{"id":1685,"date":"2017-10-02T19:58:33","date_gmt":"2017-10-03T00:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=1685"},"modified":"2017-10-02T19:59:43","modified_gmt":"2017-10-03T00:59:43","slug":"nobody-knows-the-trouble-ive-seen-marian-anderson-and-spiritual-transmission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2017\/10\/02\/nobody-knows-the-trouble-ive-seen-marian-anderson-and-spiritual-transmission\/","title":{"rendered":"Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen: Marian Anderson and Spiritual Transmission"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Marian Anderson in 1951<\/p><\/div>\n

Marian Anderson occupies a unique position in history. Born in 1897, the contralto represents the culmination of hundreds of years of musical transmission and development along with the continuously evolving nature of American Culture.<\/p>\n

Her recording of Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen\u00a0<\/a>made in December of 1924,specifically, illustrates the complex history of spiritual transmission. First described as part of an 1866 description of a shout held in an old cotton gin house by an author named only M.R.S.,\u00a0and later transcribed in the 1867 collection\u00a0Slave Songs of the United States,\u00a0<\/em>this shout, like many, has a rich transmission history. Since its initial transciption, the shout has been taken on tour by the Fisk Jubilee Singers and performed by a number of artist from Louis Armstrong to Mahalia Jackson (here’s\u00a0a playlist<\/a> of different versions of the Nobody Know’s the Trouble I’ve Seen). \u00a0Below is the 1924 recording (remastered and brought to you courtesy of Spotify) of Anderson’s. Take a listen to the recording while you read the rest of this post.<\/p>\n

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