African American Slavery Music

1. African American Slavery Music

2. The first immigrants of African descents arrived in North America in 1619, landing at Jamestown. • During the American Revolution in 1776, there were no longer African-American indentured servants but African-American Slaves. African-American Origins

3. Many Africans who were brought to the United States were second generation • Slave owners intentionally tried to supplant African culture by making the slaves more dependent on new white culture • Africans were prohibited to speech in their native tongues and to communicate by drumming because of fear of rebellion. • European Americans regarded Africa as backward and uncivilized. Challenges to retaining African Culture

4. Music played an essential role in providing Cultural cohesion to transmit important historical and social information. • Tribes used songs • Stories • Dances Integration of Music with life

5. Language was reflected in African drumming • Drum idioms imitated speech patterns through the use of high and low drum timbres performed on female and male. African Languages

6. Rhythm is the foundation for African music, and it flowed out of the words and the movement of human activities. • Multimeter- The overall metric pattern consists of a series of measures that are each heard as habinh a different meter. • Polymeter- Consists of two or more meter occurring simultaneously. • Prolongation- The duration of the beats gets progressively longer, obscuring the metric pulse. • Additive- There is no regular metric pulse because beats are continually added The essential Role of Rhythm

7. Working songs • The earliest African-American songs were work songs developed to accompany labor. • Cries, Calls, and Hollers • Are terms often used synonymously to describe a melodic tradition that was used as a means for communicating across the fields. • Spirituals • Black spirituals include three types of songs: • Spirituals, jubilees, and Shouts African-American Music within a historical and social context

8. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65ewGQiN3SI • Cries, Calls, Hollers • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnyS24-woTg&list=PL04322B8E84F8747D • Spiritual • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXqMQfpNSes Working Song

9. African-American holller and the early performance of spiritual use primarily a free and fluid rhythm, derived from the text. • Spiritual, work songs, and Hollers incorporate traditions of indigenous African music. • Texture, Instrumentation, and Form • The early spiritual were monophonic, consisting of unaccompanied melody. Structural characteristics of early african-american music

10. The American Revolution and Striving for Freedom • Thousands of slaves responded to an offer from England for freedom for those who fought on the side of the British. • In March 1865, the Freemen’s Bureau was established to help the freed slaves and destitute whites through activities such as providing food and shelter.

11. The school was opened in an abandoned Union Army barracks.(1828-1890) • The school experience financial difficulties with the first five years of operation, which led instructor George L. White to take “The Colored Christian Singers” on a concert tour. • The Fisk Jubilee Singers were important in exposing whites to black spirituals. The Fisk Jubilee singers