New Britain herald., 1929-02-12
NEGRO SPIRITCALS


Britain programs of Negro spiritual
songs were given: by the Tuskegee
quartet from the college founded by
Booker T. Washington-thesc sing
ing before an appreciative audience
in South Congregational church
and by a Negro soloist who sang
Sunday night in Trinity Methodist
church.
Negro spirituals form distinctive
American contribution to the art
world. Throughout the world they
are recognized as such, and it was an
Italian publishing firm wl6ch first
recognized their excellence and put
them forward as distinctive art songs
having a unique niche in music Al
though it is commonly supposed that
only Negroes can interpret them TO
the best advantage. 1t Is generally
coiccueu tHdl ihC tunes OI1StndtCu
from whites, gained their peculiar
harmonic flavor by being taken up
by the southern Negroes while still
in slavery, and finally emerged as
art songs with the help Of the white
mans artistry. although at least on.
Negro composer OF parts has been
active In promulga,ing them in line
with the white mans music.
The emotional quality OF most Of
these songs. their plainti,c charac-
ter, their weird harmonies and the
compelling uses TO which words ex-
pressiye OF the most divine hopes OF
the Christian religion have been put
in these songs, make them favoritcs
among the faithful and the art music
lover alike. After all. what is art for
except the expression Of emotion in
an exalted form? Just as the Lon
donderry Air" epitomizes the soul of
the Irish minncsingers. SO Nobody
Knows de Trouble I've Seen" with
one full sweep penetratcs the soul of
the dark race during its darkest
days of American slavery.
1t is useless to ask. who wrote
the spirituals?" And it boots one lit
tie to endeavor to trace their ances-
try beyond the coiored brethren In
whose posse ssion they were found. II
is equally useless to emphasize that
when the black men were brought to
our shores as slaves they had no
music and that what they developed
after reaching here they must have
got from the whites. When one rea-
sons in this fashion one inevitably
comes to the realization that no
whites who originally might have
furnished the tunes had them when
they were found in the possession Of
the Negroes. 1t therefore is an in
dubitable conclusion that the spirit
uals as We know them today-except
for the addition of white mans
harmony--were in fact and in kind
Negro product. Further proof. if any
were needed. can be offered by the
fact that no white man ever thought
of combining words and music in Just
that manner. They bespeak the soul
of the blacks not the whites. White
men never went through the ex-
periences to give birth to such
music.
Sophisticated critics with the for
ign mind who do not fancy yield
ing to America an art contribution Of
consequence if it possibly can be
fortunately are many in the country
acclaim with satisfaction that the
spirituals really are not American.
but are Ncgroid. This fools no one
who Effects that the Negroes
whence the. spirituaIS cam" 9",
Americans and not Africans. There
is a vast difference b,tyveun 1u,.
American Negro and his African
prototype; to this day the black
races in Africa have produced no
art music. and though they have had