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tive communication across historic complex racial legacy, African- racial dividing lines. American spirituals provide positive Although the world enjoys African- means to that end. The path to under- American solo spirituals everywhere, standing our nation’s racial legacy American singers in the last half cen- passes through our shared joys, pains, tury have found fewer occasions to and sorrows, not by painfully forget- sing or record them. This may be due ting or fearfully ignoring them. in part to the troubled racial history Learning to love, teach, and especially of the American performing stage, to sing solo spirituals brings us closer especially in the shadow of blackface to humbly reconciling the truth of minstrelsy, and in the larger realm of what we are, together. a nation struggling mightily with its racial legacy. With race and spiritu- PART ONE— als in mind, I explore the subject for A CALL TO REFLECTION Lourin Plant solo singers in two parts. Part One explores a combination of elements: “. . . the problem of the Twentieth Century INTRODUCTION the barrier of race in solo spirituals; is the problem of the color-line.”1 (W. E. white discomfort with Negro dialect B. DuBois) America witnessed the passing of and the conjuring ghosts of blackface More than one hundred years after three leading late twentieth century minstrelsy; possible rebuke by some DuBois raised the veil on his prophetic exponents of the African-American African-Americans who believe The Souls of Black Folk (1903), his spiritual within seven months of each America’s largely unaddressed racial thoughtful statement remains a sen- other: William Warfield, solo artist/ history creates an atmosphere of dis- tinel of American racial history and educator; Eileen Southern, Harvard trust of whites who sing these sacred again calls the nation to reflection. A University African-American musi- songs; or rebuke because it reminds call to reflection on race at the start cologist; Moses Hogan, pianist, con- them of a dark time best forgotten. of the twenty-first century is easier ductor, and arranger. Their deaths Part One invites reflection on reasons said than done. America’s history and coincided with the centenary anniver- why everyone should sing solo spiri- racial legacy are strangely intercon- sary of the publication of the The Souls tuals, although white Americans nected; together they frequently over- of Black Folk, by W. E. B. DuBois, the largely do not. Singing spirituals is whelm our best efforts to transcend great lover of spirituals, who wrote centrally important to our education their resulting difficulties. Such enor- our nation’s defining treatise on the and racial transcendence as a nation. mity stymies our collective abilities meaning of being black in America. Building on the affirmative premise to know how or where to begin—how Like DuBois, these three dedicated that solo African-American spiritu- to approach race issues that histori- much of their lives to the study and als are suitable literature for all on cally bind us together and, at the same celebration of the African-American the concert stage, I suggest that singing time, polarize us. Our struggle just to spiritual and its important role in the African-American spirituals could understand is immensely frustrating, life of our nation. Each knew that the bring blacks and whites intimately which complicates earnest attempts to spiritual provides a means for effec- closer together. Part Two identifies start and maintain an effective dia- important resources that can help logue on racial affairs. Journal of Singing, May/June 2005 make African-American spirituals an The esoteric world of musical arts Volume 61, No. 5, pp. 451–468 Copyright 2005 active part of our singing lives. As a contains considerable racial barriers. National Association of Teachers of Singing nation still coming to grips with its It also provides opportunities to

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address some of America’s persistent Gershwin’s opera, Porgy and Bess, America’s preeminent bass baritone, and inescapable abiding racial con- there is no controlling directive from Samuel Ramey, who also has a lovely cerns. Such opportunities can touch any composer’s estate suggesting that collection of American music by Bar- our lives in profound ways. The mys- solo spirituals are only for blacks to ber, Copland, Foster, and Gershwin. tery of our shared racial legacy is a sing on stage; nevertheless, it seems A summary search of his seventy-two conundrum that is not easily unrav- that way. The legacy of race may for- titles revealed not a single spiritual. eled, yet remains such an opportu- ever interfere with the possibility for American music is beautifully repre- nity. The resilient power of music all Americans to sing this important sented in the recordings of Dawn provides for us a path to meaning, solo literature—unless concerned Upshaw—Ives, Copland, Glass, Reich, understanding, and healing—possi- musicians and other like-minded indi- Harbison, and Bernstein—yet in her bly the first appropriate steps to trans- viduals attempt to address it. fifty-five recordings, I found no spir- formation and definitive change in In my nearly half-century in music, ituals. With concern, I searched other our racial culture. I have heard hundreds of solo vocal artists’ collections and found many A primary example of how the recitals of almost every type. Except examples of the same. I wondered legacy of race erects barriers to shared for some of my own students, I hardly why? artistic expression lies within the ever have heard a white student or world of solo vocal classical music. professional solo vocalist sing a solo CENTRAL QUESTIONS ON RACE The current disposition of the solo African-American spiritual on the AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN African-American spiritual clearly recital stage. To be sure, I am aware SPIRITUALS illustrates both aspects of the perspec- of the Lawrence Tibbett perform- Is there a subtle racial dynamic in tive: our frozen inability to expres- ances, Robert Merrill performances, our classical performance tradition? sively communicate and our abiding spirituals sung by Marilyn Horne, Is a silent cultural movement taking need for understanding. Eileen Farrell (a moving “Deep place? Much of the evidence is scat- As an outgrowth of African enslave- River”), Nelson Eddy, and others from tered before us, yet because racial ment in America and Protestant Chris- earlier generations and during the issues are at the core, few are openly tianity, African-American spirituals civil rights activities of the 60s. There talking cross culturally about it. Do are a unique genre unlike any other is even the very hopeful modern anec- spirituals conjure up only the nega- developed on the African continent dote of Renée Fleming singing “This tive subject of slavery, to many the or anywhere else in the entire African Little Light of Mine” as an encore on third rail of American democracy? diaspora under slavery.2 African- a recent recital program. Beyond that, Do whites choose not to perform solo American spirituals represent one of however, is a considerable void. spirituals in recital out of discomfort our nation’s great cultural gifts to the I looked for spirituals in collections due in part to America’s negative world. Numbering more than 6000 of American vocal music recently racial legacy? Is a stigma attached to examples, they remain one of the recorded by America’s leading singers, performing with dialect? Do singers largest bodies of American folk song for example, the fabulous, enormously experience cultural feelings of inade- to reach the twenty-first century.3 accomplished and socially sensitive quacy, guilt, or shame when singing Spirituals open an important win- American baritone, Thomas Hamp- spirituals? In deference to African- dow of witness and understanding son. Barber, Copland, Ives, Adams, American artists, do white solo artists into America’s deeply emotional and and others appear prominently, but abandon this repertoire? Is there a perplexing racial past. Considering hardly any African-American spiri- perception that African-Americans the large number of spirituals and tuals are among his oeuvre. “Go tell it discourage whites from singing spir- their central role in American music on the Mountain” and “The Virgin ituals? Are spirituals outside the realm history, why are there so few modern Mary Had a Baby Boy” appear to be of or an affront to the dignity of our recordings of solo spirituals performed the only spirituals in the listing of his best white classical artists? Perhaps by white artists? Spirituals occupy an ninety-five titles on CDNow’s web whites sing solo spirituals, but those important place in the matrix of site, these on two separate Christmas performances seem far below the gen- American music, and yet since World CDs. He has a wonderful collection eral cultural radar of the recital stage. War II, it appears whites have cho- of Stephen Foster, but virtually no Is reluctance to perform solo spiritu- sen not to perform them. Unlike spirituals. I examined recordings of als attributed to the quality of the

