SONG SYLLABUS / WEEK 8

Week 8: Thursday, March 8
Spirituals: HEAVEN & EARTH


"Negro boys and girls humming spiritual at UCPAPWA (United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America) meeting, Bristow, Oklahoma. The union meeting has become a main social gathering in these sections and has taken on some of the spirit of the old time revival. Spirituals vie with the union songs for popularity." Russell Lee, FSA, 1940, Library of Congress

"AMAZING GRACE" (J&A Lomax 328/344)
S&P Doc Watson & Jean Ritchie (also on SGS) +++
SGS Horton Barker +++

AMAZING GRACE, on SGS: Doc Watson & Jean Ritchie, Buell Kazee, Horton Barker, Clarence Ashley (+). Check these individually.

Also on SGS: Paul Robeson’s version of Amazing Grace:
http://internal.ucberkeley2.classical.com/permalink/recording/3221316777/

MH Ollie Gilbert #1256
MH Rev. Harold Hunter #0261 (midi file only?)

Old Baptist Church, Mountain Music of Kentucky:
http://internal.ucberkeley2.classical.com/permalink/recording/3221315155/
Old Harp Singers:
http://internal.ucberkeley2.classical.com/permalink/recording/3221291732 /

"SWING LOW, SWEET CHARIOT" (in Johnson ANS; AFS 115)
Paul Robeson (from “The Power and the Glory”) +++

Additional versions on AAS:
Sister O.M. Terrell (On AAS). See where Sister Rosetta Tharp comes from…
http://internal.ucberkeley4.classical.com/permalink/recording/3221336789/
Apollo Male Quarter:
http://internal.ucberkeley4.classical.com/permalink/recording/3221334532/

Paul Robeson
SWING LOW SWEET CHARIOT
Amazing Grace (see above)
Balm in Gilead
No More Auction Block for Me
No More Auction Block for Me (DYLAN, for comparison)

Ol’ Man River
Go Down Moses
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho (compare the Southernaires in AAS)
http://internal.ucberkeley4.classical.com/permalink/recording/3221345627/

Marian Anderson
Let Us Break Bread Together ++
Deep River

AND DON'T MISS! The following two recordings are from an old Folkways record--very simply sung, quite beautiful. From southeastern Georgia:

Beverly Green, Black American Religious Music from Southeast Georgia (Folkways/SGS)
There Is a A Balm in Gilead
http://internal.ucberkeley2.classical.com/permalink/recording/3221308928/

Mallard, Ruth, Black American Religious Music from Southeast Georgia (Folkways/SGS)
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
http://internal.ucberkeley2.classical.com/permalink/recording/3221308927/

Mississippi John Hurt
Beulah Land
Blessed Be the Name
Farther Along
Praying on the Old Campground

Blind Willie Johnson
Blind Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground
John the Revelator

Thelonious Monk
This Is My Song, This Is My Story


Negro Religious Field recordings (AAS Archive): compare these FIELD RECORDINGS—quite different in character, with any of the above:

I’m Coming Home on the Morning Train
http://internal.ucberkeley4.classical.com/permalink/recording/3221338725/
I’m Gonna Lift Up A Standard for My King
I’m Running for My Life (Rev. McGhee)
I’m A Soldier In The Army Of The Lord
Ain’t No Grave Can Hold My Body Down (Silent Grove Baptist Church with Bozie Sturdivant)

Turner Junior Johnson selections (4 songs). See desciption of Turner Johnson in Alan Lomax: The Land Where The Blues Began. His voice and Harmonica. These available on AAS:
Meet Me In Jerusalem
When I Lay My Burden Down
In New Jerusalem
Steal Away

And a painting by Harlem Renaissance painter William H. Johnson (1901-1970):


YouTube:

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot:
Beyonce
Dolly Parton
Young solo singer

Mahalia Jackson / Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho
In a way, this is where many people started with Spirituals. You can sense that there’s a world underneath these songs—even if they’re arranged for mainstream television. Compare all the early recordings on AAS—as well as Max Hunter (for white Southern song tradition).

You’re Going to Need a Friend. Group harmony, old-style, in a black church. See Alan Lomax writing about this (handout)

Old Man River / The Temptations (1993)
Old Man River / Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
Put A Spell on You / Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
Stranger Than Paradise / Trailer in Japanese (Screamin’ Jay)

Aretha Franklin / Nessun Dorma (Pavarotti becasme ill-asked Aretha Franklin to stand in for him—and this is what followed. Thanks to C.!)