{"id":1787,"date":"2017-10-03T03:21:51","date_gmt":"2017-10-03T08:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=1787"},"modified":"2017-10-03T03:21:51","modified_gmt":"2017-10-03T08:21:51","slug":"the-alteration-of-spirituals-in-the-civil-rights-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2017\/10\/03\/the-alteration-of-spirituals-in-the-civil-rights-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"The Alteration of Spirituals in the Civil Rights Movement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Amiri Baraka\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blues People: Negro Music in White America<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, he regards African music in terms of its intent, saying that one of its stark differences from Western music was that it was purely functional; it wasn\u2019t meant to exist as art. We see that this African tradition appears in the life of the slave, with work song and spirituals existing as a means of necessary expression that called to God for freedom.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Zora Neale Hurston\u2019s also discusses slave song in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Spirituals and Neo-Spirituals<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and how they never remain in their original form regardless of publication because each rendition depicts a different mood. For example, the spiritual \u201cGospel Plow\u201d was originally a work song, but it was performed in during the Civil Rights Era, changing its context, which proved her statement that spirituals are not confined to slavery.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this situation, lyrics have been altered to fit the context of the performance. Looking at \u201cKeep Your Eyes on the Prize\u201d we see the lyrics of \u201cGospel Plow\u201d change to fit the context of freedom marches. The tunes stayed the same but the verses changed as folks improvised them. In addition, the lyrics vary between each recording, so the side by side comparison is only one example of the lyrical change.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-03-at-3.03.09-AM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1796 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-03-at-3.03.09-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"838\" height=\"213\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-03-at-3.03.09-AM.png 838w, https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-03-at-3.03.09-AM-150x38.png 150w, https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-03-at-3.03.09-AM-300x76.png 300w, https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-03-at-3.03.09-AM-768x195.png 768w, https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-03-at-3.03.09-AM-500x127.png 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 838px) 100vw, 838px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/ezproxy.stolaf.edu\/login?url=https:\/\/search.alexanderstreet.com\/view\/work\/239846\">Gospel Plow and Keep Your Eyes on the Prize with commentary<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/ezproxy.stolaf.edu\/login?url=https:\/\/search.alexanderstreet.com\/view\/work\/251136\">Keep Your Eyes on the Prize<\/a><\/p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-xFkfSdmwXs?version=3&#038;rel=0&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So when Hurston says \u201cEach singing of the piece is a new creation,\u201d the Civil Rights Era literally made a new creation out of this spiritual to adapt to special events such as freedom marches. This also connects back to Baraka\u2019s argument that work song and spirituals were a necessary means of expression because these songs gave a message of perseverance during the freedom marches, no matter what they protesters were faced with.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"selected-item-72059\" class=\"selected-item selected-item-style-chicagob odd\">\n<div class=\"selected-item-info\"><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sing For Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Recorded\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">January 1, 1990. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 1990, Streaming Audio. Accessed\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">October 3, 2017.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">WNEW&#8217;s Story of Selma<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Folkways Records, Streaming Audio. Accessed October 3, 2017.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hurston, Zora Neale. \u201cSpirituals and Neo-Spirituals.\u201d In <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music In the USA: A Documentary\u00a0<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Companion<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, edited by Judith Tick and Paul Beaudoin, 506-509. New York: Oxford\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">University Press, 2008.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Amiri Baraka\u2019s Blues People: Negro Music in White America, he regards African music in terms of its intent, saying that one of its stark differences from Western music was that it was purely functional; it wasn\u2019t meant to exist &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2017\/10\/03\/the-alteration-of-spirituals-in-the-civil-rights-movement\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-sP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1787"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1805,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions\/1805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}