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music itself? Could that reluctance to save his white master.7 What was The opening part’s deeply senti- be due to fear—fear of offending, of new was that American performers mental songs reflected the “nostalgic not performing with the right rever- in the 1820s began to specialize in longing for the joyous days of youth ence or spirit, fear of judgment, or blackface characters and build entire among family and friends in the rural not doing spirituals justice? shows around them, not just as the- South.”14 It was a crude distortion of ater or circus entr’actes.8 Blackface the nightmare of the slave experi- THE AMERICAN STAGE AND minstrelsy actually began in the ence—with favorite heartrending lyric RACE: BLACKFACE MINSTRELSY Midwest, but Dan Emmett’s Virginia songs like: Stephen Foster’s “Gentle Minstrels developed the first defini- Annie” (1856);15 “Old Uncle Ned” A central contributing reason that tive minstrel show in New York dur- (1848);16 “Suwannee River or Old solo spirituals remain a repertoire ing 1843. The Virginia Minstrels Folks at Home” (1851—first version question for everyone connects with spread professional and amateur inter- titled “Way Down Upon de Old Plan- the troubled racial history that is part est from New England to New Orleans tation”); “My Old Kentucky Home” of most American institutions, includ- in little over a year. Groups such as (1853); “Massa’s in de Cold Ground” ing and particularly the American the Christy Minstrels, which intro- (1853); “Old Black Joe” (1860).17 Lost stage. Concerns about racial carica- duced many of Stephen Foster’s lyric love, and loyalty and love for the mas- tures on stage are serious and abiding and comic songs—or after the Civil ter were primary themes. Minstrels ones, considering the paralyzing and War, all-black ensembles, like the presented most songs in verse and corrosive images created in the offen- Georgia Minstrels—carried the style refrain format, with soloists on verses sive history of blackface minstrelsy. to eager audiences everywhere, from and the ensemble in harmony during Blackface minstrelsy was the estab- converted churches, synagogues,9 the refrains. lished nationwide nineteenth cen- riverboats, and salons, to 2,500 seat Part two, the olio, introduced in tury theatrical practice, principally theaters.10 Minstrels entertained the free fantasy form a parade of comic of the urban North. White men (and great and small, including four U.S. skits and theatrical parodies that pos- 18 later some blacks largely managed by Presidents (Tyler, Polk, Fillmore, and sibly foreshadowed vaudeville farce. whites), through ridicule and racist Pierce),11 Queen Victoria, and won Presented in front of a drop curtain, lampoon for sport and profit, carica- the praises of Mark Twain, Walt the procession of specialty acts pos- tured blacks longing for the joys of Whitman, and Charles Dickens. sibly included juggling, acrobatics, plantation life while wearing burnt parodies of high art—perhaps some- cork-blackened faces, exaggerated red thing by Shakespeare—or novelty Three-Part Structure of or white lips and white eyes.4 It was musical performances, like musical Blackface Minstrel Shows wildly in demand. Blackface min- saw.19 The olio concluded in a fea- strelsy became the most popular form In 1854, while the wealthiest and tured high point of the evening, the of theatrical entertainment in the best educated classes’ efforts to estab- “stump speech,” a political address United States during much of the lish an Italian opera in America delivered usually by an endman in nineteenth century.5 Harvard Univer- resulted in bankruptcy, the Ethiopian broad dialect, or a caricature of it, sity music historian, the late Eileen opera “flourished in an intriguing fash- abounding in non sequiturs, ungram- Southern, further identified black- ion.”12 For the most part, blackface matical malapropisms, and comic face minstrelsy’s ascent as it “came minstrelsy, at times called Ethiopian stumblings, creating and exploiting to represent America’s unique con- delineation, represented an original the image of the stupid, incompetent, tribution to the world entertainment and curious variety-entertainment subordinate black20 trying to imitate stage.”6 Blackface minstrelsy’s con- concoction. Minstrelsy’s three-part the high language of his educated tribution was indeed unique—and format—opening, olio, and walk- white slave master.21 unforgettably ugly. around—featured racial skits, lyric Part three’s walk-around ensem- Blacks portrayed by white actors and comic songs, ballads, instrumen- ble finale was the climax of the show, in blackface were already an estab- tal numbers—many with banjo, tam- with competitive dancing in a semi- lished part of stage history in England bourine, bones, or violin—high-stepped circle. This section featured back- and America, such as the stock char- dancing, and improvised edgy banter ground scenes of cotton fields or rustic acter of the noble black savage dying between the stage and audience.13 log cabins, which foreshadowed the

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Grand Ole Opry.22 Players caricatured strel traditions. The Fisk Jubilee reinforce cohesion among whites.35 slave dance movements during vig- Singers (organized by George White), Blackface minstrelsy helped poor orous specialty up tempo offbeat and other Southern African-American whites and immigrants assimilate as music strung together in medleys of touring groups, incorporated call- white men by affirming the inferior- popular tunes, including songs such response and antiphonal traditions ity of blacks in a nation obsessed with as “I Wish I Were in Dixie’s Land” from southern religious groups into racial boundaries, at a time when sim- (1860—the battle cry of the Confeder- their acts. From that moment, spiri- ply being white was not enough.36 As ate army during the Civil War and the tuals became a permanent, indeed, an entertainment medium, blackface de facto Confederate national an- the most popular, black minstrel fea- minstrelsy became a tool of ridicule them),23 or “The Boatman’s Dance” ture.31 Many white minstrels also per- in the hands of the working class, (1843). Other important music cre- formed this religious music, with exploiting the lowest in society against ated or adapted for the minstrel stage many of the same broad theatrics of the aristocracy. It epitomized and con- included: “Long Time Ago” (1833), the established heavily stereotyped centrated the thrust of racism on also known as “Shinbone Alley,” tradition. African-Americans.37 Although black- made famous by Thomas Rice’s Ethio- face minstrel shows provided the first pian Opera; “Turkey in the Straw” Lingering Effects of important employment openings for (1834), also known as “Zip Coon”; Blackface Minstrelsy African-American performers and “Ching-a-Ring Chaw” (1833), also Since what blackface minstrelsy composers on the nation’s stages, published under the title “Sambo’s ultimately was, or means in total, is made way for African-American anti- Address to His Bred’ren”; “Carry Me now coming to light, several points slavery expressions and imagery, and Back To Old Virginny” (1878), one have become clear. Historically, helped develop a mask for resistance of over 700 songs created by the most African-Americans were not the only and presentation of their hidden noted African-American song writer group excoriated on American stages. culture,38 it also set into motion the of the late nineteenth century, and Minstrelsy condemned the women’s pervasive poisons of minstrelsy’s cor- the successor to Stephen Foster, James rights movement, targeted Chinese rosive characters—tambo, bones, old Bland;24 “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, Zip-a- and Japanese, and maligned Native darkey, mammy, auntie, uncle, sambo, dee-day” (1946). Disney used the Americans for interfering with Ameri- rastas, rufus, pickaninny, zip coon, words from Zip Coon’s old minstrel ca’s manifest destiny.32 Practically jig-a-boo—highly inflammatory his- show theme song in the soundtrack of every immigrant group—Irish, Ger- toric characters of depredation and the animated film, Song of the South.25 man, Italian, Russian-Jewish—served denigration etched forever in Amer- Perhaps the most famous early black- as the butt of racial/ethnic lampoon ica’s racial memory. Blackface min- face minstrel song was Thomas for the amusement of those who had strelsy faded in popularity at the end “Daddy” Rice’s “Jump Jim Crow” arrived earlier.33 But something of of the nineteenth century, yet it (1829),26 the song title that for later permanent purpose resonated in min- remained an important element of generations of African-Americans strel lampooning African-Americans amateur productions and carried its became the moniker and synonym of as unequivocally inferior, something images into the emerging entertain- systemic racial oppression.27 For many, of fascination and fear, in addition to ment media of vaudeville, radio, film, the blackface minstrel show from its perceived abject differences of skin and television, by renewing, trans- inception was America’s unique the- and musicality. It seems it was no mitting, and glamorizing its effigies ater of race,28 speaking volumes about coincidence that the incredible popu- to future generations. Blackface car- racial caste politics and social hierar- larity of blackface minstrelsy coin- icatures thoroughly permeated all chy in American culture.29 cided with urgent public concerns facets of popular culture and implant- Religion was not a part of minstrel about slavery, the coming Civil War, ed themselves deeply within the portrayals until the mid 1870s, when emancipation, reconstruction, and American psyche through cinema, for the first time, African-American the proper position of Negroes in circus life, cartoons, popular songs, minstrels added religious songs, almost America.34 Historians note that for advertisements, household artifacts, always in dialect.30 The transfer of some white Americans, blackface and even children’s rhymes.39 Younger African-American religious music to minstrel shows provided a platform Americans today are very familiar the North revitalized stagnating min- for the ridicule of blacks, serving to with racial and ethnic stereotypes,

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but may be unaware of the popular repertoire. Whether due to pressure, all to live in understanding, overrid- platform that ultimately gave them discomfort, guilt, deference, or artis- ing our racial legacy. This includes voice, helped spread them across the tic conscientiousness, fewer white the cautious tone of its fifth govern- nation, and resonate with resilience classical artists after midcentury chose ing purpose: “to resist the desecra- in our imaginations. Blackface min- to perform them. tion of Negro spirituals.”45 strelsy’s widely negative influences From blackface minstrelsy the ele- As a precious remnant of the en- are but a small part of a legacy that ment of dialect, considered a remain- counter between African and Euro- still creates barriers in music and com- ing vestige by some, conjures past pean culture in the American South,46 plicates the stage performance of solo iniquities and continues to create a spirituals give eternal voice to the spirituals. barrier for whites who love spiritu- righteous hope for freedom, justice, Anxiety over racial misreading in als but are troubled by the risk of per- and understanding. As such, they performance or the enmity it could forming them on the solo stage. The require all who choose to sing them to generate in these times is not impos- so called “Negro dialect” was of great approach in a correct, knowledgeable sible to understand, particularly in significance since, after the shock and spirit of humility and truth. Many the arts. Eric Lott, author and noted fascination of the visual, much of the may feel that America’s grievous historian of the PBS Special The illusion that was blackface minstrelsy denial of her racial heritage creates American Experience—Stephen Foster, balanced on the pretentiously sung distrust and antipathy between blacks suggests a fear to address minstrelsy’s or spoken word. Heavy dialect helped and whites, especially in the shadow central legacy could be “desperately audiences identify different ethnic of blackface minstrelsy, so it naturally indicative of the way in which this groups portrayed in minstrelsy.42 may generate the wrong atmosphere country still hasn’t surmounted the Frank Sweet, author of A History of for spiritual performance by whites, kinds of feelings that gave rise to min- the Minstrel Show, suggests that the or appreciation by blacks. While these strelsy in the first place.”40 Thus, the aspect that most disturbs us today is are not universal values, they gain central question connects with spir- the troubling focus on invented credibility as fewer whites find ways ituals: Can all Americans sing the African-American appearance and to embrace the spiritual in solo per- deeply held sorrows and joys of en- customs—mockery made worse by formance. slaved people in the shadow of black- invented dialect and speech manner- SPIRITUALS ARE CENTRAL face minstrelsy and a largely unad- isms.43 Blackface practitioners crudely TO OUR EDUCATION dressed racial history? Without a cross distorted pronunciations for the high- cultural understanding, is this a fear- est comic effect, carefully gauging For NANM and for many others, ful point of contention? How do we audience reaction to black ineptitude. spirituals represent more than a sacred move forward? Minstrels used heavy dialect to portray connection to the sufferings of mil- I spoke with a retired, white, pro- African-Americans as foolish, stupid, lions of individuals brutally crushed fessional vocal artist who dedicated and compulsively musical.44 under the weight of systemic oppres- a significant portion of his career to Reproach from African-Americans sion. Singing was a vital dimension teaching in the Philadelphia area. He also may contribute to the withdrawal of the moment and situation of agreed that a number of white solo of whites from singing spirituals. African-American life.47 Whether in artists of the generation before and Some may feel spirituals represent a joy, in agony or sorrow, at work and up to World War II sang spirituals time of subservience that is better for- rest, in worship, in defiance, in flight occasionally on solo programs. Pres- gotten and reject its painful remem- or danger, in death, in remembrance sure from the NAACP and the emerg- brances. Many African-Americans and the ethereal—spirituals illumi- ing civil rights movement raised feel empowered to protect the sover- nate the singing soul at the center of accountability consciousness and anx- eign traditions of the spiritual and are the incomprehensibly stressful lives iety levels on the subjects of slavery, critically aware of all who come to African-Americans struggled to carve discrimination, stereotypes, black- sing them. The multiple governing out for themselves under the yoke of face, and particularly dialect, among purposes of the National Association slavery. Tied to that soul is a surpris- other flash points.41 As a result, quite of Negro Musicians (NANM) pro- ingly hopeful optimism that tran- suddenly, solo spirituals disappeared mote a generous exchange of musi- scended the wretchedness of the slave from white artists’ standard concert cal ideas and a spirit of fellowship for experience.48 This is central to why

