{"id":4388,"date":"2019-10-16T23:59:41","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T04:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=4388"},"modified":"2019-12-15T19:46:35","modified_gmt":"2019-12-16T01:46:35","slug":"h-t-burleigh-on-the-performance-of-black-spirituals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2019\/10\/16\/h-t-burleigh-on-the-performance-of-black-spirituals\/","title":{"rendered":"H. T. Burleigh on the Performance of Black Spirituals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In searching through the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sheet Music Consortium<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, I came across several spirituals arranged by H. T. Burleigh. These publications, such as <i>Oh Peter Go Ring Dem Bells<\/i>,\u00a0include a note written by Burleigh about spirituals, in which he describes them as \u201cnever \u2018composed,\u2019\u201d but \u201cspontaneous outbursts of intense religious fervor.\u201d He touches on other topics we have discussed in class as well, writing that they are \u201cpractically the only music in America which meets the scientific definition of Folk Song,\u201d and warning that they should not be treated as \u201c\u2018minstrel\u2019 songs.\u201d<a class=\"sdfootnoteanc\" href=\"#sdfootnote1sym\" name=\"sdfootnote1anc\"><sup>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ztVoWTRoyMc?version=3&#038;rel=1&#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><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Following his statement on folk music, he writes:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cSuccess in singing these Folk Songs is primarily dependent upon deep spiritual feeling. The voice is not nearly so important as the spirit; and then the rhythm, for the Negro\u2019s soul is linked with rhythm, and it is an essential characteristic of most all the Folk Songs.\u201d<a class=\"sdfootnoteanc\" href=\"#sdfootnote1sym\" name=\"sdfootnote1anc\"><sup>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here Burleigh seems to be arguing for an authenticity in both the feeling behind a performance and the presentation of the performance as rooted in the history of spirituals as black music.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the other hand, he elaborates on his warning not to treat spirituals as minstrel songs with the following:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIt is a serous misconception to . . . try to make them funny by a too literal attempt to imitate the manner of the Negro in singing them, by swaying the body, clapping the hands, or striving to make the particular inflections of voice that are natural with the colored people. Their worth is weakened unless they are done impressively . . .\u201d<a class=\"sdfootnoteanc\" href=\"#sdfootnote1sym\" name=\"sdfootnote1anc\"><sup>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Obviously trying to make a serious song comical undermines it, but I was struck by the extent to which Burleigh connects an unworthy and unimpressive presentation directly with how literally black performance practice is imitated. \u201cSwaying the body,\u201d \u201cclapping the hands,\u201d and singing in dialect are all things that St. Olaf\u2019s choirs, for example, do in an effort to present the music with \u201cdeep spiritual feeling,\u201d as Burleigh encourages earlier. He also writes, \u201cthe voice is not nearly so important as the spirit,\u201d yet he implies that the very things here connected to the spirit take away from the spirituals\u2019 worth. Though he is discussing making a song comical, he strongly suggests that imitation of black performance practice itself is antithetical to an impressive performance.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4389\" style=\"width: 268px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2019\/10\/default.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4389\" class=\"wp-image-4389 \" src=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2019\/10\/default-208x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"258\" height=\"367\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4389\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">H. T. Burleigh&#8217;s note in <i>Negro Spirituals: Oh Peter Go Ring Dem Bells<\/i><a class=\"sdfootnoteanc\" href=\"#sdfootnote1sym\" name=\"sdfootnote1anc\"><sup>1<\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maybe this is simply because black performance practice at the time could not be separated from minstrel comedy. This could allow for the St. Olaf choirs\u2019 use of elements of black performance practice in a time when it is no longer so directly connected to minstrelsy in audiences\u2019 ears. However, Burleigh was also a major part of the movement to \u201clegitimize\u201d black spirituals by arranging them in a Western classical style. Given this, he could have indeed viewed the \u201cspirit\u201d he talks of as needing to be presented through a white musical context in order to give it legitimacy. On the other hand, if he was writing for a white audience, his message may have been at least partly motivated by his not wanting imitation of black performance practice by non-black performers. Whatever the reasons for the specific performance considerations he discusses, though, this short statement on black spirituals shows some of the many complexities that accompany their performance.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote1\">\n<p class=\"sdfootnote\"><a class=\"sdfootnotesym\" href=\"#sdfootnote1anc\" name=\"sdfootnote1sym\">1 <\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Burleigh, H. T. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Negro Spirituals: Oh Peter Go Ring Dem Bells<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Sheet music. New York: G. Ricordi, 1918. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Temple University Libraries, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/digital.library.temple.edu\/digital\/collection\/p15037coll1\/id\/5379\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/digital.library.temple.edu\/digital\/collection\/p15037coll1\/id\/5379<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cOh, Peter, Go Ring Dem Bells.\u201d YouTube video, 1:20, posted by Marian Anderson &#8211; Topic, Nov 8, 2014, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ztVoWTRoyMc\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ztVoWTRoyMc<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In searching through the Sheet Music Consortium, I came across several spirituals arranged by H. T. Burleigh. These publications, such as Oh Peter Go Ring Dem Bells,\u00a0include a note written by Burleigh about spirituals, in which he describes them as &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2019\/10\/16\/h-t-burleigh-on-the-performance-of-black-spirituals\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3314,"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":[1069,157],"class_list":["post-4388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-african-american-spirituals","tag-h-t-burleigh"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-18M","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4388","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\/3314"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4388"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4893,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4388\/revisions\/4893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}