IN THE AFRICAN AMERICAN: TRADITION Ysaye M. Barnwell, Ph.D. ond George Brandon, Ph.D. Homespun Tapes, Box 340, Woodstock, NY 12498 © 1989, ReviSinging in the African American Tradition Choral and Congregational Vocal Music taught by Ysaye Barnwell with George Brandon CD - One Track 1 opening 2 overview Rhythm 3 talk 4 example #1 5 example #2 6 example #3 7 example #4 8 all four rhythms Chants 9 talk 10 chant forms Chant to Elegba 1 talk 12 played Somagwaza B talk and techniques 14 performed 15 performed (simplified version) Spirituals 16 talk Three Spirituals 17 talk and techniques 18 pronunciation as related to spirituals 19 "the mud” or rhythmic drone 20 songs performed (simple version) 21 full arrangement performed 22 singing techniques Soon I Will Be Done 23 talk and techniques 24 melody and bass line sung 5 melody and tener fine sung(CD - One continued) 26 melody and verse sung 27 full arrangement performed Steal Away 28 talk and techniques 29 melody sung, 30 melody and alto line sung 31 melody and tenor line sung, 32 melody and bass line sung 33 full arrangement performed CD - Two Track Balm In Gilead 1 talk and techniques 2 flowing line technique 3 melody line sung 4 melody plus tenor and bass sung 5 harmonies to melody sung 6 full arrangement performed Congregational Hymns 7 talk Sheep, Sheep; The Lord Is My Shepherd; I'll Fly Away 8 talk and techniques Sheep, Sheep 9 lead sting 10 response (chorus) sung ll full arrangement performed The Lord is My SNepherd 12 talk ‘and teetmnique continued 13 melody’ sug 14 melody and low harmony 15 melody and bass 16 melody and high’ Sarmony 7 thythnh section #1. 18 rhythm séction #2 19 rhythasection #1 and #2 20 full aftengement. performeda 22 23 BESBBe 33 34 35 37 peanan S (CD - Two continued) Vl Fly Away melody sung talk continued full arrangement performed Gospel the history the peopie Gospel Songs talk and techniques Swing Down Chariot talk and technique melody (alto part) sung melody and bass line sung melody and tenor jine sung melody and soprano tine sung full arrangement performed The Storma is Passing Over talk and techniques melody sung melody and bass line sung melody and tenor line sung melody and sopranc line sung full arrangement pertormed CD - Three Sing 'Til The Power Qf The Lord ‘Come Down talk and techniques bass lead and melody'sung bass lead and counter melodies sung full arrangement pesformed I Feel Like Going On talk and techniques melody and alto part sung melody and tenor part'sung melody and bass part surg full arrangement performed commentaryi 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 2 22 24 Track Nae w pow (CD - Three continued) Freedom Songs (Civil Rights Songs) history We're Marching On To Freedom Land talk full arrangement performed talk and techniques melody, soprano and bass sung harmony parts added talk and techniques melody sung melody, bass, upper and lower harmonies sung full arrangement performed Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around talk and techniques lead part sung back-up parts added full arrangement performed CD - Four Songs of Resistance and Protest - South Africa historical perspective (development and influences) South Africa Songs talk and techniques Babethandaza melody sung melody and alto part sung, melody and tenor part sung melody and bass part sung full arrangement performed Senzenina chorus parts sung lead voice alone full arrangement performedu 12 13 14 15 16 1? 18 19 a BRAG (CD - Four continued) Iza Kunyathel'l Africa talk and techniques bass line sung bass and cherus sung full arrangement (with counier voices) sung, Woyaya talk and tecivniques keeping the low parts bright melody and bass pattern sung melody, bass and high harmony sung melody, bass and low: harmony’ sung melody, bass and tenor parts sung meiody, bass and rhythnis performed full arrangement perforined The Freedom Tide Is Rising, talk and techniques Ist rendition 2nd rendition 3rd rendition full arrangement performed closing statementACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project is dedicated to the memory of James Madhlope Phillips who died in exile from his home in South Africa and who reaffirmed for me that through singing together people can build a vocal community that can not only change the human spirit, but can humanize the world. I would like to acknowledge several catalysts for this work. All Souls Church Unitarian in Washington, DC will let you try almost anything if three or more agree to do it with you. The All Souls Jubilee Singers was born because several people, who couldn't read music and who had never really sung before, wanted to sing. Organizing and directing this group was my first experience in getting people to sing in a group and although I left them after three years, they have already celebrated their tenth year and are singing wonderfully and performing regularly in church and in the community. It was also at All Souls Church that Bernice Johnson Reagon, the founder and artistic director of Sweet Honey in the Rock, first heard me sing. I thank her and my other sisters in Sweet Honey for giving me a nurturing yet challenging space to grow in, and a solid foundation to step out on. I thank my folks; my father who taught me the violin and my mother who reminded me that a reader told her when I was 4 that I would be a singer. I think that George Brandon and I met because we were supposed to do this work together. I am grateful for his knowledge and talents, and for the balance we've developed. I want to acknowledge all of the people who have been in these vocal workshops. I sometimes wonder in retrospect, what I would have done if you had refused to sing, I guess I'd have just kept on. I hope you will just keep on. Finally, I acknowledge the fine work of George James, who painstakingly edited and converted the tapes to the CD format, and the love of Happy and Jane Traum who simply made it happen. YMBSINGING IN THE AFRICAN AMERICAN TRADITION TABLE OF CONTENTS PERFORMANCE STYLES OF THE SONGS. . VALUES AND ASSUMPTIONS FROM AN AFROCENTRIC WORLD VIEW. . . THINGS TO THINK ABOUT INTRODUCTION TO AN AFROCENTRIC VIEW OF SONG . ‘A VALUES BASE Song in African Community Life . The Organization and Performance of Song. SONG TYPES TO BE COVERED 5 Chants and Calls . Chants Calls Spirituals . Early Gospel How Gospels and Spirituals Differ Origin, Reception and Transmission to the Urban Churches The Changing Same in Gospel Music . Songs of the Civil Rights Movement . Contexts Sources . Functions of the Songs . Contemporary Songs of Resistance and Protest South Africa a Three Hundred Years of Settlement and Resistance .. Black South African Music and Songs of Resistance . . BIBEACNGR ABA octet Sorter tie eon nie Heese neo nen ee wets sss cow Eee IREGQIURGES sr pecs tt desea clpec or tine hea meee Clete Ee nv o 10 10 10 11 13 13 13 13 13 15 16 16 18 18 18 18 19 20 20 21 2SONG LYRICS AND CREDITS CHANT TO ELEGBA SOMAGWAZA ... THREE SPIRITUALS . WADE IN THI I WANNA DIE EASY WHEN I DIE . MOTHERLESS CHILD. SOON I WILL BE DONE STEAL AWAY .. BALM IN GILEAD SHEEP, SHEEP.... THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD I'LL FLY AWAY SWING DOWN CHARIOT THE STORM IS PASSING OVER SING 'TIL THE POWER OF THE LORD COME DOWN AMAZING GRACE that .usiveras .2o7 0a LEANING ON THE EVERLASTING ARMS . WE'RE MARCHING TO ZION . I FEEL LIKE GOING ON ......... WE'RE MARCHING ON TO FREEDOM LAND DOG, DOG AIN'T GONNA LET NOBODY TURN ME’ "ROUND . BABETHANDAZA SENZENINA.... IZA KUNYATHEL' AFRICA . WOYAY Ajoxtcinn da cdasigx THE FREEDOM TIDE IS RISING ..........SINGING IN THE AFRICAN AMERICAN TRADITION INTRODUCTION This CD series and manual, SINGING IN THE AFRICAN AMERICAN TRADITION, is based on a workshop designed and conducted by Ysaye M. Barnwell with the assistance of a co-leader, George Brandon. No auditions are held in order to join the workshop; all are welcome to attend. All that is required is a willingness to participate as fully as one can. The original workshop developed out of the belief that African American music has been a vehicle for: 1. the survival of African Americans in a hostile universe/ environment; 2. the humanizing of that universe/environment; 3. the retention of essential Africanisms within the Americas; and that sharing the music, its values and its contexts with others can create an experience that in some way transforms the spirit of all who participate. WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION, The workshop is designed to facilitate the development of a community through the vehicle of music from the