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all solo singers in America should songs of slaves represented the sor- mental songs provided for America’s study and learn to sing spirituals. It rows of the heart, attributed the for- nameless sons and daughters. is an element critical to our transcen- mation of spirituals to the “soul-killing dence—the act of soulful expression effects of slavery,” and could not hear Through all the sorrow of the Sorrow transformed the painful details and them without profound emotion. Songs (Spirituals) there breathes a hope— a faith in the ultimate justice of things. episodes of the slave’s experience.49 The minor cadences of despair change Richard Newman advises that singing They told a tale of woe which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehen- often to triumph and calm confidence. from the heart transmutes “these songs Sometimes it is faith in life, sometimes a of sorrow into songs of resilience and sion; they were tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint faith in death, sometimes assurance of overcoming, and even into affirma- of souls boiling over with the bitterest boundless justice in some fair world tions of divine redemption and human anguish. Every tone was a testimony beyond. But whichever it is, the meaning 50 triumph.” Spirituals have much to against slavery, and a prayer to God for is always clear: that sometime, somewhere, teach us about the souls of enslaved deliverance from chains. The hearing of men will judge men by their souls and not African-Americans and who they those wild notes always depressed my by their skins. Is such a hope justified? 56 wanted to be. With these truths felt spirit, and filled me with ineffable sad- Do the Sorrow Songs sing true? and sung, an undistorted exchange ness. I have frequently found myself in takes place in the minds and hearts tears while hearing them. The mere recur- Burleigh, encouraged by Antonín of performers and listeners. This dia- rence to those songs, even now, afflicts Dvorˇák, became an early African- logue has power to transform us. This me; and while I am writing these lines, American pioneer of the recital hall an expression of feeling has already found is one among several important rea- spiritual, and created numerous solo its way down my cheek. To those songs I sons so many people are deeply emo- arrangements for concert hall per- trace my first glimmering conception of formance. He taught the world that tional and openly moved when they the dehumanizing character of slavery, hear or sing spirituals: The truth sets and quicken my sympathies for my successful performance was depend- them free. Frederick Douglass thought brethren in bonds. If any one wishes to ent on deep spiritual feeling. “. . . the mere hearing of these songs be impressed with the soul-killing effects The voice is not nearly so important as the of slavery . . . let him, in silence, analyze would do more to impress some minds spirit; and then the rhythm . . . it is an the sounds that shall pass through the with the horrible character of slavery essential characteristic. Through all of these chambers of his soul,—and if he is not than the reading of whole volumes songs there breathes a hope, a faith in the thus impressed, it will only be because of philosophy on the subject could ultimate justice and brotherhood of man. “there is no flesh in his obdurate heart” 51 The cadences of sorrow invariably turn to do.” Whether or not this is a certain . . . The songs of the slave represent the joy, and the message is ever manifest that response for all, it is important to begin sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by eventually deliverance from all that hin- at this point and build on these truths. them, only as an aching heart is relieved Because of their powerful messages, 53 ders and oppresses the soul will come, and by its tears. 57 African-American spirituals are cer- man—every man—will be free. tainly suitable solo literature to be W. E. B. DuBois and Harry T. Spirituals continue to speak and sung by all on the concert stage. Some Burleigh, also moved by the music of challenge all singers to seek the emo- African-American leaders, like folk- their ancestors, felt that spirituals have tional center of the truth belonging lorist Zora Neale Hurston and writer something intimate to say to the entire to those whose spirits first gave up James Baldwin, believed spirituals world. DuBois saw the spiritual as a their cries in agony and despair. were not meant for concert hall stages. form of art counterpoint to the debase- Spirituals urge us to find hope in every They believed there was no separa- ment of black expression in theatri- phrase and to express it. These remain tion between singer and audience, cal minstrelsy and its caricatures.54 fitting lessons for all Americans. creator or performer, that these songs He wrote the classic literary expres- were authentic only when they were sion of the idea of “sorrow songs,” or SPIRITUALS ARE CENTRAL TO by and for the people themselves, of spirituals, in his The Souls of Black OUR PERFORMING LIVES the moment and of the situation— Folk.55 His preeminent description of songs whose “truth dies under train- African-American singing revealed Certainly there is no correspon- ing like flowers under hot water.”52 to the world the enormous capacity ding reluctance to perform spirituals Frederick Douglass, who said the for expression and identity these ele- within the world of choral music

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where almost every choral ensem- At a recent gathering of voice and spreading the contagions of racial ble—white or black, black and white, majors (education and performance) stereotype, fear, discrimination, pain, whether middle school, high school, in a recital/repertory class of about and antipathy. Through the African- college or community chorus, from thirty, I asked how many students had American spiritual, the performing the highest ranks in the choral art to performed spirituals in a chorus some- arts again can transmit important the most fledgling—includes spiritu- where in their experience. Every hand messages about our cultural life— als on its programs. Choral spirituals went up in affirmation, and to my messages of beauty, hope, strength, are extremely popular, and white amazement, most students clearly racial understanding, action, trans- soloists perform freely in them. knew the titles, even the arranger/ formation, and transcendence. Americans sing spirituals around composer of the settings. An energetic Needed changes in the classical solo campfires, at summer retreats, on exchange followed on the quality of vocal tradition should begin with edu- school buses, in churches, at festivals, the music and the terrific spirit it gen- cation and understanding. During my and at informal gatherings of singers, erated. Then I followed up with the undergraduate music degree program, young and old, across the country. question, “How many students have and later two graduate degree pro- From Minnesota to Florida to Cali- performed solo spirituals outside of grams at one of the largest conserva- fornia, from the Mormon Tabernacle the choral setting, either in studio tories in the Midwest, I can attest that Choir to the Harvard Glee Club to the work or on solo recital?” Not one stu- the only people who routinely sang Chicago Children’s Choir—African- dent could say that he or she had. spirituals were African-Americans. I American spirituals are a beloved sta- heard no spirituals on the solo vocal ple of modern choral repertoire. This programs of any of my white col- PROBLEMS CROSSING is true not only in America, but across leagues, although programmatically THE COLOR LINE the face of the globe. Somewhere deep such music would have been appro- in my memory I remember the Vienna With subjects like spirituals, slav- priate and relevant. From my recol- Boys Choir bringing down the house ery, discrimination, and especially lection, none of the applied voice pro- with a heartfelt “Swing low, Sweet blackface minstrelsy, the element of fessors sang spirituals or taught their Chariot.” The choral literature of race is important. “It appears that a white students spirituals. Our general African-American composers and race blind approach, one where race history of Western music courses com- arrangers—Hall Johnson, Edward is irrelevant, would be ineffective in pletely omitted the subjects of black- Boatner, Harry T. Burleigh, William dealing with this subject.”59 Scott face minstrelsy and spirituals. For the Dawson, Nathaniel Dett, Jester Hair- Malcomson rightly suggests that, sake of the music and our national ston, Lena McLin, Florence Price, under the circumstances, in America history together, this must change. We Eugene Simpson, William Grant Still, a look beyond race may have strange can and should move consciously for- Undine Smith Moore, Roland Carter, consequences, as race itself being his- ward together. Like the butterfly, I John Work, Wendell Whalum, and torical resists ahistorical explanation. believe we can fly, but our cocoon of Moses Hogan—stands along side Possibly the only way through this silence and ambivalence will have to arrangements by distinguished white problem is through it. CJ Williamson, go. We need confidence and charac- American composers and arrangers, Editor-in-Chief of Classical Singer ter to make progress on these fronts. like Robert Shaw, Jack Halloran, Alice magazine, stated that sometimes Parker, and Norman Luboff. In “the only way to get rid of the infec- PART TWO— September 2001, Oxford Music Press, tion of discrimination is by opening SINGING AFRICAN- seizing on popular interest, issued its the wound.”61 We can begin the heal- AMERICAN SPIRITUALS: choral anthology of great American ing process by breaking the silence RESOURCES TO HELP MAKE spirituals, Oxford Book of Spirituals, surrounding our racial legacy in music. AFRICAN-AMERICAN edited by the late Moses Hogan, con- Blackface minstrelsy was the primary SPIRITUALS AN ACTIVE PART taining spirituals by many of these example of the way American popu- OF OUR SINGING LIVES leading black and white composers lar culture exploits and manipulates and arrangers. Based on the world’s African-Americans and their culture. 1. A respectful knowledge of African- love of choral spiritual arrangements, The performing arts became a fun- American spiritual history and music Oxford’s anthology is a success. damental platform used in defining is the beginning of a useful cultural

