Different Times, Different Troubles (Same Song) | Music 345: Race, Identity, and Representation in American Music

INTERNATIONAL DECADE FOR PEOPLE OF AFRICAN DESCENT

#Development #Justice #Recognition

For today’s #BlackHistory365 I once again will use a blog post of a student at St. Olaf College as the spring board. This particular blog post addresses the question of who are allowed to sing #SlaveSpirituals #BlackSpirituals as well as the question of the sacred nature of the tone and arrangement of the song.

In my many years on this Earth I have had the pleasure of attending a many choral concerts just to listen to Black Spirituals. I have also had the pleasure of listening to musical interpretation of Black Spirituals from artists utilizing classical instruments such as the harp and violin.

That being said, in this international audience are Black Spirituals open to the whole wide world where suffering is acknowledge on every continent and in every culture. I say yes, as long as they acknowledge the people whose suffering the songs represent. You might not agree but that’s okay read this student’s blog, other St. Olaf College students blogs and see how you feel afterwards.

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A smiley performance of such music seems inappropriate. People today cannot properly fathom the hardships that slaves endured back then, so for anyone other than slaves to sing these songs does not feel right. However, Burleigh might argue that spirituals transcend the history. The music can mean a lot to a lot of people, even if for different reasons.

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https://pages.stolaf.edu/americanmusic/2018/03/19/who-can-sing-slave-songs-and-for-what-purpose/