African-American vocal tradition. Musical forms include calls and chants, spirituals, ring shouts, hymns, jubilees, gospels, songs of the Civil Rights Movement and contemporary songs of struggle. An historical, social and political background is provided as an introduction to songs in each of these musical forms. Through participation in the songs the group explores, from an African American world view, the values embedded in the music, ways in which leadership emerges and can be shared among community members, and the role of cultural and spiritual traditions and rituals. Discussion of the context of the songs illuminates the way culture responds to and influences political and social struggle, and the significance of communal experience in one's personal life. Workshop inquiries can be made to: Ysaye M. Barnwell, PO Box 32164, Washington, DC 20007 aSINGING IN THE AFRICAN AMERICAN TRADITION HOW TO USE THESE CDs The CDs in this series contain songs which were originally taught in the context of a5 day (residential) workshop. In the workshop, often having between 40 and 60 people, songs are taught without printed music and printed words, and without pitch pipes or musical instruments other than those which help to create and maintain the rhythmic foundation and intensity of the songs. This method of passing on knowledge is very much in the oral/aural tradition. Here, for the sake of clarity, we have provided the words to all of the songs, but the music itself is presented in the form of an oral/aural score which must be listened to. I hope you will resist the urge to transcribe what you hear. Each song is presented as follows: 1. First you will hear the melody or lead. 2. Next, you will hear the melody or lead in relationship to each of the harmony parts. 3. Finally, you will hear the song when all of the parts are sung together, and the clapping and rhythm instruments have been added, when they apply. The CDs can be listened to by individuals who: 1. want to learn or review all of the parts of the songs in preparation for teaching them to a group. 2. want to learn or review all of the parts or a particular part in preparation for singing in a group. 3. want to experiment by singing harmony parts which are outside of their accepted vocal range. For example, a person with a high or soprano voice may try singing along with the tenor or bass lines. 4. want to learn more about the process of creating harmony lines. For example, you may want to play the melody or lead line and practice (and perhaps even record) singing whatever you hear along with it. 5. want to hear and practice different vocal styles and vocal placements. The CDs can be listened to by a group of people who: 1. have experimented with developing harmony lines to a song and want to hear what a specific arrangement sounds like. 2. want to learn or review specific parts to a song they want to perform. The narrative (on the CDs as well as in this manual) will help listeners to understand the historical, social, political and musical contexts of the songs.PERFORMANCE STYLES OF THE SONGS Within each of the musical forms covered a number of performance styles are possible, including call and response, congregational/communal, solo, quartet, and choral. Call and Response. In the call and response performance style the leader sings or chants a line and the group responds with a phrase. Often the same response phrase is repeated a number of times although the leader's line may change continually. Depending on the song, the group may respond either in unison or in harmony. Congregational/communal. Congregational/communal singing is unrehearsed, full bodied and free. Each participant lends their voice to the whole as best they can. The wide variety of voices and natural harmonies can create a wall of sound which can fill every empty space, whether musical, physical, spiritual or emotional. Spirituals, ring shouts, hymns and some gospel songs are sung congregationally. Quartet. Quartet singing can be done with four and often more singers. It is not the number of people but the style of performance which is at issue. The style is characterized by a very tight, rehearsed close harmony, often backing a lead singer. Good quartets are known for the precision of their pitch, harmony, articulation, rhythm, appearance and appropriate movement. Choral. Choral singing is rehearsed and performances are often, though not always, conducted by a director. The sound and use of the voice tends to be more European than African and the arrangements more "classical," particularly when singing spirituals. Gospel music, while still rehearsed, allows for more improvisation and movement in performance than do the arranged spirituals. Finally, no matter what the performance style, singers are always in motion. It is not motion with abandon but respect, collectively and individually, as dictated by the rhythm, nature and mood of the music.VALUES AND ASSUMPTIONS FROM AN AFROCENTRIC WORLD VIEW A world view is basically the way in which a culture organizes its perceptions, thoughts, language and actions in order to analyze and give meaning to an essentially chaotic universe. The following values and assumptions proceed from an Afrocentric world view and, along with a number of metaphors, are stressed throughout the workshop and should be considered as you work to build a vocal community. 1. A Zimbabweian proverb says "If you can talk you can sing and if you can walk you can dance." The assumption and expectation is that “all can and will DO". 2. Music, when viewed from an Afrocentric world view is not art for art's sake, but a functional tool for engaging in all of the activities of daily living and for coping with the full range of human emotional and spiritual responses to life. 3. There is a continuum which is acknowledged by Afrocentric communities: past - present - future ancestors - the living - the unborn Music is a means by which we communicate between and among these elements on the continuum. 4, Shared diversity is absolutely necessary in community. It is through the layering and interweaving of multiple rhythms and melodies that African music is created. The end product of this shared diversity is a new creation which is the sum total of all of the parts. The sum is indeed greater than the parts and the new creation is not and cannot be played or produced by any one of the parts alone. More broadly, it is through the coalition work of diverse interest groups that enormous political and social gains can be made. 5. People (diverse entities) must agree to cooperate, instead of competing, in order to make the parts work well together. There is power in shared/communal celebration and creation. There is no audience because everyone is a participant and everyone must help to create the song. 6. There is power in spontaneity. We must be open at all times for spirit to work through us as this is the basis of improvisation. Musically, spontaneity / improvisation occurs within the boundaries of the musical form being performed. The social analogy is to the practice of freedom which cannot exist without the exercise of responsibility and respect for boundaries.THINGS TO THINK ABOUT DURING THE EXPERIENCE OF SINGING TOGETHER 1. Choose a song that people in the group have begun to learn in parts or have begun to develop harmony lines for. Have the group walk around the room singing their parts but interacting with each other long enough to make eye contact, smile or whatever. Keep the song going until everyone has interacted with everyone a couple of times. When you have finished, share responses to the following questions. a. How does it feel to interact with someone who is singing the same part as you? b. How does it feel to interact with someone who is singing a different part? c. Can you hold your part or are you influenced by the parts you come in contact with? Answers to these questions may give you some clues as to how you live your life in relationship to people who are different and similar, tasks which you like and don't like, your ability to hold your own with and without support or under perceived pressure to change. 2. When a song is being sung, can you hear holes in the harmony or spaces where nothing is happening? If you do hear these holes, are you willing to take the risk to fill the holes in? Is listening for the holes a chore or a challenge? 