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understanding that contributes to documentary “Ethnic Notions: Black I am convinced that it is impossible to gain authentic performance. Black and People in White Minds” (1987) from a full understanding of the spirituals from white audiences are willing to extend California Newsreel.64 These resources an examination of song lyrics alone, with- an abundance of understanding and may help change perceptions forever. out hearing (and especially singing) the rhythms and melodies of the songs as encouragement when artists approach Several key reference books exam- well.67 performances with these essentials ine the history of the spiritual and its intact. If what is taking place in the meaning and place in the lives of Consulting Black Song: The Forge choral world suggests the healthy African-Americans. John Lovell’s Black and the Flame by John Lovell, Jr.68 enthusiasm in the populace for spir- Song: The Forge and the Flame, a highly and Jones’s Wade in the Water will ituals, then voice professors have a detailed volume of encyclopedic impor- greatly assist in meaningful analysis. useful model to follow for success. tance on African-American spiritu- They are essential references on spir- White solo artists may feel greater als, is absolutely indispensable. Arthur itual texts, their poetic and melodic comfort teaching and performing solo C. Jones’s Wade in the Water: The structures, hidden meanings, and bib- spirituals by using many of the same Wisdom of the Spirituals is an insight- lical subreferences. For example, Lovell techniques used in the preparation ful, classically well integrated book on points out that the words “love” and of other sensitive literature. A com- the wealth of information and social “hate” are very rarely mentioned in manding knowledge of the spiritual implications of spiritual traditions. Dr. spirituals, the word “hate” hardly at and America’s racial history is fun- Jones references fifty-nine spirituals all.69 Yet, spirituals are full of the damental for the teacher, performer, in startling, authoritative discussion. demonstration of love. “The fact that and audience member. Voice teach- The endnotes and bibliography are the spiritual has no word for hate ers can take the lead on this prepara- priceless. This book is also essential. seems rightly to suggest that hate is tion and guide others carefully 2. African-American spirituals are a useless commodity . . . ”70 Arthur through it. It is necessary to review suitable literature to be sung by all on the Jones adds, the odious legacy of blackface and concert stage. This statement reaffirms how its consciousness of oppression the obvious, but remains necessary. We have much to learn from these wise and discrimination has seriously Vincent Harding offers an important composers and singers, for many of them affected our racial perceptions, includ- caveat. were able to transcend an experience of ing solo spirituals performed by whites extreme degradation, emerging from it as . . . the spirituals are available to all persons spiritually, morally and emotionally in dialect on the concert stage. The who are prepared to open themselves to the evolved human beings. The fact that there subject should be an important part of unsettling, healing power that inhabits were so many emotional and physical our general Western music history these marvelous songs of life. These songs casualties is not shocking; the fact that courses, classical and popular. For a were created out of “deeply meaningful, there were so many who emerged from perspective on blackface minstrelsy, archetypally human experiences, relevant their suffering to live on psychological I recommend three books: Robert C. not only to the specific circumstances of and spiritual “higher ground” is ...All Toll, Blacking Up: The Minstrel Show slavery but also to women and men strug- of these spirituals teach us, more effec- tively than any other means imaginable, in Nineteenth Century America; Eric gling with issues of justice, freedom and spiritual wholeness in all times and the unlimited possibilities for human trans- Lott, Love & Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy places.”65 formation and the manner in which the and the American Working Class; Bean, transformation process is aided and sup- Hatch and McNamara, Inside the Perhaps more important than voice ported by the power of song and symbol.71 Minstrel Mask: Readings in Nineteenth- and technique, the attitude of the Century Blackface Minstrelsy. I rec- singer is the critical ingredient neces- Howard Thurman’s Deep River and ommend the extensive blackface sary for successful performance. Hall The Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life and materials that are part of the PBS SPE- Johnson calls it the “one all-impor- Death, James Cone’s The Spirituals CIAL/WGHB American Experience tant consideration—the right mental and the Blues: An Interpretation, and Stephen Foster website,63 which in- attitude on the part of the singer.”66 Paul Robeson’s Here I Stand are also cludes important questions with 3. Search deep within the text and very helpful. answers by four historians on the sub- music for the proper attitude and spirit, 4. Try to approach the subject of ject. I strongly recommend beginning and the true expression begins to reveal “Negro dialect” with understanding. with Marlon Riggs’s fifty-eight minute itself. Struggling to grasp the language of

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their masters under the most oppres- Final and postvocalic r, that is, “r” at preface notes to Johnson’s anthology sive and extreme conditions, African the end of a word or after a vowel was are very useful to the informed spir- slaves in America made great efforts not heard—instead a vowel sound itual singer. to learn English, many times spoken replaced it.77 Several important textbooks dis- in dialect by lower and working class cuss many anomalies of African- Scottish, Welsh, Irish, and English summer became summah American dialect speech patterns torn became tone immigrants living in the American making the experience of singing your became yo South. At least seventy percent of the Negro dialect understandable. I rec- ancestors of Americans of African In difficulty, sometimes final con- ommend: The Books of American Negro descent came from the Mande (West sonant groups were reduced to a vowel Spirituals by James Weldon and African) and Bantu (Central African) sound or single consonant sound.78 J. Rosamond Johnson; Black Talk: ethnic groups.72 These diverse peo- Words and Phrases From the Hood to ple represented a multiplicity of com- cold became coal the Amen Corner, revised edition by plex linguistic sources that did not Geneva Smitherman; Lexicon of Black From his lifelong study and per- contain several sounds in common English or Perspectives on Black English formance of spirituals, Hall Johnson, with the English language. For nearly by J. L. Dillard; and American Regional instructed that the racial qualities of three hundred years, more than ninety English Today by Allan Metcalf. the words “should neither be unduly percent of these African-Americans 5. Listen to classic spiritual record- exaggerated in the hope of being more lived in the South, accounting for the ings by leading African-American entertaining nor, still worse, ‘puri- Southernness of African-American singers and closely note their many sty- fied’ into correct English—for any English.73 listic treatments. There are many fine As a legacy of slavery and reason whatever. Either process would segregation, many vestiges continued examples: Roberta Alexander; Marian utterly spoil the artistic integrity of Anderson; Martina Arroyo; Kathleen in the pronunciations of slave descen- 79 the performance.” He further sug- Battle; Wilhelmenia Fernandez; dants. For example, the th sound was gested that dialect forms did not nec- alien and difficult. This sound, espe- Denyce Graves; Hilda Harris; Roland essarily arise from “ignorance of the Hayes; Richard Heard; Mahalia cially initial in words, became d in correct pronunciation.”80 approximation.74 Jackson; Kevin Maynor; Robert McFerrin; Oral Moses; Jessye Norman; Sometimes they were deliberately chosen than became dan in order to avoid harsh or difficult sounds, Odetta; Jo Ann Pickens; Leontyne they became dey or to render the word more serviceable for Price; Florence Quivar; Derek Lee the became de the immediate occasion. Especially in the Ragin; Bernice Johnson Reagon; Paul that became dat Negro folk song, the word is always made Robeson; Louise Toppin; and William this became dis adjustable to the rhythm of the music. Warfield. with became wid Consequently this altered word-form may Robert McFerrin’s Deep River and father became fader (perhaps vary all the way from the correct English Other Classic Negro Spirituals, cur- influenced by pronunciation to the most extreme con- rently out of print, but found still in Scotch dialects) tractions of the dialect . . . Here are exam- ples of some of the most familiar alterations: many library collections around the The th sound when final became f in country, is an outstanding collection approximation.75 Heaven—Hev’n—Heb’m—Heb’n—or of fourteen spirituals, recorded in New just He’m York City in June 1957. The recording mouth became mouf Children—chil-dun—child’n—chillun sessions occurred two years after Mr. truth became truf There—dere—dey or day McFerrin’s debut as the first African- For—fE or f’ breath became bref American male performer at the path became paf To—tE or t’ My—ma—mE or m’81 Metropolitan Opera, and only the sec- In difficulty, sometimes th was omit- ond African-American after the his- ted altogether.76 Johnson also insisted that de (like the) toric first performance of Marian is always pronounced dee before vow- Anderson in 1955. This recording is neither became ne’er els and duh before consonants.82 The noteworthy not only because of the

