Spirituals

There were at least four factors in 17th and 18th century American life that formed a backdrop for the creation of the spirituals. These factors were (1) the African tradition of singing and dancing which recorded the events that defined the culture, (2) conversion of the slaves to Christianity, (3) spiritual possession and/or ecstatic experience in African religions, and (4) revivals/ camp meetings of the 18th century.

The work of missionaries from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts ( SPG) was a second factor in the development of the spiritual. The Church of England formed the SPG in 1701 to provide missionaries for the colonies in the New World . Conversion of the slaves to Christianity was an essential component in the development of the spirituals because it was the means by which the slaves developed a religious faith that could be expressed and practiced in the New World . Biblical events and quotations also provided safe texts for their songs. Missionaries began the conversion process when they urged planters, despite their resistance and disinterest, to contribute to the Christian education of their slaves. On some plantations, slaves were required to attend Sunday services with the owners, albeit with segregated seating. They learned the hymns and psalms as they participated in the services. The hymns were particularly appealing to them because, in contrast to the psalms, the texts were poetic and the tempo, rhythm and mood were more spirited. There were instances when slaves even led the singing and became exhorters. When they were permitted, the slaves held their own religious services during the week. These services incorporated the flexible structure of the religious rites and secret society rituals in their homelands, variations of the hymns learned at the Sunday services they attended, and the spirituals which were of their own creation. It should be noted, however, that conversions by the missionaries were far from general until the revival movement in the South later in the 18th century.

The ecstatic experience influenced the spirituals in a number of ways. One was religious dancing, known as the shout. Because slaves were forbidden to use instruments, particularly drums, they used spirituals to accompany the shouts. These spirituals reflected the unflagging pulse and rhythmic energy in the shout. Spiritual ecstasy was also expressed in obbligatos and other vocables improvised from cries, hollers, and moans uttered by the slaves while in the throes of the ecstatic experience. "Call and response" structure was particularly useful in the spirituals that accompanied the shouts because the leader could keep the song going as long as was necessary for the ecstatic experience to run its course. The form developed from the practice of a leader "calling out" a phrase or a verse and being answered with a response sung by the rest of the worshipers.

Because of the close association of music with dance, most spirituals are in simple duple meter. Body-swaying from side to side and foot patterns involving the two feet found both in the "Ring Shout" and secular dances were strong contributing factors. Tempo was determined by the text, function, and mood of the song. The context of the performance also was a contributing factor. There appear to be no other unique characteristics in the categories of meter and tempo.

Rhythm and the characteristics engendered by rhythm appear to be more important than melody in African music and in the spirituals. The contributing reasons are several. First is the strong influence of dance and the resulting movements of the head, shoulders, arms, hands, hips, legs, and feet. Each movement of a part of the body, or of the entire body, led to the creation of rhythms unique to the particular functioning member. Africans, and later African-Americans, combined several of these often uneven, always diverse, rhythms in an additive process, creating a trait which is described in western nomenclature as polyrhythm.