3. Often when people try to find harmonies in a song they leap to the high parts above the melody. When singing African American songs particularly, be sure that there are solid bass lines and warm middle harmonies. Think of this music as being rooted in the earth and not floating in the sky. 4, The best way to be part of a communal singing experience is to allow your voice to blend in the group. It is often a struggle to not over sing in an attempt to hear yourself. (A finger in one ear will help you to hear yourself and others.) Remember that the goal is to listen to and hear everything that is going on. 5. Enjoy yourself. Don't be afraid to take risks every now and then. Learn from each other. Learn to be responsive to what you hear and to assume leadership where you can. It will become easier and easier.SINGING IN THE AFRICAN AMERICAN TRADITION INTRODUCTION TO AN AFROCENTRIC VIEW OF SONG. by George Brandon, PH.D. © 1989 In the course of this series of CDs we will be hearing and exploring a number of African American songs and vocal styles. The songs on SINGING IN THE AFRICAN AMERICAN TRADITION are just a small piece of broad and deep tradition that includes songs from the African continent, the Caribbean, South America and the United States. Each of the songs comes out of a background which has shaped it and which is essential to understanding its full meaning. Much of the significance of the songs lies in things which cannot be heard, things which are, so to speak, behind the notes but are still part of the music, such as the values imbedded in and promoted by the songs, and the way people have to relate to each other to perform them correctly. A VALUES BASE Song in African Community Life The best way to get an understanding of these songs is to look at how traditional African song was related to community life, for song was an integral part of everyday life for the peoples that created them. In traditional African society, songs were functional rather than purely for entertainment or an end in themselves. They were supposed to do something. They were part of farming, social criticism, craft work, politics, child care, warfare, education, history, and religion and were often the property of specific groups of people within the community. When I say that the songs were functional | want you to take that very literally. Maybe the best way to illustrate what I mean is with an example. There is a wonderful description in the novel The Dark Child by Camara Laye in which he describes how his father, a Senegalese blacksmith, used to work. After his morning purification ritual his father would call into his shed a griot. The griot was a singer who also played the harp and the griot's job in his father's blacksmith’s shed was to sing songs that flattered him. The griot would sing about the blacksmith's family and conjure up all the blacksmith’s great ancestors. The blacksmith had to sing too, but he sang different songs, songs he had learned as part of his training as a blacksmith. He sang these songs as he forged and shaped the iron, and the words from these songs penetrated the hot metal and became part of it. The singing of these songs was part of making a good knife, a good hoe or a good sword. If the songs were not sung, the tools would have been imperfect or damaged. People 10would not be able to have successful harvest because there was something wrong with their tools. Soldiers would die in warfare because their sword was incorrectly made. Traditional communities have long recognized the power of song and have often kept it under social control. Some songs were restricted to specific contexts. Others were the property of secret societies and known only to initiates of those societies. Sometimes there were restrictions on the use of particular musical instruments. In some societies recreational songs couldn't be sung during harvest periods, only religious songs could be sung then. Other songs could only be sung by people who had reached a certain age or phase of their life cycle. The Organization and Performance of Song There is a value which is embedded in these songs which is part of the way they are performed and the way that the music is organized. This value, while it is extremely important, is very easy to overlook while listening to the songs. While performing them, though, it becomes very real. African music is made up of layers of rhythms and seemingly independent parts one on top of another. While each layer or each part is doing something different, each of them (no matter how complex they may be) is also related to what is usually a very simple rhythm placed high in the ensemble so that it penetrates and can be heard by everybody. The performers must listen to each other and to this very simple rhythm which is repeated over and over and over again. Something like this could easily become a kind of chaos and the music could fall apart or dissolve into a kind of fog if it weren't for the fact that players and singers are listening. What they are listening for are really three things. First of all they are listening to themselves. They are also listening to the relationship of what they are playing to the other layers and parts (particularly the high, simple regulating rhythm). But even more important than anything else there is a single sound that evolves when all of these parts are linked up correctly. That's mainly what they listen for, the sound that results when everybody is playing their part correctly, when all the parts are linked up correctly and a single sound results which goes round and round and round. What Westerners usually identify as being the song is the vocal melody which is apparently on top of all these other parts, but actually all of it is the song and the vocal melody is regulated by the same simple rhythm pattern as everything else, as well as the rhythmic and tonal patterns of African languages. I think that there is an important cultural and political statement being made here, one we can all learn from by organizing singing groups this way. First, everybody doesn't have to do the same thing. Each of the people in each of these layers is doing something different from what other people are doing and yet it is 11possible to coordinate all of this diversity towards a single goal. In fact what happens is that each of these parts together creates something which is bigger than itself, something which is really bigger than the entire ensemble — if it is right. If people's relationships to each other are stable, if people's relationships to each other form this whole hierarchy of powers, then out of that is generated a power which is much greater than the individuals. This power is even bigger than the group. It is the result of all their efforts and their coordination, and it evolves out of it and gets bigger and bigger and bigger and more and more powerful. There is another aspect to this. Some of the parts are very simple, some of the parts are very complex and there is a kind of leadership that goes on. One person may sing out a line that everyone responds to. But the important facet of this is that the leadership is not exclusive, it shifts. Anyone can, in fact, take a position of leadership. One person may start the song, every one responds to him or her. This may continue for a while, then someone else can just take it. Then that person becomes the song leader and the person who led becomes part of the chorus and responds. The leadership could just shift around the entire group as long as the song continues. And it's supposed to do that. The leadership is not exclusive; it's not a hierarchy which is entirely fixed forever; it involves the participation of all who are present. This is also part of the way in which the music is organized. There is no distinction between performer and audience. There is no audience; there are only people who have gathered together for a particular purpose and at that time they constitute a kind of congregation. These things — the connection of the songs to community life and values, the coordination of diverse rhythms, and the shifting of leadership within ensembles so that all can participate — are the background and foundation out of which these songs evolved. 