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exemplary performance by Mr. McFer- 7. Sing accompanied or unaccompa- Perhaps the most impressive col- rin and his accompanist Norman nied solo spiritual arrangements. A list lection that I have referenced is the Johnson, or that his is one of a hand- of African-American spiritual Marian Anderson Papers at the ful of spiritual recordings by African- anthologies follows the endnotes. University of Pennsylvania, housed American men, but along with Singers originally performed spiritu- in the Penn Special Collections of arrangements by Burleigh, Still, and als without accompaniment or audi- Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Lawrence, his recording represents ence: all in attendance sang.84 Early Library. It is the principal repository one of the largest collections of some arrangements like those by Burleigh, of her personal and career documents, of the best of Hall Johnson solo spir- Work, Johnson and Johnson, and which date from early in her perform- itual settings ever recorded (eleven)— Boatner add color and support to the ing career (before 1926), to late in a tour de force. Mr. McFerrin’s bari- vocal line. Piano arrangements by her retirement (1993). The collection tone voice is in remarkable profile, Hall Johnson and Moses Hogan also comprises 495 boxes containing cor- and his timing and expression, espe- add sophisticated counterpoint and respondence (6500 folders with over cially in the works, “Ain’t got time to dimension to all the rhythmic texture. 6000 individual correspondents— die,” “I got to lie down,” “Oh, Glory,” Many spiritual arrangements, some among the most important composers, “Witness,” “Ride on, King Jesus,” are of the most elaborate, are published arrangers, singers, conductors, schol- hallmarks of the style. as single, individual settings. Singers ars, writers, and world leaders of the 6. Recruit leading African-American should also remember that a long twentieth century), manuscripts, biog- vocal artists to teach the spiritual style, unaccompanied performance tradi- raphical materials, journals, contracts, attend and sing in voice classes, work- tion exists for spirituals of every style programs, awards, honorary degrees, shops, and master classes where the spir- and tempo. Virtually any spiritual memorabilia, fan mail scrapbooks, itual is the focus. Hall Johnson strongly can be performed effectively and sty- photographs (over 4400), speeches, suggests that the singer who has no listically in this manner. Careful focus recordings, items from her family, first hand acquaintance with the on the text, form, scale, color notes, among other materials.85 Her music authentic racial style of spirituals strong rhythmic elements, silences, library contains more than 2000 should have “for the best results, either and a text-inspired sense of impro- printed scores and more than 2000 an intelligent model or a coach who visatory embellishment transform the songs in manuscript, including many is thoroughly familiar with this music smallest melody into a prayerful inter- by African-American composers at its source.”83 Many leading African- cession. Many African-Americans (especially Florence Price, Hall John- American voice teachers annually continue to believe that the unaccom- coach students in current spiritual panied spiritual is the highest form son, Will Marion Cook, Harry T. Bur- repertoire. For example, the annual of the art. Sung either way, accompa- leigh, William Dawson, R. Nathaniel convention of the NANM is a terrific nied or unaccompanied, they are effec- Dett, William Grant Still, among oth- forum for contacting excellent senior tively expressive. ers). Women make up approximately African-American concert artists, like 8. Consult major library collections one third of the composers who sent 86 Silvia Olden Lee, or in the recent past, for African-American spiritual re- manuscripts to Miss Anderson. the late William Warfield. Lovers of sources. Education centers across the Although Miss Anderson was at music throughout the world honor country have gathered special collec- the center of a racial/political conflict William Warfield as one of the great tions of materials dealing with the resulting in her historic outdoor con- vocal artists of our time, as he achieved history of African-American perform- cert at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter stardom in every field open to a ers and arrangers of spirituals. In addi- Sunday in 1939 (well documented singer’s art. Silvia Olden Lee (who tion to the Schomburg Center for with over 2000 letters from her fans), concertized with Paul Robeson) is Research in Black Culture in New she was not inclined to write about noted as the first African-American York, and The E. Azalia Hackley her personal feelings or to analyze woman on the Metropolitan Opera Collection of Negro Music, Dance, some of the issues, including race, staff and as a world renowned vocal and Drama in Detroit, a brief list of about which she constantly was coach. Her students include Kathleen important collections of African- asked.87 Few of her letters expressed Battle, Jessye Norman, and Wilhel- American arrangers and performers her feelings on religion, love, or racial menia Fernandez. across the nation appears in Table 1. politics.88

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Table 1. Collections of Spirituals, Arrangers, and Performers. Be courageous. Breech the gap sepa- rating whites from spirituals, mindful Collection Location that this is a major point of fear and Anderson, Marian University of Pennsylvania, Penn Library historical contention. A performer Collection prepared with information and under- Burleigh, Harry T. Atlanta University Center, Harry P. Slaughter standing can do it. Allow each per- Collection formance to be part of a conscious Dawson, William Emory University, Woodruff Library Afr- effort to reconcile the division in our Amer Collection performing traditions. In the end, a Dett, Robert Nathaniel Hampton University Library, Harvey Library voice teacher’s example is the posi- Collection tive light students will follow. Duncan, Todd University of Michigan School of Music 10. Read several slave narrative Fisk Jubilee Singers Fisk University Library Special Collections accounts for an informed perspective. Hayes, Roland E. Azalia Hackley Collection, Detroit Public Slave narratives are invaluable to the Library, Roland Hayes Museum, Calhoun spiritual singer. These primary testi- Gordon Arts Council monies are filled with numerous Jessye, Eva Eva Jessye Collection, Leonard H. Axe details of slave life. Historians esti- Library, Pittsburg State University [Kansas] mate that there are approximately Johnson, Hall Rowan University Music Library (in prepara- 6000 published narratives by African- tion) American slaves spanning 170 years Johnson, James Weldon Fisk University Library Special Collections of testimony, from book length auto- Jones, Sissieretta Howard University Moorland-Springarn biographies to short newspaper Research Center Nicolas Slonimsky accounts and interviews.89 Many are Collection, Library of Congress contained in modern anthologies, like Moore, Undine Smith Indiana University, Undine Smith Moore the important collection edited by Collection Price, Florence B. University of Arkansas Libraries Special Yale University history professor John Collections Blassingame. His book, the largest Robeson, Paul Columbia College, Chicago, IL, Robeson modern collection of slave narratives, Centennial Celeb. Howard University contains first person accounts about Moorland-Springarn Research Center, New culture, plantation life, sexual exploita- York Public Library, Robeson Collection, tion, and psychological responses to 90 Princeton Public Library, University of bondage. These important eye- Chicago, Robeson Archives Listings witness accounts are provided by a Still, William Grant Duke University Special Collections Library, variety of persons: house and field University of Arkansas Libraries Special servants; slaves docile and rebellious; Collections urban and rural slaves.91 Harvard Warfield, William Eastman School of Music Silbey Music University African-American Studies Library, University of Michigan School Director Henry Louis Gates, Jr. insists of Music that authentic slave narratives are of Work III, John Wesley Fisk University Library Special Collection great significance since African- American slaves were among the only enslaved people in the world to pro- Altogether, the collection is a mar- entirety on the web, including her duce a body of writing that testified to vel, immaculately maintained, with enormous photograph collection. their experiences.92 Perhaps the most controlled access, and a well informed, 9. All voice teachers should consider famous narrative is that written by cordial staff. A complete description singing spirituals on their programs fugitive slave Frederick Douglass.93 of the Marian Anderson Papers is and use such performances as excellent With the Emancipation Procla- viewable on line. Several aspects of educational opportunities to bring atten- mation, the end of the American Civil the collection are viewable in their tion to the current state of the spiritual. War brought freedom to over four mil-

