Back স্পিৰিচুৱেল (সংগীত) Assamese Espiritual AST Спиричуъл Bulgarian Espiritual negre Catalan Спиричуэлс CE Spirituál (hudba) Czech Cân ysbrydol Welsh Spiritual (Musik) German Spirituals Greek Nigrula preĝokanto Esperanto

Spirituals

For other uses, see Spirituals (disambiguation).

Spiritual
Stylistic origins
Cultural originsAfrican Americans
Derivative forms
Fusion genres
CCM

Spirituals (also known as Negro spirituals, African American spirituals,[1] Black spirituals, or spiritual music) is a genre of Christian music that is associated with African Americans,[2][3][4] which merged varied African cultural influences with the experiences of being held in bondage in slavery, at first during the transatlantic slave trade[5] and for centuries afterwards, through the domestic slave trade. Spirituals encompass the "sing songs", work songs, and plantation songs that evolved into the blues and gospel songs in church.[6] In the nineteenth century, the word "spirituals" referred to all these subcategories of folk songs.[7][8][9] While they were often rooted in biblical stories, they also described the extreme hardships endured by African Americans who were enslaved from the 17th century until the 1860s, the emancipation altering mainly the nature (but not continuation) of slavery for many.[10] Many new derivative music genres such as the blues emerged from the spirituals songcraft.[11]

Prior to the end of the US Civil War and emancipation, spirituals were originally an oral tradition passed from one slave generation to the next. Biblical stories were memorized then translated into song. Following emancipation, the lyrics of spirituals were published in printed form. Ensembles such as the Fisk Jubilee Singers—established in 1871—popularized spirituals, bringing them to a wider, even international, audience.

At first, major recording studios were only recording white musicians performing spirituals and their derivatives. That changed with Mamie Smith's commercial success in 1920.[12] Starting in the 1920s, the commercial recording industry increased the audience for the spirituals and their derivatives.

Black composers, Harry Burleigh and R. Nathaniel Dett, created a "new repertoire for the concert stage" by applying their Western classical education to the spirituals.[13] While the spirituals were created by a "circumscribed community of people in bondage", over time they became known as the first "signature" music of the United States.[14]

  1. ^ "African American Spirituals". Library of Congress.
  2. ^ Johnson, James Weldon; Johnson, J. Rosamond (2009). The Books of American Negro Spirituals. Da Capo Press. pp. 13, 17 – via Google Scholar. The Negro Spirituals are purely and solely the creation of the American Negro..." "When it came to the use of words, the maker of the song was struggling as best he could under his limitations in language and, perhaps, also under a misconstruction or misapprehension of the facts in his source of material, generally the Bible." "...this music which is America's only folk music...Full text
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Grove_oxfordmusiconline was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference YUP_Eltis_20150215 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference UN_DayOfRemembrance was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Evans_DevelopmentSpiritual_1972 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Jones_1993 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference NMAAHC_2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Franklin, Bruce H. (Spring 1979). "Songs of an Imprisoned People". MELUS. 6 (1): 17. doi:10.2307/467516. JSTOR 467516 – via JSTOR.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Nketia_1973 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYT_Brooks_20200810 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference NPR_20190620 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ "Sweet Chariot: the story of the spirituals". The Spirituals Project. Archived from the original on July 25, 2015. Retrieved March 1, 2021.

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