12SONG TYPES TO BE COVERED Chants and Calls Chants Chants are a very primal song style; call and response accompanied by percussion instruments. The call by the leader and the response by the chorus consist of the repetition of short phases over a rhythmic background. Their purposes are to create particular mental and emotional states and to make things happen. The effect is to unify the group and thus create a power. It is coordination for a common purpose (community creation); to bring a power into the house so people can attain something they all intensely desire. The chant is a vehicle to express communal support for what is being done, has been done or will be done and to help bring it about. Calls Calls are short melodic and verbal statements that convey information. They may tell someone to do something or announce a fact or intention. In chants and calls the dividing line between speech and song may be blurry. Some chants almost seem to dissolve into speech because the rhythm of the words takes precedence over the melody. Calls often demand a vocal sound different from other singing because they must penetrate other sounds and be capable of traveling over great distances. Spirituals With the advent of slavery Africans were thrown naked into a New World. Nothing in their communal life and traditions had prepared them for what they were to experience: involuntary separation from land, ancestors and loved ones; death at sea; life in an unknown land among strange people; and the physical, mental and spiritual brutalization African slaves had to endure. Still, though, they were not unarmed. There were still the religious and cultural traditions which remained in their bodies and memories. In some places in the Americas these African religious and cultural traditions survived; in others they died. In the United States spirituals were one of the main bodies of knowledge recording the thoughts and feelings of the community of enslaved Africans. The spirituals, then, are intimately connected to the whole problem and experience of slavery. They are also Christian songs and draw their imagery, not from African 13religions, but from the Bible, particularly the Old Testament. During the waves of religious enthusiasm that struck the American nation in the 1770's and 1790's, African Americans were on the fringes, both literally and figuratively. Before the Great Awakenings of the 1770's and 1790's there had been no structured and sustained effort to convert large numbers of enslaved Africans to Christianity. The revival tent and the camp meeting with its separate seating for African Americans and whites provided one context in which the slaves were exposed to Christianity and in which spirituals came into being. Singing hymns was an important means for evangelists to transmit their message to people who couldn't read. Slaves brought to these meetings by their masters would learn the songs they heard there, but soon developed their own way of singing them. The written accounts of European travelers who had gone to the southern states to observe life and the peculiar institution of slavery in the 18th and early 19th century noted even at that point there were very distinct differences between the way black slaves sang these songs and the way whites did. The journals of traveling ministers sometimes described how, after the meeting was over for the day and every one else was asleep, the Africans could be found awake and singing. They reported hearing very short and very repetitive songs (like chants) and other songs, none of which could be found in the hymn books. Other contexts in which the spirituals were sung and African Americans exposed to Christianity were the bi-racial churches that had either separate seating or entirely separate services for African Americans and whites, Some slave owners invited white ministers or African American preachers working under the surveillance of white preachers to hold services on their farms and plantations. The existence of the African American preacher meant that there were now two evangelizing processes going on. African Americans were being converted to Christianity by whites, but African Americans were also being converted by other African Americans who might preach one thing while a white minister was looking over their shoulder and something else when they weren't. In secret nocturnal religious meetings which the slaves held in forests or ravines, they created an invisible institution which sought a religion that answered their needs and responded to their condition. Here, out of a quiet sea of voices, spirituals evolved through a process of group improvisation and call and response. The sources of the music and texts of the spirituals come from white hymns reworked, the improvisations of groups of slaves in everyday life, the natural world, and the Bible (particularly the old Testament prophets and the travail of the children of Israel) transmitted by white and African American preachers and reinterpreted in the light of the African American's own experiences in the slave communities of the South. The spirituals deal with basic human problems nakedly faced. They deal with life and death; with the transcendence of or the acceptance of death. They deal with hope, suffering, injustice and disease. They deal with the 14,themes of abandonment and self-worth, and faith versus sin. The spirituals often contained two-sided references to escape; escape from the earth to heaven on one hand and escape from the South to the North and freedom on the other. To go or stay? What is victory and what is the cost? The spirituals asked these questions and provided a variety of answers. Early Gospel For African Americans in the South, the end of the Civil war brought about a brief period of freedom leading to abandonment as the promises of the Reconstruction era evaporated. Slavery was replaced by tenant farming and share- cropping. The protection which the federal militia had provided for ex-slaves was withdrawn as part of a compromise with the southern states. Another part of that compromise was the ceding of powers to the states to make their own laws regarding African Americans. With these powers the southern states established a body of Jim Crow laws that enshrined racial discrimination and segregation. These laws were enforced legally by the courts and judges and illegally by the Ku Klux Klan and similar organizations of vigilantes. The growth of large industrial cities in the North required vast reserves of labor, and recruiters from these industries came South to fish for urban factory workers, especially during WWI. African Americans had already begun migrating out of the rural South by then, but as more people migrated the African American community became increasing northern and urban. Wherever there is a pull there is also a push. The pull to the North was the renewed promise of jobs, land, freedom from racism, and a better future; the push out of the South was discrimination, violence, and poverty. To stay or go? In the first half of the 20th century northern migration was the context of that choice for African Americans. The birth of gospel in the urban North and Midwest, post-WWI, was part of the response to that question among those who moved and had to adapt to the northern and midwestern cities. This was the same period and context that witnessed the birth of two other African American urban musical forms: urban blues and jazz. Everyone in the African American community heard these different forms of music; gospel was their sacred counterpart. Many African American migrants felt uncomfortable in the northern African American churches. The northern churches often had very large congregations and the new migrants felt lost and anonymous. The style of worship was different, too. It was more restrained, less direct and full of songs the migrants didn't know. Their poverty made them feel inferior next to the well dressed northern African Americans, Some began to hold services in their own homes and in storefronts where the smaller congregations enjoyed greater intimacy and could preserve the 15older more expressive styles of worship and singing. They also sought a religion which would minister to their particular problems and needs. Some found this in the Holiness church. The modern Holiness movement spread among urban African Americans in the early part of this century, but really grew during the Depression of the 1930's. Holiness churches often incorporated a variety of new instruments into their services and practiced an emotional style of worship. They used guitars, drums, tambourines, trumpets and saxophones. Musically, Holiness churches were set apart by the heavy, compelling beat of their music. This made them much more conducive to the reception of gospel music than other denominations. How Gospels and Spirituals Differ People frequently ask "what is the difference between spirituals and gospel songs?” Some of the difference consists in things you can hear and some of it does not and is