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lion slaves in 1865. Nearly 100,000 Cullen; Paul Laurence Dunbar; Mari Spirituals are part of the solo vocal of these former slaves were still alive Evans; Nikki Giovanni; Robert Hay- competition scene as well. The seventy years later in the period of den; Calvin Hernton; Langston American Negro Spiritual Festival the Great Depression.94 During the Hughes; James Weldon Johnson; that showcased college choirs and their Depression, the Work Projects Ad- Naomi Long Madgett; Haki R. soloists in competition in Cincinnati ministration, through its Federal Madhubuti; Claude McKay; Ismael for many years is inactive at this time. Writers Project, recorded interviews Reed; Carolyn Rodgers; Sonia San- However, the American Traditions with more than 2400 of these former chez; Quincy Troupe; Alice Walker; Competition (Savannah, Georgia), slaves about their life experiences Margaret Walker; and Richard Wright. now in its tenth year, is a premiere under the institution of slavery. HBO There are many others. Two great solo vocal competition devoted to Documentaries, in association with anthologies of African-American poet- the musical heritage of the United the Library of Congress, produced ry are very useful: Trouble the Water: States.98 The competitors’ program Unchained Memories: Readings From 250 Years of African-American Poetry, selections cover a wide spectrum of The Slave Narratives, a seventy-four edited by Jerry W. Ward, Jr.; In Search American music, ranging from minute film based on sections of the for Color Everywhere: A Collection of Broadway show tunes to jazz to spir- slave narrative collection readings, African-American Poetry, edited by ituals. A spiritual may be sung as part supplemented with archival photo- Ethelbert Miller. of the preliminary, quarter, and final graphs, music, and period images.95 12. Consider on-line sources for mate- competition phases. As part of the Whoopi Goldberg narrated the film, rials about spirituals and performance program requirements of the semi- which includes excerpts from drama- practice (see Table 2). final round, contestants are required tic narratives read by noted African- An important on-line source is the to sing an American spiritual.99 Spirit- American actors. The book, a multi- survey on the Art of the Negro Spir- uals are an important element of the linked interactive website,96 and VHS itual website organized by Randye L. Leontyne Price Vocal Arts Competi- or DVD formats are available. The Jones (http://www.artofthenegro tion and the Marian Anderson Guild’s web site also has a link with Questia’s spiritual.com/survey.html). Its goal is Music Competition of the National slave narrative resources.97 to obtain the views of vocal students, Association of Negro Musicians. 11. Consider the poetry of the Recon- professional singers, voice teachers, Another hopeful anecdotal sign struction, the Harlem Renaissance, and and vocal enthusiasts on the challenges points to the tendency of some white the Civil Rights Era as useful supple- of studying and singing Negro spiri- major American solo vocalists to sing ments. This poetry could be useful to tual settings for the solo voice. spirituals abroad, which possibly sug- connect the suppressed and veiled There are other hopeful anecdotal gests a sense of freedom to sing the messages of slaves in spirituals by signs taking place in the solo vocal literature in a less judgmental atmos- tracing it through the oppressed lives world. For example, recently I spoke phere. We should encourage our artists of their descendants in the next gen- with a white young professional solo to bring their performances home. erations. What slaves possibly felt and vocalist in Philadelphia who reports were unable to sing or say directly that his African-American voice CONCLUSION resonates within the thoughts of their teacher made a significant impact on African-American spirituals are descendants. Their words illuminate his understanding, appreciation, and important literature for all singers. the timeless complexities of oppres- performance of spirituals. His teacher’s By giving up our silence, and by mov- sion, its permutations, and the fragile, instruction and example greatly ing into dialogue and performance of universal dream that is freedom, and enhanced his learning experience. African-American spirituals, we get all resilient movements toward it. Through his teacher he gained com- so much more in generous return for Teamed with a historian or narrator, fort with dialect and elements of the nation and ourselves. Hall John- one could create a moving program improvised style. He felt comfortable, son’s words on what the spiritual gives of music and the spoken word. Here supported, and encouraged to try the to the singer and listener speak vol- is a short list of poets to consider: history and material. Now he sings umes to our heart. Maya Angelou; Amiri Baraka; Arna spirituals with authority and authen- Bontemps; Gwendolyn Brooks; Ster- ticity. I believe his learning experi- . . . in direct proportion as these songs ling Brown; Lucille Clifton; Countee ence is not an isolated one. are delivered with simplicity, even with

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Table 2. Internet Websites Dedicated to African-American Spirituals. and inspiration that sustained African-Americans through slavery, African-American Art Song Alliance http://www.afrovoices.com/index.html reconstruction, and Jim Crow segre- African-American Spirituals http://gigue.peabody.jhu.edu/~jstuckey/ gation; songs of power and action that spirit.html#History moved this nation through its second Africans in America http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html revolution—the civil rights revolu- Afro-Centric Voices in Classical http://www.afrovoices.com/index.html tion; songs of conscience and trans- Music (Bibliography) http://www.afrovoices.com/bookstore/ formation waiting to bring us to that author.html place where we need to be—together. Art of The Negro Spiritual http://www.artofthenegrospiritual. DuBois’ historic foretelling of com/index.html America’s central color line problem Center of Black Music Research, http://www.cbmr.org/pubs/bmrjback.htm still echoes truth to us from our past. “Negro Spirituals and Gospel Racism, frustration, fear, injustice, Songs:Indexes to Selected and antipathy have been our history— Periodicals,” by Robert Sacré they need not forever be our state of EdSiteMent-Spirituals http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_ being or derail our future. No Ameri- plan.asp?ID=318 can should avoid singing solo spiri- Glimpses Issue #89 “Slave Songs http://www.gospelcom.net/chi/ tuals; rather, we should learn to sing Transcend Sorrow” GLIMPSEF/Glimpses/glmps089.shtml and embrace all they represent, taking Marian Anderson: A Life in Song http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/ them into our minds and hearts. Our rbm/anderson/ nation persists in the midst of a right- Negro Spiritual Quarterly, The http://www.dogonvillage.com/ eous struggle of the heart to recon- negrospirituals/ cile its past for the sake of its future. Negro Spiritual (Thomas http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/ Douglass, DuBois, Burleigh, Paul Wentworth Higginson Article in 1867jun/spirit.htm Robeson, Marian Anderson, and The Atlantic Monthly, 1867) http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/ Martin Luther King, Jr. knew well: TWH/twh_front.html The heart is the place where true Official Site of History of Negro http://www.negrospirituals.com/ change begins. The path to under- Spirituals standing our racial legacy passes Penn State Annual Celebration http://www.artsandarchitecture.psu. through our shared joys, pains, and of Spirituals edu/news/spirituals_012903.html sorrows, not by painfully forgetting Questia’s Online Spiritual http://www.questia.com/popular or fearfully ignoring them. Learning Resources Searches/spirituals.jsp to love, teach, and especially, to sing Reference Materials on Spirituals & http://www.ymbarnwell.com/ solo spirituals brings us closer to Partial Discography Spirituals.htm humbly reconciling the truth of what Spiritual And The Blues http://www.nathanielturner.com/ we are, together. spiritualandblues.htm Dennis Speed, in a moving article Spirituals: A Research Bibliography http://northstar.vassar.edu/volume1/ about the spiritual for the Schiller (The North Star) vln2bib.html Institute, suggested that the drama of Spirituals Project, The http://www.spiritualsproject.org/ the lowly African-American spiritual possesses the power to greatly impact our hearts and humanity, saying, “Not force, but beauty, will change Amer- reverence, each song being allowed to great resource in transforming our ica.”102 Given an opportunity, the speak for itself, the singer will find his nation and ourselves.101 Lovell, Cone, musical arts again could be an impor- audience-reaction more and more grati- Jones, and Paul Robeson understood tant forum for our racial reflection, fying and himself vastly enriched by the and reclaimed the spirituals as per- experience. 100 and the African-American spiritual, haps they were meant to be: songs of even in the shadow of blackface min- Also we can reclaim spirituals as a powerful motivation, determination, strelsy, could be its matrix.

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NOTES 14. Ibid. from http://www.pbs special.org/ wgbh/amex/foster/sfeature/sf_ 1. William Edward Burghardt DuBois, 15. Seymour Stark, Men in Blackface: minstrelsy.html. The Souls of Black Folk, Introduc- True Stories of the Minstrel Show tion by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (New (Xlibris Corporation, 2000), 40. 41. Dancis. York: Bantam Books, 1989), xxxi. 16. Ibid., 28. 42. Toll, 161. 2. Christopher A. Brooks, “The ‘Musi- 17. Sweet, 14. 43. Sweet, 18. cal’ Souls of Black Folk: Can A Dou- ble Consciousness Be Heard?” in 18. Ibid. 44. Toll, 67. The Souls of Black Folk: One Hun- 19. Small, 146. 45. National Association of Negro dred Years Later, by W. E. B. DuBois, Musicians, Inc., “Purpose” (http:// ed., with introduction by Dolan 20. Ibid. www.nanm.8m.com/page21.html). Hubbard (Columbia, MO and Lon- 21. Hans Nathan, Dan Emmett and the 46. Richard Newman, “Spirituals, don: University of Missouri Press, Rise of Early Negro Minstrelsy (Nor- 2003), 270. African American,” in Africana: man: University of Oklahoma Press, The Encyclopedia of the African and 3. Paul Oliver, “Spirituals §II, African- 1962), 133. African American Experience (1999), American,” in The New Grove Dic- 22. Small, 16. 1776. tionary of Music and Musicians, 2d ed. (London: Macmillan Publish- 23. Ibid., 17. 47. Ibid. ers Limited, 2001), 191. 24. Toll, 216. 48. Ibid., 1777. 4. Eric Lott, Love and Theft: Blackface 25. Sweet, 21. 49. Ibid., 1778. Minstrelsy and the American Work- ing Class (New York: Oxford Uni- 26. Ibid., 17. 50. Ibid. versity Press, 1993), 3. 27. Small, 145. 51. Frederick Douglass, Narrative of 5. Bruce Dancis, “Analysis: The Long The Life of Frederick Douglass, An 28. Stark, 18. and Troubling History of Black- American Slave, Written By Him- face,” The Sacramento Bee (14 29. Eric Lott, “Blackface and Black- self, in The Classic Slave Narratives, March 1999). ness: The Minstrel Show in Amer- edited and with an introduction by ican Culture,” in Bean, Hatch, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Boston: 6. Eileen Southern, The Music of Black McNamara, 19. Anti-Slavery Office, 1845; reprint Americans: A History, 3d ed. (New New York: Signet Classic, 2002), York: W.W. Norton & Company, 30. Toll, 237. 349 (page citations are to the reprint 1997), 92. 31. Ibid., 238. edition). 7. Christopher Small, Music of the 32. Ibid., 166. 52. Newman, 1776. Common Tongue: Survival and Cel- ebration in Afro-American Music 33. Small, 144. 53. Douglass, 349–50. (New York: Riverrun Press Inc., 34. Toll, 65. 54. Brooks, 275. 1987), 145. 35. Stark, 139. 55. William, W. Austin, “Susanna,” 8. Ibid. “Jeanie,” and “The Old Folks At 9. Robert C. Toll, Blacking Up: The 36. Ibid., 51. Home;” The Songs of Stephen Foster Minstrel Show in Nineteenth Cen- 37. Alexander Saxton, “Blackface Min- From His Time to Ours (Urbana: tury America (New York: Oxford strelsy,” in Bean, Hatch, and McNa- University of Illinois Press, 1987), University Press, 1974), 32. mara, 67. 299. 10. Ibid., v. 38. Toll, 262. 56. DuBois, 186. 57. Harry T. Burleigh, Spirituals of 11. Ibid., 41. 39. Ethnic Notions: Black People in Harry T. Burleigh (Miami, FL: 12. Scott L. Malcomson, One Drop of White Minds, written and directed Belwin Mills Publishing Corp., Blood: The American Misadventure by Marlon Riggs (San Francisco, 1984), 4. of Race (New York: Farrar, Straus California: California Newsreel, and Giroux, 2000), 333. 1987), videocassette. 58. Moses Hogan, ed., The Oxford Book of Spirituals (New York: Oxford 13. Frank W. Sweet, A History of the 40. Eric Lott, ed., The American Expe- University Press, 2002). Minstrel Show (Palm Coast, FL: rience—Stephen Foster, PBS SPE- Backintyme, 2000), 14. CIAL Web Site Special Features, 59. Malcomson, 333.

