The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1883-02-25
LAKEronr LANDING,

| LAKEroRr LANptNu,
CutCor COUNTY, ARK, Jan. 3, 1855.
Half the comfort in life of the negro of the
| Mississippi Bends Is derived from vocal song, and no
trait OF his odd character is stranger than this. At
other points crude and almost SENT In the
extent and Intensity OF his musical feeling he rivals
| the most civilized OF nations. Music enters Into
every fibre OF his being-into his daily toll, his re-
llgon. his passions, his loves. Hut while many OF
| his songs are secular or even vicious, by far the
larger part those that pertain to worship. II
may he said indeed, that almost all his religion Is
service OF song The preacher lntones not little OF
his sermon; the congregation company with a low
melody during fully One-halt the preachers dis
monotonous music by female voices, and actual In
tervals OF the service are unknown. for the intervals
are filled by hymns, some OF them 30 long that they
give one decided respect for the negroes powers Of
memory
While some of the hymns sung In the churches of
! the Bends are taken directly from the old hymn
books OF the Baptist and Methodist churches, and
also from the later compositions which Moody and
and Interesting have originated with the negroes
themselves. Where the tunes have come from Is n
mystery Perhaps they began years ago as COM
positions OF more cultivated minds and, by addition
or subtraction Of notes, have lost all their primitive
sounds. This theory at any rate, accounts for the
Words for often negro hymn opens with a stanza
| or two which would not have dlscredited Watts.
Then, as IL proceeds, 10 drops Into the grotesQue
metaphors, The dlalectlcai quaiutnoss, and droll
| phraslng which prove 1t OF plantation origin. As
these latter stanzas have been grated by
the carly structure OF the hymn, the original lines
|
OF his own composition-have been dropped, until
the whole hymn has been reconstructed Into one OF
pure negro quality. There Is however, still another
| set OF hymns the words OF which the plantation
negro himself composed entirely ut the beginning.
They are usually short metred pootical descriptions
OF familiar Bible Incident, some of them OF Incredible
length, and brstling with anachronsms. The blacks
call this class OF hymns "hgurated " from the Bible,
and have heard one which was descriptive OF the
battle of Christian and ApollyoD, aud consequently
"ngurated " from Bunyan. No word, by the
way, is a sweeter morsei on the negro tongue than
|
rotund and sonorous quality which the negro loves,
and Is used IN dozen senses. some OF them quite
contradictory OF the others.
How absurdly some OF these 'agurated' hymns
deal with the scrirtural record u single specimen
stanZa from q very common negro composition here
will illustrate:
In do days OF de great trlhuashun,
| on a big desert island de Phllistnes put John,
hut de ravens dey feed him till de dawn come ROM
Den he glib big jump and few mp from dc groun'.
q come down, come down, John.
II anything can add tothe anachronisms and kindred
absurdtes OF the foregoing 1t Will be the explana-
tion that the John referred to is supposed by the
negroes TO be John the Baptist.
In every negro church here are two or three male
and female singers whose voices give them places
leaders. They are proud OF this prominence, and
devote many of their hours to memoriElng the words
and tunes. Their memories as to both pr0dgious,
and 1t is striking proof OF the hold that song has
upon them that often only with the utmost dniculy
have been able to get the words from them without
singing. 'Can sing de hymn right OIL to YER boss, ~
said to recently, but tin' 1t mighty hard to
recie de words widout de tune.'' The precision In
time OF negro congregation Is absolutely marvellous
for so unframed body. Every note is hit with ex-
qusite accuracy, and In their anphonal hymns, when
the men sing n line and the women respond, the
intervals are perfect. Though their tunes are very
| simple. and range through but a few notes,
the wonderful hexlblity of some of ther voices pro-
duces almost the result the OF scientific singing;
and trained white choir can begin TO produce the
general effect of these negro hymns rendered by the
men and women who have sung them from childhood.
The rich voices OF the famous Jubilee Singers are
blended here with two peculiar tones that have never
heard esewhere-one kind OF nasal elevation of the
voice the male singer utters most singular 'rasp'
through his nostril, the other a female note pitched
high thatit IL more like steel scratching slate than
human voice.