more related to the history and situations out of which the music evolved. SPIRITUALS GOSPELS rural urban slavery era 1920's a cappella, feet, hands instrumental accompaniment predates blues and jazz blues and jazz influences anonymous, collective product known composers oral tradition oral tradition and sheet music death, suffering, escape, Old good news, Christ, more emphasis on Testament New Testament plus faith and conversion livelier and more syncopated Origin, Reception and Transmission to the Urban Churches Thomas Dorsey, known as the Father of Gospel Music (b.1903/4) was the son of a preacher but first established his musical career as a blues pianist and vaudeville entertainer performing with Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Tampa Red. He developed a lively bouncing blues style that made him popular as Georgia Tom. 16Dorsey got converted (saved) in 1921, but continued to perform in blues and jazz settings for another eleven years, finally totally settling into gospel in 1932. When he did this he abandoned none of his earlier style; instead he brought over into his compositions on religious themes the influences from blues, jazz and spirituals. Dorsey credits his own conversion to gospel music to hearing a song by Charles Albert Tindley, "I Do, Don't You". Tindley, a African American Philadelphia minister who wrote songs keyed especially to the problems the African American migrants were experiencing, viewed song writing as a part of his ministry. Dorsey's early gospel songs were also influenced strongly by Tindley's style. The new style of sacred music provoked a lot of resistance from African American ministers and Dorsey and the other early promoters of gospel music frequently found themselves denounced from church pulpits, locked out of performing spaces and leading a nomadic existence. Dorsey in particular adopted the techniques of a song "plugger". He got his groups into churches, conventions and meetings, formed his own publishing company, and sold his own sheet music at performances. What were these northern urban African American ministers and their congregation objecting to? They didn't like the hand clapping, stomping and other behavior of the singers. It was unseemly and undignified behavior in a church. The gospel singers replied that the worshipper needed to go with the spirit, that religion is a joy and that the 150th Psalm sanctioned this more physically expressive style of worship: "Clap your hands all ye people! ...". The ministers didn't like all those instruments. There had always been restrictions on what kinds of instruments could be used in church — no fiddles and no drums. The reply: don't you know Psalm 150 "Shout unto the Lord with the voice of the trumpet! Praise him with the low sounding cymbal, praise him with the high sounding cymbal ... "? The most serious objections, though, were aimed right at the character of the music itself, They objected to the compelling beat and to the jazz and blues influences they heard. Jazz and blues are the Devil's music! The reply: Why should the Devil have all the good songs? Don't you think we need some over here in church? Gospel music is a ministry. This music is about glorifying God, it's not the music of the street but that of the church if the church will let it in instead of keeping it out. Eventually the music won out and in the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's gospel music spread and was taken up by denominations that had shunned it earlier. There are now gospel choirs on the campuses of colleges and universities across the country and many large African American churches have several choirs of which one is usually a separate choir that sings gospel music, while others are devoted to hymns, anthems or spirituals. 17The Changing Scene in Gospel Music Gospel music, of course, has continued to evolve. Originally performed by small groups (such as duos, a cappella quartets or quartets with piano accompaniment), gospel can now be heard performed by large choirs and bands of instrumentalists including electronic instruments. The relationship between gospel as a religious music and popular secular music forms (such as jazz, rock, rhythm 'n blues, etc.) so evident in its beginnings continues in the present day, and while the music's home is still the church, much performance of gospel music now takes place in secular settings, in concert halls, theatres and on television and radio. Songs of the Civil Rights Movement Gospel music was a response of those who left the South and was part of adapting to the new urban environment. It was an expression of what they experienced and longed for, and a reaction to the new world around them. What about those who stayed in the South or those that returned from the North disappointed or defeated? What they found was that in the South where you went to school, where you lived, whether or not you could vote, who you could marry, where you could go to the movies, eat a meal or swim and whether you rode in the front or the back of a public bus was all determined by skin color and African ancestry. The accumulation of a thousand little indignities that constituted the regime of white supremacy had congealed into a way of life that imprisoned African Americans behind a wall of hatred, restrictions and segregation. Putting an end to this was the goal of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950's and 1960's. One of the chief cultural expressions of the Civil Rights Movement was collective singing. As the nonviolent struggle against segregation spread from lunch counters to swimming pools, from movie theatres to public schools and from public accommodations to voter registration, and as the movement itself spread from state to state in the South and then to the North and West, collective singing spread with it. The songs of the Civil Rights movement became known as freedom songs. Contexts The freedom songs were sung in a variety of contexts: at mass meetings, prayer vigils, and rallies; before hate-filled mobs; through beatings, in jail and before freedom rides starting in Washington, DC and down into the Deep South. During long demonstrations and marches, the songs accumulated verse after verse over miles of road. Sources The sources of the songs were mainly, but not exclusively, from the African 18American tradition. Hymns and spirituals took on an added depth of meaning within the context of the contemporary struggle. Gospel songs were an influence as were rock 'n roll and rhythm and blues songs of the period. Some songs were appropriated from the North and from the struggles of an earlier period, such as songs from the labor union movement of the 1930's. For many African Americans the Civil Rights movement led them to seek a source of empowerment and identity by turning back to earlier African American traditions and African roots and to revive the spirituals, work songs, hymns, children's game songs and blues as a tradition of protest and freedom-yearning that went straight back to the days of slavery. At the same time, they created new verses and new words as well as new songs for the situations in which they now found themselves. Functions of the Songs The songs had several functions, They were songs of protest and persuasion. They were used to solicit and arouse outside support and to reinforce values in individuals supporting the movement. They created and promoted cohesion, solidarity and morale within the movement and supported the movement's world view. The freedom songs were a means of recruiting people to the movement ("what kinds of people can these be?"). The songs pointed out problems and discontent in the society in direct emotional terms and invoked solutions in terms of actions that would achieve the goal of a better, more equal and just society. There were also psychological factors involved. The power of a mass of human voices is a remarkable thing. It sends out a wall of sound in advance of the singers which is almost palpable; a physical force which is clearly felt within the group as well as outside of it. The sound of the voice takes up a space and the song becomes a kind of shield from behind which the singers move ahead. This psychological factor was especially important in a nonviolent struggle in which the protestors had no weapons or other means of physical self-defense. The power of massed voices enhanced the strength of the individual through the group and the immersion of one voice in a vast and united sea of voices. The songs provided consolation and security through their ability to evoke and reinforce important values in times of suffering, trial and isolation, in a way that couldn't be stolen regardless of the situation. In jails, people sang as long as they had memory and breath. The songs of the Civil Rights movement form a record and a history of the Civil Rights movement. They sing of important incidents, people and places and of the changes of the movement in the 1950's and 1960's. Aside from the sheer beauty and power of the songs, it is because of this they deserve an honored place in the history and culture of the United States. 