Sounds of Struggle
Negro Spirituals were songs by slaves for slaves to help them through the times of struggle and desperation. These songs filled with Christian values described the many hardships of slavery. These spiritual songs came about in the mid 1860s leading up to the abloishment of legalized slavery. Elements of Negro Spirituals include call-response, which is a pattern of music uses the body to make sounds. In this the caller sings a lead part of a song and the response are the other members of the group that either repeat the caller or sing a different part right after the caller. This pretty much the same thing as Patting Juba that is spoken about in folk music. Another element is ring-shout where early plantation slaves would gather in a circle and sing and dance in a clockwise circular motion. Another element of Negro spirituals was polyrhythm. Polyrhythm a way of playing several contrasting sounds that were played or sung simultaneously. Europeans did not like this type of music, it is shown they said that the polyrhythm sounded like noise to them because it did not match the norms of their type of music. Types of Spiritual music includes Folk Spiritual and Concert Spiritual. Folk Spiritual is the earliest form of indigenous a cappella religious music created by African Americans during slavery. Folk Spirituals were typically accompanied only by hand claps and foot stomps which is where the element of call-response comes from. Concert Spiritual is a post Civil War form of spirituals in a fixed, non- improvised form, which evolved in schools created to educate emancipated slaves. Concert Spiritual also introduced choirs, orchestras, and bands to accompany the lead singer. Spiritual music has not only expressed the religion of slaves, but also tells a story about the enriching culture of slavery.