Very few of these hymns ever deal with anything
but Imagery and Scriptural pictures. But now and
then is found with moral tone, like the follow
Ing, aimed at the religious backsllder:
Some Join de church to put protens,
Until de day OF grace is spent;
Sunday come Its Christian grace,
/ Monday come dey lose der faith.
DE debbil gets dem, they roll up de sleeve,
Der religion comes ont and gin to leave
Ole man Adam has nebber been out
When guilt condemns dem dey cit up and out.
stii another class OF hymns blends the secular and
religious sentiment trlhlng and utterly nonsensi
cal set of lines is closed with some religious exclama
on which appears TO be the only sanction for the
OF the queer medley in worship:
Big ole black man hidin' hind de log
Finger on de trigger, eye upon de hog.
shiloh shiloh
A better illustration is the foOwing
Good byc eberybody:
don / care what Yer call me
Yer may call me long tongue liar,
hut L SO going to Zion. Haleloo
The procliyty Of the negro for railroad metaphor,
which have heretofore spoken OF in OF these
letters Is disclosed also In their hymns:
There Is a road which Christ hab made,
With heavenly trestles the rails is lad
I'm goin' on dat line. Halleloo!
Some of these hymns are spun out to enormous
length, particularly those set to popular melody.
have often heard single hymn sung rapidly without
repetition of sanza for half an hour. One compo-
sltiou has stanza for each letter of the alphabet:
Il for Babylon, dat wicked place,
She was 'stroyed In forty days.
And so on through all the letters of the alphabet.
here In hymnology; and one religious song with a
grand, swinging melody stands, perhaps, first In
the John de Baptist Song, ~ and Is worth quotation
, OF several sanzas
His name was John de baptist,
And out of de water he sprung
When Jesus come TO tell him
To fetch Ills people home.
CHORUS; Den run along on to Jesus
Den run along on TO God
Den run along on to Jesus,
And get your sure reward.
some say dis John do Baptist
/, Was nuiin' hut dew;
But de Holy Bible tells us
Dat John was preacher, too.
, Use waitin' all de night long
Tse watin' all de day
II waitin' all de night long
To hear one sinner pray.
Den, please, God, save our country,
our church, and pastor, too,
Our elders. and our deac0ns,
And all our baptist crew.
Moses and the prophets of the Old Testament are
also favorte characteisi
q Moses, Moses
, Don't get lost;
Stretch out yer rod,
And come across.
4 Daniel! Daniel,
Get out de IRE,
KIN dem lions,
And 20 up higher.
One OF the most melodious of the negro songs IL
made douby effective by responsive singing, the
woman chanting the go Lord Yes, - and the males
rendering the alternate lines while both Join IN
the chorus;
AsI was walkin' out one day,
q Lord Yes
saw dem grapes hangin' high,
q Lord Yes.
Iplucked dem grapes and sucked de juice,
Lord Yes.
lie Juice was sweet as honey meat,
Lord Yes.
CHonusi
9 see Inc here, believe me; me here;
! All round de altar, see Ine here.
dew XIII my Saviour
one day fore know;
Hurry him Ia sepulCree
one day fore know.
One hymn that CLOVIS throughout with feryd negro
4 Imagery opens
y When de star from de elemunts Is fallin'
And de sun and de moon dip in blood,
sinnah sinnah Where VIII ys stan,
Hut sees my Jesus cOmln'
Wid u rainbow on his shoulder.
I According TO white authority here the religious
a sung hrst published years ago by Mr. Harris
. the - Uncle temus ~ OF the Atlanta Constitution
, | aud entitled - Uncle Remuss Revival Hymn, ~ 1
largely derived actual lines sung by the negroe
aud eeyerly united II differs from all the other
5 gro hymns hayeheard Ia having variations Of til
: chorus: AS perhaps the best negro hymn eve
10 printed two thrOe OF Its characteristic stauZas
given roughly from memory, may nty close these
II leetiOns'
10 o. whar will 20 bs when do great day comes.
! via do tootln' OF do trumpets an de rOin' OF d
drumsY