19Contemporary Songs of Resistance and Protest South Africa Just as we began this series of CDs with Africa, it is fitting that we should end with Africa, too. But this is not the Africa we began with. With this group of songs we come to the present. Three Hundred Years of Settlement and Resistance In 1652 European settlers made a permanent commitment to the land of South Africa and began a desperate struggle to achieve and then maintain a system of white dominance. Warfare and the steady advance of European farmers pushed the indigenous Africans inland from the coast through the 18th and 19th centuries. The whites displaced peoples from their former homelands and converted them into slaves and later into cheap labor. A system of special territories (similar to Indian reservations) was set up in the 1840's to be occupied solely by Africans. White domination was cemented by a series of laws that ensured a ready supply of cheap black labor. Laws appropriating the African’s land (the Land Acts of 1913 and 1936) created a vast reserve of landless, poverty stricken laborers and expanded the system of reserves. The passbook laws controlled the flow of that labor and subjected African men to surveillance and arrest. Hundreds of women went to jail rather than carry these books. Men were forced to work long distances away from their homes and their women, in gold and diamond mines, in service work where they made little money and were subject to humiliating searches and the ever present passbook checks. South Africa's industrialization in the 1920's brought thousands of workers into the cities. Strikes, bus boycotts, and demonstrations against the pass laws became more common as the whites mounted ever further efforts to keep the Africans powerless. The 1939 Natives Act took away the right of Cape Town Africans to vote; in 1946 South African troops drove striking miners back to work at bayonet point, and killed and injured others. The year 1948 brought to power the National Party, a group that advocated strict separation of whites and nonwhites in every sphere of life and strove to wipe out any vestiges or stirrings of integration or any striving to assimilate the Africans. The watchword was apartheid (separation): separation of whites and nonwhites in public and private facilities (including schools), separation of whites and nonwhites in racially homogeneous ghettos within multi-racial areas, separation of racial groups in discrete geographical regions of the country, the reserves or homelands/ bantustans. The Immorality Act of 1949 forbade interracial marriage; the 1950 Group Areas Act led to the destruction of black townships that were surrounded by white areas; use of the 1950 Suppression of Communism Act became a standard tool to jail 20anti-apartheid protestors such as NNC leader Nelson Mandela. Mandela and many others were also charged with treason. The National Party identified the policy of apartheid with the state itself. Throughout the 1950's, 60's, 70's and 80's, indigenous Africans, Indians and Colored banded together to struggle against the unjust laws that ruled their lives. Pass laws, forced removal, economic exploitation, Bantu education and the vote were the major issues. Black South African Music and Songs of Resistance South Africa has a rich African tradition of vocal music and congregational singing. It differs from many other areas of Africa in that vocal music was the only form of communal music making in indigenous South African society before the coming of the Europeans, There was not a tradition of large groups of drummers. Instead choirs with large groups of dancers were the vehicles for expressing life and communal values. During the colonial era, missionaries encouraged the Africans to sing hymns and anthems, songs with European melodies but words in the African languages. Phonograph records, the introduction of American jazz and the radio also had an impact. As a result, the forms and harmonies of European and African American music influenced the development of South African popular music, including songs of political protest and resistance. This body of songs seems to have begun in the early part of this century. Some of the songs were new and emerged at important events, meetings and gatherings; others fit new words to European or American melodies and turned songs which originally had nothing to do with politics into weapons against apartheid. A large number of songs emerged out of the struggles against the pass laws in the 1950's. Songs about education, passive resistance and returning the lands to the people continue to be created. Chanted slogans play an important part in organizing and demonstrating and many of the songs originated during bus boycotts, strikes and at the funerals of slain leaders. Much of this music remains traditional in form, is passed on by word of mouth and is known and sung by millions of South Africans, Through the work of South African exiles, the music also became known in Europe and the United States. 21BIBLIOGRAPHY Anderson, Muff. Music in the Mix: The Story of South African Popular Music. Raban Press, London and Ohio University Press, Columbus, 1986 Chernoff, John M. African Rhythm and Sensibility. University of Chicago Press, Aldine, 1986 (Also available with accompanying cassette) Dixon, Robert and Joseph Goodrich. Blues and Gospel Records 1902-1942. Stein and Day, New York, 1970 Fischer, Miles M. Negro Slave Songs in the United States. Citadel Press, New York, 1978 Jackson, Mahalia and Evan Wylie. Movin' On Up. Hawthorn Press, New York, 1966 Jackson, Irene W. Afro-American Religious Music: A Bibliography and a Catalogue of Gospel Music. Greenwood Press, Boston, 1979 Jahn, Janheinz. Muntu: An Outline of the New African Culture. Grove Press, New York, 1961 Jones, LeRoi. Blues People. William Morrow and Co., New York, 1963 Katz, Bernard (ed.). Social Implications of Early Negro Music in the United States. Ayer Company, New York, 1969 Laye, Camara. The Dark Child. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, New York, 1955 Lovell, John. Black Song: the Forge and the Flame. Paragon House, New York, 1986 Nketia, J.H.K. The Music of Africa. W.W. Norton, New York 1974 Oliver, Paul. Songsters and Saints: Vocal Traditions on Race Records. Cambridge University Press, New York, 1984 Raboteau, Albert. Slave Religion. Oxford University Press, New York, 1978 Sernett, Milton C. (ed.). Afro-American Religious History: A Documentary Witness. Duke University Press, Durham, 1985 Southern, Eileen (ed.). Readings in Black American Music. W.W. Norton, New York, 1971 22RESOURCES BACKGROUND INFORMATION 1, THE DIFFERENT DRUM: Community Making and Peace, M. Scott Peck, M.D., Simon and Schuster, New York 1987 2. THE MUSIC OF BLACK AMERICANS: A History, Eileen Southern, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York 1971 3. THE GOSPEL SOUND: Good News and Bad Times, Anthony Heilbut, Limelight Editions, New York 1985 4. AFRICAN MUSIC: A People's Art (Translated by Josephine Bennett) Francis Bebey, Lawrence Hill & Company, Westport 1975 SONG BOOKS 1, SONGS OF ZION, Supplemental Worship Resources #12, Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN 1981 2. LEAD ME GUIDE ME - The African American Catholic Hymnal, G.I.A. Publications, Inc., Chicago 1987 3. THE BOOKS OF AMERICAN NEGRO SPIRITUALS: Two volumes in one. Words and Music of 120 Spirituals, James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, The Viking Press Publishers, New York 1969 4. FREEDOM IS A CONSTANT STRUGGLE: Songs of the Freedom Movement, Compiled and Edited by Guy and Candie Carawan, Oak Publications, New York, 1968 5. WE SHALL OVERCOME!: Songs of the Southern Freedom Movement, Compiled by Guy and Candie Carawan for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, Oak Publications, New York, 1963 6. STEP IT DOWN: Games, Plays, Songs and Stories from the Afro-American Heritage, Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes, University