Spirituals & Worksongs

SPIRITUALS. "The very first negro spirituals were inspired by African music even if the tunes were not far from those of hymns. Some of them, which were called “shouts” were accompanied with typical dancing including hand clapping and foot tapping. Some African American religious singing at this time was referred as a “moan” (or a “groan”). Moaning (or groaning) does not imply pain. It is a kind of blissful rendition of a song, often mixed with humming and spontaneous melodic variation." (From: negrospirituals.com This site has some interesting discussion of particular song lyrics, and the history of the form.)

SHOUTS. "After regular a worship service, congregations used to stay for a “ring shout”. It was a survival of primitive African dance. So, educated ministers and members placed a ban on it. The men and women arranged themselves in a ring. The music started, perhaps with a Spiritual, and the ring began to move, at first slowly, then with quickening pace. The same musical phrase was repeated over and over for hours. This produced an ecstatic state. Women screamed and fell. Men, exhausted, dropped out of the ring." (From: negrospirituals.com)

Examples of Spirituals:

Do Lord
When I Lay My Burden Down
There Is A Balm in Gilead
Swing Low Sweet Chariot
Deep River
Go Down Moses
Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Had
Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child
Roll, Jordan, Roll
Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho
Steal Away
The Lonesome Valley


He's Got the Whole World in His Hands
We Shall Overcome
This Little Light of Mine



FIELD HOLLERS & WORK SONGS represent a parallel tradition, whose origins are also in African music, but which grew out of the conditions of slavery here in the New World. Hammer songs, axe songs, work songs in general--the form being call and response, in which the leader sings a line, and the followers answer in unison. (Long John, for example). Shenandoah, Lowlands and other sea chanties reflect this tradition as well.

As we saw (heard) with "Look Down That Long, Lonesome Road," the John and Allan Lomax recording, from State (Reid) Farm in Boykin, South Carolina, 1934. Why recorded in a penitentiary? As Lomax explains in the notes, that was the setting in which this kind of hand labor (by groups of convicts) was still practiced. Outside, it had been replaced (in large part) by machines. Their interest in the earlier song traditions lead them to the prisons...

Note that the song line that comes out of "Look Down That Long, Lonesome Road" represents a very deep vein in American folk music... We'll return to it again and again... A longing for home, at many different levels.

Also, our word for the week--OVERCOME--reflects both of these streams--worksongs and spirituals--and how the two are interrelated.