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60. Ibid. 78. Ibid. tia.com/Index.jsp?CRID=slave_ narratives&OFFID=se1). 61. CJ Williamson, “Discrimination’s 79. Hall Johnson, 4. Ugly Scab,” Classical Singer (Febru- 98. Savannah Onstage International 80. Ibid. ary 2002): 6. Arts Festival: American Traditions Repertoire Requirements, 2001, from 62. Ibid., 93. 81. Ibid., 4–5. http://www.savannahonstage.org/ 82. Ibid., 5. 63. PBS SPECIAL/WGHB American ametra_repreq.html. Experience Stephen Foster website 83. Ibid., 4. 99. Ibid. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/ foster/sfeature/sf_minstrelsy.html). 84. Ibid. 100. Hall Johnson, 5. 64. Ethnic Notions: Black People in 85. Penn Special Collections-MA 101. Jones, x. White Minds. Register 3 (Scope and Content Note) (http://www.library.upenn. 102. Dennis Speed, “African-American 65. Arthur C. Jones, Wade in The edu/collections/rbm/mms/ander Spirituals and the Classical Setting Water: The Wisdom of the Spirituals son/anderson.html). of Strophic Poetry,” Fidelio Maga- (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, zine 3, no. 4 (Winter 1994[cover 1993), xi. 86. Ibid. says Winter 1995]):1. 66. Hall Johnson, Thirty Spirituals 87. Ibid. Arranged for Voice and Piano (New 88. Ibid. York and London: G. Schirmer, ANTHOLOGIES OF AFRICAN 1949), 4. 89. Lisa Clayton Robinson, § “Slave AMERICAN SPIRITUALS Narratives,” in Africana: The Ency- (see next page) 67. Jones, xvi. clopedia of the African and African 68. John Lovell, Jr., Black Song: The American Experience, 1718. Forge and the Flame—The Story of BIBLIOGRAPHY 90. John W. Blassingame, ed., Slave How The Afro-American Spiritual Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Austin, William W. “Susanna,” “Jeanie,” Was Hammered Out (New York: Speeches, Interviews, and Autobi- and “The Old Folks At Home;” The Souls of Paragon House Publishers, 1972). ographies (Baton Rouge: Louisiana Stephen Foster From His Time to Ours. 69. Ibid., 310. State University Press, 1997), notes. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987. 70. Ibid. 91. Ibid. Blassingame, John W., ed. Slave Testi- mony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, 71. Jones, 23 and 32. 92. Robinson, “Slave Narratives.” Interviews, and Autobiographies. Baton 72. Joseph E. Holoway and Winifred 93. The Frederick Douglass Autobi- Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, K. Vass, The African Heritage of ography, Narrative of the Life of 1997. American English (Bloomington Frederick Douglass, An American Brooks, Christopher A. “The ‘Musical’ and Indianapolis: Indiana Univer- Slave, in The Classic Anthology of Souls of Black Folk: Can A Double Con- sity Press, 1993), xix. Slave Narratives, ed. Henry Louis sciousness Be Heard,” in The Souls of Black Gates (New York: Penguin Putnam 73. Allan Metcalf, American Regional Folk: One Hundred Years Later, by W.E.B. Inc., 2002), 323–436. English Today: A Talking Tour of Du Bois, ed. with introduction by Doland American English (Boston: 94. HBO Documentaries: About the Hubbard. Columbia and London: Uni- Houghton Mifflin Co., 2000), 160. Film (http://www.hbo.com/ versity of Missouri Press, 2003. docs/programs/unchained_mem 74. J. A. Harrison, “Negro English,” in Burleigh, Harry T. Spirituals of Harry T. ories/about.html). Perspectives on Black English, ed. Burleigh. Miami, FL: Belwin Mills Pub- Joey Lee Dillard (The Hague: 95. Ibid. lishing Corp., 1984. Mouton, 1975), 154. 96. HBO Documentaries—Unchained Cone, James H. The Spirituals and the 75. Ibid. Memories: Readings From The Slave Blues: An Interpretation. New York: The 76. Ibid., 155. Narratives (http://www.hbo.com/ Seabury Press, 1972. docs/programs/unchained_mem 77. Geneva Smitherman, Black Talk: Crouch, Stanley, and Playthell Benjamin. ories/index.html). Words and Phrases From the Hood Reconsidering The Souls of Black Folk. to the Amen Corner, rev. ed. (Boston: 97. “Slave Narratives,” in Questia’s On- Philadelphia and London: Running Press, Houghton Mifflin Co., 2000), 12. Line Library (http://www.ques 2002.

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ANTHOLOGIES OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN SPIRITUALS Arranger/Editor Anthologies

Katheen A. Abromiet An Index to African-American Spirituals for the Solo Voice. Westport, CT: Greewood Press, 1999. William Francis Allen Slave Songs of The United States, with Charles Pickard Ware and Lucy McKim Garrison. Applewood Books, 1996. Jay Althouse Spirituals for Solo Singers: Eleven Spirituals Arranged for Solo Voice and Piano for Recitals, Concerts, and Contests. Van Nuys, CA: Alfred, 1994. [Medium High and Medium Low] Edward Boatner The Story of the Spirituals: Thirty Spirituals and Their Origins. Melville, NY: Belwin Mills, 1973. Rene Boyer-Alexander Expressions of Freedom: Complete Edition (Anthology of African-American Spirituals). Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Publishing Corp., 2001. Lawrence Brown Negro Folk Songs. London: Schott & Co.; New York: Associated Music, c1930. Sebastian Brown Thirty Negro Spirituals (Books 1 & 2). London: Oxford University Press, 1972. H. T. Burleigh Album of Negro Spirituals, Arranged for Solo Voice. Melville, NY: Belwin Mills Pub. Corp., 1969. [High, Low] H. T. Burleigh Negro Spirituals: From Bible To Folk Songs (2 Volumes in 1). AMS Press, 1995. Bruno Chenu The Trouble I’ve Seen: The Big Book of Negro Spirituals. Cain Hope Felder, Judson Pr., 2003. Lily Young Cohen Lost Spirituals: The Black Heritage Library Collection. Ayer Co. Pub., 1928. Michael L. Cooper Slave Songs and the Jubilee Singers. Clarion Books, 2001. Harold Courlander Negro Folk Music, USA, edited by Harold Courlander. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1992. Harold Courlander Negro Songs From Alabama, transcribed by John Benson Brooks. NY: Wenner Gren Foundation, 1960. Natalie Curtis-Burlin Negro Folk Songs: The Hampton Series, Books I-IV, edited by Natalie Curtis-Burlin. Dover Publications, 2001. Dena J. Epstein Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Music in American Life. University of Illinois Press, 2003. Hugo Frey Famous Negro Spirituals, transcribed and arranged by Hugo Frey. Warner Brothers Publications, 1999. William Arms Fisher Seventy Negro Spirituals, edited by William Arms Fisher. Boston: Oliver Ditson Co., 1926. [High and Low] Paul Glass Songs and Stories of Afro-Americans. New York: Grosset and Dunlap Publishers, 1971. Mary Allen Grissom The Negro Sings A New Heaven. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1969. Philip Hattey Three Spirituals. London/New York: Oxford University Press, 1962. Mark Hayes Ten Spirituals For Solo Voice. Alfred Publishing Co., 1998. [Medium High, Medium Low] Roland Hayes My Favorite Spirituals: Thirty Songs For Voice and Piano/. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2001. [An Unabridged Republication of My Songs Aframerican Religious Folk Songs, arr. and Interpreted by Roland Hayes. Boston: Little Brown, 1948.] Nichol Beaulieu Herder Best Loved Negro Spirituals—Complete Lyrics to 178 Songs of Faith, Nicol Beaulier Herder, editor, with Ronald Herder, compiler, and Paul T. Kwami. Dover Publications, 2001. Cynthia Hickman Spirituals: A Folk Anthology, compiled by Cynthia Hickman. Dunbar, Inc., 2002. Moses Hogan The Deep River Collection: Ten Spirituals for Solo Voice & Piano. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Publishing Corp., 2000. [High and Low] Hall Johnson Thirty Spirituals Arranged for Voice and Piano. New York: G. Schirmer, 1949. Hall Johnson The Hall Johnson Collection. Chicago: Carl Fischer, 2003. J. Rosamond Johnson Album Of Negro Spirituals, newly adapted and arranged. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Publishing Grp., 1984. James Weldon Johnson The Books of The American Negro Spirituals, Newly Adapted and Arranged by James Weldon Johnson, and J. Rosamond Johnson. Da Capo Press: 2002. [2 vols in 1 edition] Arthur C. Jones Wade in the Water: The Wisdom of The Spirituals, by Arthur C. Jones, with an introduction by Vincent Harding. Orbis Books, 1999. Victor Labenske Concert Hall Spirituals [Medium]. Woodland Music Press, 1999. Hal Leonard African-American Spirituals, Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Publishing Corp., 2000. — continued, next page

