his own improvised embellishment at whatever pitch level he found comfortable. (This style persists in isolated areas in the 20th century, both in black and white churches.)
A second source was the singing of hymns (as opposed to psalms only), reintroduced by such 18th-century religious dissenters as John and Charles Wesley, the founders of Methodism. Hymn verses were composed and set to borrowed melodies, often secular folk tunes. Many of these evangelical hymns passed into oral tradition.
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In the late 18th century and up to the mid-19th, there were several waves of religious revivalism. The resulting camp meetings and revivals were marked by spontaneous mass singing. It is not completely known how the camp-meeting songs and revival spirituals were sung; but it is thought that they were sung unharmonized, the tune typically begun by the high male voices, the women and basses joining in an octave (or other comfortable interval) above or below. A call-and-response pattern (as in lining out) may have at times been used. Melodies were apparently ornamented.
The texts had verses and refrains that wandered from song to song; these and a common stock of folk-melody fragments allowed new songs to be improvised upon inspiration. The themes included going home to the promised land, the defeat of Satan, and gaining ground against sin; typical refrains were “Roll, Jordan” and “Glory Hallelujah.” Hymns from the earlier folk tradition were also sung. The songs were passed on orally, though many were eventually written down in folk hymnbooks using special shape-note notation.
The revival spirituals and other folk hymns passed from favour in 19th-century city churches as standardized European hymn styles came in. They survive in oral tradition in isolated areas and also among users of the shape-note hymnals (q.v.).
A 19th-century offshoot of the spiritual was the gospel song. Influenced by “correct” European music, it had composed melodies and texts, was sung with instrumental accompaniment, and (unlike the folk hymns) was written to be harmonized.
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The black spirituals developed mostly from white rural folk hymnody. (Blacks and whites attended the same camp meetings, for instance, and black performance style possibly counterinfluenced the revival songs.) Many black spirituals thus exist in the white folk music tradition also, and many others have melody analogues in secular white American and British folk music. The borrowing of melodies with pentatonic (five-note) and major scales is especially prominent. In voice quality, vocal effects, and type of rhythmic accompaniment, black spirituals differ markedly from white ones. Black spirituals were sung not only in worship but also as work songs, and the text imagery often reflects concrete tasks.
Musically, it is believed that a complex intermingling of African and white folk-music elements occurred and that complementary traits of African music and white U.S. folksong reinforced each other. For example, the call-and-response pattern occurs in both, as do certain scales and the variable intonation of certain notes. Most authorities see clear African influence in vocal style and in the complex polyrhythmic clapped accompaniments. African tradition also included polyphonic and choral singing. The ring shout (a religious dance usually accompanied by the singing of spirituals and clapped rhythms) is of African ancestry.
After the Civil War the black spirituals were “discovered” by Northerners and either developed toward harmonized versions, often sung by trained choirs, or, conversely, preserved the older traditional style, especially in rural areas and certain sects.
Like the white gospel song, the modern black gospel song is a descendant of the spiritual and is instrumentally accompanied. Black gospel music is closely related to secular black music (as is the spiritual to the work song and blues) and often includes jazz rhythms and instruments alongside traditional clapped accompaniment and often dance. Though gospel songs are usually composed, the melodies are taken for improvisational bases in church services, as popular tunes are improvised upon in jazz.