So You Want to Sing Spirituals: A Guide for Performers

ONLINE RESOURCES:

Chapter 1 – What Are Spirituals?

• “Spirituals” (Oxford Music Online) 
• “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” (National Registry Essay)
• “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” performed by Fisk Jubilee Singers
• “Were You There” (National Registry Essay)
• “Were You There,” performed by Roland Hayes

Chapter 2 – From Cotton Field to Concert Hall

• “The Role of the Spiritual in the Civil Rights Movement” (slideshow)
• Wade in the Water: African American Sacred Music Traditions
• Sing for Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement through Its Songs
• The Spirituals Database
• Afrocentric Voices Biographies
• “Interpreting Negro Spiritual Art Songs” (slideshow)
• The Internet Archive (a search engine for spirituals and audio recordings)
• Albany Records (search engine for spirituals and vocal)
• Harry T. Burleigh: “Deep River,” performed by William Warfield

Chapter 3 – Pioneers of the Concert Spiritual

• “A Century of Negro Spirituals for Solo Voice” (slideshow)
• Harry T. Burleigh: “Go Down, Moses,” performed by Harry T. Burleigh
• Lawrence Brown: “Joshua Fit de Battle ob Jericho,” performed by Paul Robeson
• Roland Hayes: “Hear de Lambs-a-Cryin’,” performed by Roland Hayes
• Moses Hogan: “Wade in the Water,” performed by Barbara Hendricks
• Spirituals Video Playlist
• Harry T. Burleigh: “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” performed by Roland Hayes
• Edward Boatner: “Trampin’,” performed by Marian Anderson
• Lawrence Brown: “Every Time I Feel de Spirit,” performed by Paul Robeson
• R. Nathaniel Dett: “I’m Goin to Tell God All My Troubles,” performed by Dorothy Maynor

Chapter 4 – Song Literature

• IPA Source
• Jubilee Songs: As Sung by the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University
• Recorded Sound Archives
• Eva Jessye: “I’m a Po’ Li’l Orphan,” performed by Marti Newland
• Hall Johnson: “Give Me Jesus,” performed by Vinson Cole
• Traditional: “Steal Away to Jesus,” performed by Adele Addison
• Roland Hayes: “Lit’l David, Play on Your Harp,” performed by Roland Hayes
• Harry T. Burleigh: “My Lord, What a Mornin’,” performed by Paul Robeson
• Shawn Okepebholo: “Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit,” performed by Will Liverman
• Lawrence Brown: “I Know the Lord’s Laid His Hand on Me,” performed by Marion Anderson
• William Dawson: “Ezekiel Saw the Wheel,” performed by the Tuskegee Institute Choir

Chapter 5 – Using Dialect in Performance

• Harry T. Burleigh: “Deep River," performed by Marion Anderson
• Harry T. Burleigh: “Deep River,” performed by Robert McFerrin
• Harry T. Burleigh: “Deep River,” performed by Roberta Alexander
• Robert MacGimsey: “Sweet Little Jesus Boy,” performed by Jessye Norman
• Robert MacGimsey: “Sweet Little Jesus Boy,” performed by Robert Merrill
• Robert MacGimsey: “Sweet Little Jesus Boy,” performed by Kathleen Battle
• John Rosamond Johnson: “Witness,” performed by Kenneth Spencer
• Hall Johnson: “Witness,” performed by Florence Quivar

Chapter 6 – Must You Be Black to Sing Spirituals?

• Harry T. Burleigh: “Nobody Knows de Trouble I’ve Seen,” performed by Oscar Seagle
• Carl Davis: “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” performed by Christine Brewer
• John D. Carter: “Toccata” (from Cantata), performed by Christine Brewer

Chapter 7 – Collaborating with Pianists (Casey Robards)

• The Collaborative Piano Blog
• “Revenge of the Collaborative Pianists” (article)

Chapter 8 – African American Art Song (Emery Stephens & Caroline Helton)

Web Resources:

• Afrocentric Voices in Classical Music
• African American Art Song Alliance            
• African American History Site
• African Heritage in Classical Music  
• Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library  Smithsonian Folkways Recordings                 

Library Collections (archival photocopies of compositions by African Americans):

• African-American Music and Culture at Indiana University
• Center for Black Music Research at Columbia University
• Helen Walker-Hill Collection at the University of Colorado Boulder
• Paul Laurence Dunbar Music Archive at the University of Dayton

Purchasing Music:

• American Composers Alliance
• Classical Vocal Reprints
• Hildegard Publishing Company
• J.W. Pepper & Son, Inc.
• Videmus
• William Grant Still Music

African American Classical Music Resources:

• African American Art Song Alliance (home page)
• African American Art Song Alliance Conference (performances and lectures)
• Hampsong Foundation

Chapter-Related Topics:

• Harlem Renaissance
• Influential Black Composers
• Minstrelsy
• The Great Migration

Article:

• “Great Divide at the Concert Hall” (New York Times)

Chapter 9 – Black Spiritual Art Song: Interpretive Guidelines (Barbara Steinhaus)

• Harry T. Burleigh: “De Gospel Train,” performed by William Warfield
• Harry T. Burleigh: “Deep River,” performed by William Warfield
• Harry T. Burleigh: “Go Down, Moses,” performed by William Warfield
• Harry T. Burleigh: “My Lord, What a Mornin’,” performed by William Warfield

Chapter 10 – Choral Arrangements of Spirituals  (Patricia J. Trice)

• Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers
• Brazeal Dennard Chorale
• Harlem Spiritual Ensemble
• Spiritual Renaissance Singers
• Moses Hogan Chorale

Chapter 11 – Spirituals: America’s Contribution to World Sacred Music (Tim Sharpe)

• Lift Every Voice and Sing II
• The Haywood Collection of Negro Spirituals
• African American Heritage Hymnal
• The Oxford Book of Spirituals
• Spirituals for Choirs
• Feel the Spirit: A Cycle of Spirituals
• Ain’t That Good News!

Chapter 12 – Gaining Perspective: A Linguistic Approach to Dialect (Felicia Barber)

• African American English
• International Phonetic Alphabet

Chapter 13 – Singing and Voice Science (Scott McCoy)

• Your Voice: An Inside View
• National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS)
• National Center for Voice and Speech (NCVS)
• The Voice Foundation (TVF)

Chapter 14 – Vocal Health for Singers (Wendy LeBorgne)

• Supplemental Bibliography

Appendices – Relevant Resources

• The Gospel Truth about the Negro Spiritual
• Art Song Central
• Classical Vocal Reprints
• Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR)
• The Durbeck Archive: Black Classically Trained Singers
• IMSLP Spirituals Category
• J.W. Pepper & Son, Inc.
• “Negro Spirituals” (article)
• Negro Spiritual Scholarship Foundation
• Negro Spirituals Songs (lyrics)
• Sheet Music Plus
• WPA Federal Writers’ Project