of Georgia Press, Athens and London, 1972, 1987 7, COMPOSITIONS: ONE, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Songtalk Publishing Company, P.O. Box 21350, Washington, DC 20009 23ALBUMS BEMBE, MILTON CARDONA, American Clave THE DRUMS OF DINIZULU: THE SONG OF GHANA AND ANAGO CHANTS, Afrotone, STLT - 700 CULT MUSIC OF CUBA: Folkways Records, FE 4410 AFRO-BRAZILIAN RELIGIOUS SONGS, Lyrichord Discs, LLST 7350 AFRICAN TRIBAL MUSIC AND DANCES, Counterpoint/ Esoteric, Stereo 5513 OLATUNJI: DRUMS OF PASSION, Columbia Records, CS 8210 NEGRO WORK SONGS AND CALLS, Library of Congress Recording Laboratory AFS L8 GEORGIA SEA ISLAND SONGS, New World Records, Recorded Anthology of American Music, Inc., NW 278 BESSIE JONES - SO GLAD I'M HERE: Songs and Games from the Georgia Sea Islands, Rounder Records 2015 MOVING STAR HALL SINGERS and Alan Lomax (Sea Island Folk Festival) Recorded by Guy Carawan, Johns Island, SC, Folkways Records FS 3841 ALL OF MY APPOINTED TIME: Forty Years of A Cappella Gospel, Stash Records, Inc. Stash ST - 114 BIRMINGHAM QUARTET ANTHOLOGY (Double record set) Clanka Lanka Records, CL - 144,001/002 THE ORIGINAL FIVE BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA: Marching Up To Zion, Specialty Records, Inc. 1971 SPS 2138 THE CARAVANS SING..., THE STAPLE SINGERS SING..."A Gospel Program’, Savgos Records RI5005 PRECIOUS LORD: New Recordings of the Great Gospel Songs of Thomas A. Dorsey, Columbia Records, KG 32151 NEW YORK GRASSROOTS GOSPEL: The Sacred Black Quartet Tradition, Global Village Music, 1988 GVM 206 24CHICAGO GOSPEL PIONEERS, SpiritFeel Records, 1987 SF1004 MAHALIA JACKSON: NEWPORT 1958, Columbia, CL 1244 All recordings by Rev. James Cleveland on the Savoy Record Label ARETHA FRANKLIN - AMAZING GRACE (with James Cleveland & the Southern California Community Choir) Atlantic Stereo, SD 2-906 VOICES OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT: Black American Freedom Songs 1960-1966. Smithsonian Institution Program in Black American Culture, The Smithsonian Collection, R 023 MALIBONGWE, Bremer Chor Die Zeitgenossen & James M. Phillips Singen Freiheitslieder aus Sudafrika, African National Congress SOUTHAFRICA - LIBERATION: Freedom Songs, SAFCO Records, a division of the South Africa Freedom Committee, 310 E. 44 Street R, 1703 New York, A-001 KONZERT FUR SOWETO, United Nations Centre against Apartheid, Plane 88250 THIS LAND IS MINE: South African Freedom Songs recorded in Tanganyika, Africa, Folkways Record FH 5588 ZULU SONGS FROM SOUTH AFRICA, Lyrichord Stereo, LLst 7401 LET THEIR VOICES BE HEARD: Traditional Singing in South Africa, Rounder Records, 1987, 5024 MUSIC & YOUTH: RICH JAMAICAN PERFORMANCES BY 20,000 VOICES (Vol.2: Religion) All recordings by SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK on Flying Fish RecordsSONG LYRICS AND CREDITS CHANT TO ELEGBA Credits: Words and Music - Traditional Yoruba Vocals - George Brandon and Ysaye M. Barnwell Percussion rhythms played by Babatunde Olatunji Echu-o Elegba-da-e Elegba-da Moforibale Elegba-da-e SOMAGWAZA Credits: Words and Lyrics - Traditional from Black South Africa Percussion and vocals - Ysaye M. Barnwell Part 1. Haweh, haweh somagwaza Part 2. somagwaza mna yoweh, yoweh Part 3. Hey mna yoweh, hey mna yoweh somagwaza THREE SPIRITUALS Credits: Words and Music - Traditional, Arranged by Y.M. Barnwell © 1980 Vocals - Ysaye M. Barnwell 1. WADE IN THE WATER Wade in da water. Wade in da water, children. Wade in da water. God's gonna trouble da water. 2. [WANNA DIE EASY WHEN I DIE I wanna die easy when I die. I wanna die easy when I die. I wanna die easy when I die; shout salvation as I rise. I wanna die easy when I die. 3. MOTHERLESS CHIL Sometimes I feel like a motherless chil’ Sometimes I feel like a motherless chi Sometimes I feel like a motherless chil’, a long way from home. Note: Low voices repeat - Wade in da water, wade in da water... 26SOON I WILL BE DONE Credits: Words and Music - Traditional, Arranged by Y.M. Barnwell © 1988 Vocals - Ysaye M. Barnwell Chorus: Soon I will be done with the troubles of the world, the troubles of the world, the troubles of the world. Soon I will be done with the troubles of the world, goin’ home to live with God. Verse 1: No more weepin' and a wailin’. No more weepin' and a wailin’. No more weepin' and a wailin’. Goin’ home to live with God. Verse 2: I want to meet my mother. I want to meet my mother. I want to meet my mother. Goin’ home to live with God. STEAL AWAY Credits: Words and Music - Traditional, Arranged by Y.M. Barnwell © 1978 Vocals - Ysaye M. Barnwell Chorus: Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus. Steal away, steal away home. T ain't got long to stay here. Verse: (High voices) My Lawd He calls me, He calls me by the thunder. (Low voices) The trumpet sounds within-a my soul (All voices) I ain't got long to stay here. BALM IN GILEAD Credits: Words and Music - Traditional, Arranged by Y.M. Barnwell © 1980 Vocals - Ysaye M. Barnwell Chorus: There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole. There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul. Verse 1: If you cannot preach like Peter, If you cannot pray like Paul, You can tell the love of Jesus, He died to save us all. Verse 2: Sometimes I feel discouraged and think my work's in vain. But then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again. 27SHEEP, SHEEP Credits: Words and Music - Traditional Vocals - Ysaye M. Barnwell Clappers - Doug James, Happy Traum, George Brandon Chorus: CALL: Sheep, sheep don't you know the road? RESPONSE: _Yes, Lord I know the road. CALL: Sheep, sheep don't you know the road? RESPONSE: _Yes, Lord I know the road. Verses: CALL: Don't you know the road by the settin’ of the sun? risin’ of the moon? markin’ on the trees? clappin’ of the hands? THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD. Credits: Words and Music - Traditional, from the congregation of the Bethany Fellowship Church, London, England Vocals and percussion - Ysaye M. Barnwell Clappers - Doug James, Happy Traum, George Brandon The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. Leave, oh leave, oh leave me not alone. Leave, oh leave, oh leave me not alone. Leave, oh leave, oh leave me not alone. He's my shepherd, I shall not want. I'LL FLY AWAY Credits: Words and Music - Traditional Albert E. Brumley, © 1932 Hartford Music Co., © 1960 Albert E. Brumley & Sons. Renewal. Vocals - Ysaye M. Barnwell Clappers - Doug James, Happy Traum, George Brandon Some glad morning when my life is over I'll fly away To that home on God's celestial shore, I'll fly away. Chorus: Tl fly away. I'll fly away When I die Hallelujah, by and by I'l fly away. 23SWING DOWN CHARIOT Credits: Words and Music - Traditional Vocals - Ysaye M. Barnwell Swing down chariot, stop an’ let me ride. Swing down chariot, stop an’ let me ride Oh, rock me Lawd, rock me Lawd, calm and easy. I gotta home on the other side. THE STORM IS PASSING OVER Credits: Words and Music - Charles A. Tindley Vocals - Ysaye M. Barnwell Drums - Doug James Verse 1: Courage my soul, and let me journey on. though the night is dark, and I am far from home. Praise be to God, the morning light appears. The storm is passing over, the storm is passing over The storm is passing over, hallelu. Chorus: Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! The storm is passing over, the storm is passing over The storm is passing over, hallelu. Verse 2: Thunder rolling and billows shake the ground. See the lightening flashing and dark clouds all around. Jesus walked the seas and calmed the angry waves. The storm is passing over, the storm is passing over The storm is passing over, hallelu. Repeat Chorus twice. SING TIL THE POWER OF THE LORD COME DOWN Credits: Words and Music - Traditional, Arranged by Y.M. Barnwell © 1986 Vocals and percussion - Ysaye M. Barnwell Now let us sing (Sing til the power of the Lord come down) Now let us sing (Sing til the power of the Lord come down) Lift up your voice (Lift up your voice) Don't be afraid (Don't be afraid) Now let us sing (Sing til the power of the Lord come down). 29Hymns sung as a counter melody with SING TIL THE POWER... 