Five or Six decades after its origin, the Negro spiritual was observed by Maurice Ravel to be America’s greatest musical contribution because it was an authentic human outcry of suffering in the worshipful presence of God. After listening to (and attempting to transcribe) some of Ravel's music, I decided to read this tough little book, written by Howard Thurman and Orton Jones.
There is a sublime severity to the Negro folk song, which was born out of the African slaves intrinsic sense of him or herself as a child of God. Thurman and Jones conclude that the materials of the Negro Spiritual were derived from the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, along with a sophisticated conception of nature, and the personal experiences of the common lot of the people. One can go further. The Negro spiritual is the charged inward manifestation for the African slave of the Jewish burden and concept of life, nature, and personal experience, as it is presented in the Old Testament. This profound appropriation is easily identified in the lyrics of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, or Wade in the water. But the sound of the music has a curious people-forming mystique to it as well. Wynton Marsalis and others easily persuade me that this music belongs to African Americans and should be sung and performed by their authentic voice. Jazz too can be continually formed out of this charged African American atmosphere of hope in the daily grind of suffering, and it holds to this mythos even today.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves music, and wishes to understand the roots of the sounds we all groove to.
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