The Impact of Negro Spirituals on Todays Music Essay -- Exploratory E

The Impact of blackamoor Spirituals on Todays harmony I believe that it would be difficult for someone to make the argument that Negro spirituals have not been influential in the field of music, much less the realm of gospel music today. However, church building members often do not make the time to reflect on the heritage of a hymn or song to realize the kernel that the particular piece has carried with it through the decades, even centuries. With this in mind, I am going to look at the history of the Negro spiritual and whence at specific hymns in the 1991 Baptist Hymnal, promulgated by Convention Press, to believe just what impact the Negro spiritual has had on todays church music. I believe that we will find that these songs have had a significant furbish up on our music, and that without it, we would not have many of the hymns that are now considered banner church music. An important observation regarding African music comes from Richard Jobson in The easy Tr ade or a Discovery of the River Gambra Gambia and the Golden Trade of the Aethiopians. Although published in 1623, we learn a lot about the nature of African music when we read There is without a doubt, no people on the earth more naturally affected to the sound of musicke than these people which the whiz persons that is, the kings and chiefs do hold as an ornament of their state, so as when cook come to see them their musicke will seldome be wanting (qtd. in southern 4). By controling that music was of utmost importance to the original slaves, we understand how the reverence of music was handed down through the many generations of slaves on the plantations. It is apparent that music was the highest form of expression for Africans, as well as... ...ital Schomburg African American Women Writers in the 19th Century Works ConsultedFisher, Miles Mark. Negro Songs in the United States. New York Russell & Russell, 1968. Forbis, Wesley L. The Baptist Hymnal. Nashville Convention Press, 1991. Gods gonna trouble the water The centre of attention of African American spirituality. U.S. Catholic. Nov. 1995. ProQuest. Online. 3 Aug. 1998. Maultsby, Portia K. Afro-American Religious Music A Study in Musical Diversity. The Papers of the Hymn Society of America. 35. capital of Illinois The Hymn Society of America, n.d. Southern, Eileen. Readings In Black American Music. New York WW Norton, 1971. ---. The Music of Black Americans A History. New York WW Norton, 1971. Thurman, Howard. Deep River and the Negro Spiritual Speaks of conduct and Death. Richmond Friends United Press, 1975.