1. AMAZING GRACE - Words and Music - Traditional Amazing grace how sweet the name That saved a wretch like me. [once was lost but now I'm found Was blind, but now I see. 2. LEANING ON THE EVERLASTING ARMS - Words by E.A. Hoffman, Music by A.J. Showalter, PD What a fellowship, what a joy divine, Leaning on the everlasting arms. What a blessedness, what a peace is mine, Leaning on the everlasting arms. 3. WE'RE MARCHING TO ZION - Words and music to refrain by Robert Lowery Refrain: We're marching to Zion, Beautiful, beautiful, Zion We're marching upward to Zion The beautiful city of God. Other counter hymn melodies which are possible include: WE'LL UNDERSTAND IT BETTER BY AND BY (Refrain) I SURRENDER ALL (Verse only) WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS (Verse only) JESUS KEEP ME NEAR THE CROSS (Verse only) JESUS LOVES THE LITTLE CHILDREN I FEEL LIKE GOING ON Credits: Words by Eleanor D. Bell-Stokes; music by Andre Sonny Woods, Hen-Fan Music/SESA, Inc. Vocals - Ysaye M. Barnwell I feel like going on. I feel like going on. Though trials mount on every hand, I feel like going on. 30WE'RE MARCHING ON TO FREEDOM LAND Credits: Words and Music - Carlton Reese Vocals - Ysaye M. Barnwell We're marching on to freedom land. We're marching on to freedom land. God's our strength from day to day As we travel the narrow way. We're going forward, we're going forward One day we're gonna be free. DOG, DOG Credits: Words and Music by James Bevel and Bernard LaFayette, © 1961, 1963 StormKing Music, Inc. (Chorus only sung here) Dog dog d-dog a dig-a-dog dog Dog dog d-dog a dig-a-dog dog Dog dog d-dog a dig-a-dog dog Dog dog d-dog a dig-a-dog dog If my dog love your dog and your dog love my dog And my dog love your dog and your dog love my dog Then why can't we sit under the apple tree? AIN'T GONNA LET NOBODY TURN ME 'ROUND Credits: Words and Music adapted from the Traditional by members of the Albany Movement Vocals - Ysaye M. Barnwell Clappers - Doug James, Happy Traum, George Brandon Ain't gonna let nobody turn me ‘round turn me ‘round, turn me ‘round. Ain't gonna let nobody turn me 'round Gonna keep on a-walkin', keep on a-talkin, walkin’ up to freedom lan’. Ain't gonna let segregation turn me ‘round... apartheid big business injustice onBABETHANDAZA Credits: Words and Music Traditional Zulu from South Africa, Arranged by Y. M. Barnwell © 1989 Vocals - Ysaye M. Barnwell Sin nje nje nje ngemi thandazo Sin nje nje nje ngemi thandazo Ngemi thandazo, ngemi thandazo thandazo, ngemi thandazo Oomama bagudala babe thandaza Oomama bagudala babe thandaza Babe thandaza, babe thandaza Babe thandaza, babe thandaza (Things are as they are because of prayer Because of prayer, Ngemi because of prayer.) (Our mothers/women of old used to pray Used to pray used to pray) SENZENINA Credits: Words and Music - Traditional from South Africa Vocals - Ysaye M. Barnwell Senzenina? (What have we done? Wenzenina u Mandela? What has Mandela done? Sono sethu ubumnyama. Our crime Wabulaleni afe wonke. Is that we are black.) IZA KUNYATHEL'I AFRICA Credits: Words and Music - Traditional Xhosa from South Africa Vocals - Ysaye M. Barnwell Iza kunyathel'i Africa Botha shoot Uzokwenzakala Iza kunyathel'i Africa Botha shoot Uzokwenzakala (Africa will trample you underfoot. Shoot Botha. Welll trample you underfoot Hey, watch out, we will trample you underfoot.) Hey, basopha! Hey, uzokwenzakala Hey, basopha! Hey, uzokwenzakala Chorus repeats: Africa, Africa... Counter voices repeat: Free Africa, South Africa... 32.WOYAYA Credits: Words and Music by T. Osei, Sol Amarifio, L. Amao, M. Tonton, W. Richardson, R. Bailey, R. Bedeau. © 1977 Chappell & Co., Inc. Arranged by Y.M. Barnwell © 1987 Vocals and percussion Ysaye M. Barnwell We are going, heaven knows where we are going, but we know within. And we will get there, heaven knows how we will get there, but we know we will. It will be hard, we know, And the road will be muddy and rough But we'll get there, heaven knows how we will get there, but we know we will. Woyaya, woyaya, woyaya, woyaya 33THE FREEDOM TIDE IS RISING Credits: Music and words by Michelle Lanchester © 1988 Vocals - Ysaye M. Barnwell Chorus: ‘The freedom tide is rtsing. Oh can't you see it The freedom tide is rising. Oh can't you feel it. The freedom tide is rising. Oh can't you see it. South Africa will soon be free. Verse 1: Hey Piet Botha, your time is drawing near. Apartheid's death is soon to-come. The fight for freedom will surely coniane until victory is won: »DWwean't you see it. h ; he The freedom tide is rising: Ob can't you feel it. The freedom tide is tisinge |<»... Qh-can't you see it. The freedom tide is rising + Oh can't you see it. Verse 2: U.S.A divest now. The money you reap is dripping with blood. Constructive engagement equals endorsement of the violent apartheid regime. Ghean't you see it. Choru: The freedom tide is rising. Ofvean't you see it. The freedom tide is rising, Oh ean't you feel it. The freedom tide is-rising. ‘Oh/can't you see it Verse Freedom's spirit cannot be enslaved. “If Eannot be silenced; cannot be shattered. The soldiers for justice will never'tire, ; Hey Botha, you will be trampled... Oh can't you see it. Chorus: The freedom tde is rising Oh can't you see it. The freedom tide is © Gb-can't you feel it. The freedom tide is rising. Ob can’t you see it. South Africa will soon be free. Freedom is coming. South Africa will soon be free. Freedom is coming. South Africa will soon be free. Freedom is coming. South Africa will soon be free. Freedom is coming. South Africa will soon be free. 34BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT Dr. Ysaye M. Barnwell is a native New Yorker now living in Washington, DC where, since 1979, she has performed with the internationally acclaimed a capella quintet, SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK. She appears as a vocalist and/or instrumentalist on more than twenty recordings with Sweet Honey In The Rock, as well as other artists. In addition to being a singer with a range of over 3 octaves, Dr. Barnwell spends much of her time off stage educating the world as a master teacher and clinician in cultural performance theory and voice production. Her workshop, "Singing In The African American Tradition”, has beeh conducted all over the United States, Great Britain and Australia, making her work in the field a real source of inspiration for her performances on stage. », * Daughter of a registered nurse and a violinist, her 15 year study of'the violin began at age 2.1/2. Dr. Barnwell holds the Bachelor and’ Master of ince degrees in Speech Pathology (SUNY, Geneseo, 1967, 1968), Doctor of Philosophy in Cranio-Facial Studies (University of Pittsburgh, 1975), Master of Science in Public Health (Howard University, Washington, DC, 1981) and the (honorary) Doctor of Humane Letters (SUNY Geneseo, 1998). She has been a professor at the College of Dentistry at Howard University, and in addition to conductin; community based projects in computef technology and in the arts she has administered an implemented health programs at Children's Hospital National Medical Center and at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. In her first year with Sweet Honey, Barnwell provided leadership in developing the group's practice of making concerts accessible to the Deaf through Sign Language interpretation. if Since joining Sweet Honey In The. Rock in 1979, she has composed and arranged music appearing on 10 recordings on the Flying Fish, EarthBeat! /Warner and Music For Little People labels. She has been a commissioned composer on numerous and varied dance, choral, film and video projects including Sesame Street, GALA Festival Choruses V, Dance Alloy of Pittsburgh, David Rousseve's Reality Dance; Company, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Women's Philharmonic of San Francisco, and Redwood Cultural Work, all outgrowths of her combined understanding of creative artists inextricably bound to society. In 1996 she was awarded THE BESSIE AWARD for her score Safe House: Still Looking commissioned by Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. Her music, published by,Barnwell's Notes Publishing, has been performed and recorded by choral ensembles as well as individual artists. é In addition to these endeavors, Dr. Barwell is ah actress whose credits include voice-over narrations in several films and videos, a principal folevon'the television series "A Man Called Hawk" and an appearance in the film BELOVED, directed by Jonathan Demme. Her first children's book, NO MIRRORS IN MY NANNA’'S HOUSE, illustrated by Synthia Saint James, was published by Harcourt Brace in August, 1998; CONTINUUM: The First Songbook of Sweet Honey In The Rock, compiled and edited by Barnwell was published fall, 1998. Barnwell produced the CD ...twenty-five..., released October, 1998 gin the Rykodisk label in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Sweet Honey In The Rock. 35