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Negro spirituals and their legacy in American culture

the religious and hopeful functions of spirituals, but what about its other uses expressing sorrow, taking people's minds off their troubles (outside of church), and providing catharsis for the pain and humiliation of daily life under Jim Crow laws? To fulfill these musical needs, two more all-American music genres were developed by African-American artists: jazz, and the blues. The blues began to develop during Reconstruction. It expresses pain and depression using such traditional African elements as call-and-response and the pentatonic "blue note," supported by a 12-bar melodic pattern. Many blues songs also have a lighter side, using word play and double meanings to talk about sexual topics, such as Nina Simone's "I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl." Blues music uses basic instrumentationoften just a single performer with a guitar, but sometimes also piano, bass, percussion, and harmonica.

Jazz originated around the turn of the 20th century, a couple of decades after blues. Early jazz incorporates the same African-influenced blues harmonies, syncopation, polyrhythms, and call and response as blues music, but with the addition of faster tempos taken from New Orleans marches and ragtime music. Many jazz pieces require a much larger ensemble, including piano, guitar, bass, percussion, saxophones or clarinets, trumpets, and trombones. Jazz also shares an emphasis on improvisation and dancing with the newest descendent of spirituals, hip-hop music.

Beginning in the 1970s, hip-hop or rap music developed as the latest addition to the impressive collection of African-American-dominated musical styles descended from spirituals. Danceable like jazz, with an emphasis on clever lyrics similar to the blues, hip-hop is mostly spoken rather than sung. This speaking aspect actually resembles the precursor even of spirituals, the music of West African "griots" or traveling bards. Many hip-hop songs express the violence and rage felt by the descendents of slaves, who find themselves still poor and discriminated against in modern-day America. Other hip-hop songs are boastful, with singers reveling in their own material success against the odds!

What about the original African-American music, the spiritual itself? In the mid-20th century, many of the old songs were revived by the Civil Rights Movement, and were given new lyrics for use as rallying cries. Examples include both "Oh Freedom" and "Eyes on the Prize," which use melodies from traditional spirituals. Later, toward the


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Negro spirituals and their legacy in American culture

  • by Octavia Holland

    I am a singer. I am a singer of African descent. I make sure that I feature the negro spirituals as a set in every recital

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  • 2 of 9

    by Marcus Brooks

    As transplanted Africans endured slavery, they used singing to cope with their physical, emotional and mental obstacles.

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  • 3 of 9

    by Paul Ruth

    Music as an art form can seemingly come from any place, at anytime, from anyone. The roots of modern music have grown deep

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    by Greg Spinks

    "Songs Is Powerful Things"

    Third and Holland Street is just north, a few thousand feet, from the bluffs overlooking Presque

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  • 5 of 9

    by Renae Richardson

    The Negro spiritual is a poetic outcry of the soul set to lyric. Each verse speaks of a refuge from hurt and oppression.

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Negro spirituals and their legacy in American culture

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