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ANTHOLOGIES OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN SPIRITUALS (continued) Arranger/Editor Anthologies

William A. Logan Road to Heaven: Twenty-Eight Negro Spirituals, edited by Allen M. Garrett. Birmingham: University of Alabama Press, 1955. Phillip McIntyre Spirituals For Church And Concert [Medium]. H. T. Fitzsimmons Co., 1997. Richard Newman Go Down, Moses: A Celebration of the African American Spiritual, illustrated by Terrance Cummings, with Preface by Cornel West. Clarkson N. Potter, Publisher, 1998. Erskine Peters Lyrics of the Afro-American Spiritual: A Documentary Collection. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993. Franz Rupp Marian Anderson Album of Songs and Spirituals. New York: G. Schirmer [1948]. Shawnee Press Your Favorite Spirituals [Thirty-Five]. Delaware Gap, PA: Shawnee Press, Inc. 1966. Jerry Silverman Slave Songs (Traditional Black Music), edited by Jerry Silverman. Chelsea Books, 1993. Vivian Taylor Art Songs and Spirituals by African-American Women Composers. Bryn Mawr, PA: Hildegard Publishing Co., 1995. Velma Maia Thomas No Man Can Hinder Me: The Journey From Slavery To Emancipation Through Song. New York: Crown Publishers, 2001. Howard Thurman Deep River: Reflections on Religious Insight of Certain of The Negro Spirituals [revised and enlarged]. New York: Harper, 1955. Gwendolyn Sims Warren Ev’ry Time I Feel The Spirit: 101 Best Loved Psalms, Gospel Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of The African-American Church. Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 1998. John Wesley Work American Negro Songs: 230 Folk Songs and Spirituals, Religious and Secular. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1998.

BIBLIOGRAPHY (continued) of Music and Musicians, 2d ed. London: tures. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/ Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2001. foster/sfeature/sf_minstrelsy.html. Cruz, Jon. Culture on the Margins: The Black Spiritual and the Rise of American Hogan, Moses, arr. The Deep River Collec- ______. “Blackface and Blackness: The Cultural Interpretation. Princeton, NJ: tion: Ten Spirituals Arranged for Solo Voice Minstrel Show in American Culture,” in Princeton University Press, 1999. and Piano (Volume One). Milwaukee: Hal Inside The Minstrel Mask: Readings in Leonard Corporation, 2000. Dancis, Bruce. “Analysis: The Long and Nineteenth-Century Blackface Minstrelsy, Troubling History of Blackface.” The Hogan, Moses, ed. The Oxford Book of ed. Annemarie Bean, James V. Hatch, and Sacramento Bee (14 March 1999). Spirituals. New York: Oxford University Brooks McNamara. Hanover and Lon- Press, 2002. don: Wesleyan University Press/Univer- Dixon-Gottschild, Brenda. Digging the sity Press of New England, 1996. Africanist Presence in American Perfor- Holoway, Joseph E., and Winifred K. Vass. mance: Dance and Other Contexts. West- The African Heritage of American Eng- ______. Love and Theft: Blackface Min- port, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1996. lish. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indi- strelsy and the American Working Class. ana University Press, 1993. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Douglass, Frederick. “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An Ameri- Johnson, Hall, arr. Thirty Spirituals Lovell, Jr., John. Black Song: The Forge can Slave,” in The Classic Anthology of Arranged for Voice and Piano. New York and the Flame—The Story of How The Afro- Slave Narratives, ed. Henry Louis Gates, and London: G. Schirmer, 1949. American Spiritual Was Hammered Out. Jr. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 2002. New York: Paragon House Publishers, Johnson, James Weldon, and J. Rosamond 1972. DuBois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk. Johnson. The Books of American Negro Introduction by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Spirituals. New York: Da Capo Press, Malcomson, Scott L. One Drop of Blood: New York: Bantam Classic, 1989. 1973. The American Misadventure of Race. New Harrison, J. A. “Negro English,” in Per- Jones, Arthur C. Wade in the Water: The York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000. spectives on Black English, ed. Joey Lee Wisdom of the Spirituals. Maryknoll, NY: Metcalf, Allan. American Regional Eng- Dillard. The Hague: Mouton, 1975. Orbis Books, 1993. lish Today: A Talking Tour of American Henderson, Clayton W. “Minstrelsy, Lott, Eric, ed. The American Experience— English. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., American,” in The New Grove Dictionary Stephen Foster, PBS Web Site Special Fea- 2000.

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Nathan, Hans. Dan Emmett and the Rise Small, Christopher. Music of the Common Now in the tenth year of his appointment of Early Negro Minstrelsy. Norman: Uni- Tongue: Survival and Celebration in Afro- at Rowan University, he has served as coor- versity of Oklahoma Press, 1962. American Music. New York: Riverrun dinator of the vocal/choral division and National Association of Negro Musicians, Press Inc., 1987. conductor of the Rowan University Cham- Inc. “Purpose.” http://www.namn.8m. Smitherman, Geneva. Black Talk: Words ber and Concert Choirs. His choirs have com/page21.html. and Phrases From the Hood to the Amen appeared in regional music conventions, Newman, Richard. “Spirituals, African Corner, rev. ed. Boston: Houghton Mif- four appearances at the New Jersey State American,” in Africana: The Encyclopedia flin Co., 2000. Legislature, and three times at Carnegie of the African and African American Expe- Southern, Eileen. The Music of Black Hall. rience. New York: Basic Civitas Books, Americans: A History, 3d ed. New York: Dr. Plant is a member of the Marian Ander- 1999. W.W. Norton and Company, 1997. son Guild of the National Association of Oliver, Paul, “Spirituals §II, African- Speed, Dennis. “African-American Spir- Negro Musicians, the American Choral American,” in The New Grove Dictionary ituals and the Classical Setting of Strophic Directors Association, and New Jersey of Music and Musicians, 2d ed. London: Poetry.” Fidelio Magazine III, no. 4 (Win- Music Educators Association. He has served Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2001. ter 1994 [covers says Winter 1995]). as an adjudicator and clinician, conducted Penn Special Collections-Marian Ander- Stark, Seymour. Men in Blackface: True the All-Region II Chorus for the Central son Papers, Register 3 (Scope and Con- Stories of the Minstrel Show. Xlibris Cor- Jersey Music Educators Association, and tent Note). http://www.library.upenn. poration, 2000. has presented vocal workshops and choral edu/collections/rbm/mms/anderson/ Sweet, Frank W. A History of the Minstrel adjudications for New Jersey State Teen anderson.html. Show. Palm Coast, FL: Backintyme, 2000. Arts Festivals. Riggs, Marlon. Ethnic Notions: Black Peo- Thurman, Howard. Deep River and the Dr. Plant concertizes as both countertenor ple in White Minds. Written and directed Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life and Death. and baritone throughout the Mid-Atlantic by Marlon Riggs. 58 min. California Richmond, IN: Friends United Press, Newsreel, 1987. Videocassette. and Mid-West states. He has performed with 1975. Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati May Festi- Robinson, Lisa Clayton, “Slave Narra- Toll, Robert. C. Blacking Up: The Minstrel val, Dayton Opera, Amherst Early Music tives,” in Africana: The Encyclopedia of Show in Nineteenth Century America. New Festival, Humboldt Bay Early Music Festi- the African and African American Expe- York: Oxford University Press, 1974. val, Philadelphia Classical Symphony, rience. New York: Basic Civitas Books, Philadelphia Ancient Voices, Voces Novae et 1999. Williamson, CJ. “Discrimination’s Ugly Antiquae, Piffaro, Jim Thorpe Bach Festi- Scab.” Classical Singer (February 2002). Savannah Onstage International Arts Fes- val, and in the touring ensembles of Michael tival: American Traditions Repertoire Crawford, Barbra Streisand, and Russell Requirements, 2001, http://www.savan Dr. Lourin Plant holds a Bachelor of Music Watson. He has performed in ensembles with nahonstage.org/ametra_repreq.html. Education degree from Wittenberg Uni- the Opera Company of Philadelphia, the versity, Master of Music and Doctor of Saxton, Alexander. “Blackface Min- Philadelphia Singers Chorale in the Philadel- Musical Arts degrees in Choral Conducting strelsy,” in Inside the Minstrel Mask: Read- phia Academy of Music, the Philadelphia from the College-Conservatory of Music at ings in Nineteenth Century Blackface Regional Arts Center (Kimmel Center), the University of Cincinnati. He has served Minstrelsy, ed. Annemarie Bean, James and in Carnegie Hall. V. Hatch, and Brooks McNamara. on the voice faculties of Sinclair College Hanover and London: Wesleyan Univer- and Humboldt State University of Cali- sity Press/University Press of New Eng- fornia. land, 1996.

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