{"id":4241,"date":"2019-10-09T22:59:07","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T03:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=4241"},"modified":"2019-10-09T23:00:12","modified_gmt":"2019-10-10T04:00:12","slug":"4241","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2019\/10\/09\/4241\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping it “real”: Spirituals as the authentic American music"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Article from the Chicago Defender (April 22, 1933)<\/p><\/div>\n

When German motion picture star Dorothy Welkes arrived in the US in April 1933, she was excited to hear the sonic landscape of America. Specifically, she longed to hear \u201cNegro spirituals sung by American Negroes.\u201d Upon the fulfillment of this wish, she remarked that she believed spirituals \u201crepresent the real American music.\u201d<\/p>\n

This brief clipping from the Chicago Defender<\/em> is only three paragraphs long, but there\u2019s a fair amount to process. The fact that spirituals were gaining international acclaim is significant, particularly since the discussion about its origins (and thus by implied extension, legitimacy) was long from over. Furthermore, that a German celebrity would prioritize black music at the brink of racist totalitarianism under Hitler\u2019s regime is significant and could be examined as an act of defiance. Even designating it as the \u201creal\u201d American music is amazing; while now we take it for granted that gospel and spirituals are a valuable part of the American sonic scene, defenses of African American music making as a legitimate field continued for decades after with writers such as Amiri Baraka.<\/p>\n

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The Southernaires (Ray Yeates, Lowell Peters, Jay Stone Toney, William Edmonson, and Spencer Odom)<\/p><\/div>\n

Of course, the idea that any type of American music can be more \u201creal\u201d or \u201cauthentic\u201d than another is questionable. Welkes\u2019 insistence on hearing \u201cNegro spirituals sung by American Negroes\u201d belies a level of exoticism and desire to view and examine black bodies in a commercial environment. In this sense then, the performers (in this case the musical group the \u201cSouthernaires,\u201d not to be confused with the \u201cJackson Southernaires\u201d) were forced to perform blackness for a white witness. \u00a0Although no black-face was used, her desire for \u201cauthenticity\u201d is reminiscent of the \u201cfear of and fascination with the black male\u201d Eric Lott outlines in regards to minstrelsy.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

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Section of the Decca Numerical Catalog ca. 1950 from the Popular Culture in Britain and America Database<\/p><\/div>\n

In his chapter \u201cCommunity and History: The African-American Church and Sacred Quartet Singing in New York City,\u201d Ray Allen describes how the Southernaires emerged out of the black university tradition pioneered by the Fisk Jubilee Singers. The group was formed in 1929 and quickly gained acclaim for their national radio show \u201cThe Little Weather-Beaten Whitewashed Church\u201d which featured traditional spirituals, secular southern folk songs, sermons, recitations, and guest speakers. They went on to record a number of records with label Decca, although these were never as successful as their radio show. While I faced a surprising amount of trouble in procuring information about this group, Allen asserts their importance by stating:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Southernaires\u2019 smooth, barbershop harmonizing and rhythmic arrangements of spirituals undoubtedly influenced many black vocal groups of the 1930s and early 1940s, and introduced white radio audiences to the magnificent black university style of quartet singing.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

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