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/lp/duke-university-press/spirituals-blues-important-section-of-american-music-jkL3jpsGOq
- Copyright
- Copyright © 1992 by Duke University Press
- ISSN
- 1043-9455
- eISSN
- 2640-9879
- DOI
- 10.1215/10439455-6.2.100
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
Spirituals, Blues Important Seđion of American Music Nowadays the history of Negro music, chronicled by able musicolo gists, is available to every student who wishes to visit his public library There he may learn dates, names of all important composers and interpreters, musical instruments, and the technical details con cerning the Negro's contribution to American music on the whole. But what of the ideals, the spirit behind this contribution? Back of all this musical accomplishment stand our parents, grand parents and great-grandparents, themselves uneducated, but possessed of an overwhelming desire for the advancement of the race and of their own offspring in particular. These are the people, unnamed in histories of music, who sacrificed everything to the attainment of their ideals. These are the people who were close to the creation of spirituals and of blues, which rank among the finest forms of folk music. These are the people who were strong enough to express in music their joys and sorrows, and to whom God was a living reality. They expressed the drama of the Bible in terms of pure musical beauty, and who shall say that it was not this same quality of unswerving faith that has served
Journal
Black Sacred Music – Duke University Press
Published: Sep 1, 1992