Deep River

Deep River, Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho, and Steal Away were some of my favorite childhood songs. Subsequently, I grew an immense appreciation for the Negro Spiritual that inspired my love for classical music. These songs were divinely inspired as an act of rebellion of the spirit that voiced, managed, and released emotion. Often described as “haunting melodies,” these slave songs had the uncanny ability to express both the psychological and physical condition of their performers, resulting in Negroes’ stories of resilience, hope, and despair. The Negro Spirituals collectively preserve the history, sadness, joy, and hope of the enslaved Africans’ experience in the Americas. Characterized by invention, ingenuity, and improvisation, Negro Spirituals are the original folk songs of the New World, an oral tradition passed down to provide order amid chaos.

The 16th century saw the beginning of the horrific transportation of enslaved African people to the Americas. Those who survived the brutal journey found themselves sold into the harsh and inhumane conditions of the American system of slavery. The American Negroes were isolated and separated from their cultural heritage, communal language, tribal relationships, and customs. To grapple with the trauma of slavery, African Americans collectively created these songs of sorrow to fabricate a sense of order in their tumultuous and incomprehensible situation.

Despite that, sorrow was not the only motivation for these songs. Enslaved Africans used the power of their voice through song and dance to tussle with despair and death, and to affirm their moral agency in a cruel world. Spirituals had the therapeutic gift to lift the singer and listener out of their depression and help them attain a sense of peace. This ability corresponds with the ancient Greek “doctrine of the affections,” a widely accepted belief that music had the ability to elicit a specific emotional response within its listener. Spirituals were intentionally sung to ignite the passions of the listener, to carry within their intoxicating tones the capability to balance our humors (energies), provide catharsis, promote overall well-being, and deliver a deep sense of spiritual content.

After the Civil War, from the late 18th century onwards, Black individuals and communities asserted their agency, challenged dominant narratives, and contributed to various fields including literature, art, and music. A pivotal figure in the movement, African American baritone singer and composer Harry Thacker Burleigh (1866–1949) codified the preservation and popularization of the Negro Spiritual. His groundbreaking collection, The Negro Spirituals (1917) displayed the beauty and emotional depth of these songs while also making them accessible to wider audiences. Burleigh helped to elevate Spirituals from the realm of folk music to that of concert music, cementing their significance in American musical history, ensuring that these powerful expressions of faith, resilience, and freedom would be celebrated and cherished for generations to come.

In this same manner, American lyric tenor and composer Roland Hayes (1887–1977) was one of the first African Americans to break racial barriers and achieve international recognition as a classical vocalist. Despite facing racial discrimination, Hayes performed widely across Europe and the United States. Hayes often included Spirituals in his concert repertoire, contributing to the success and celebration of the Negro Folk Song. The Spiritual continued to develop in a variety of classical forms at the turn of the 20th century through African American composers William L. Dawson (1899–1990) and Margaret Bonds (1913–1972). Bonds frequently used the pentatonic scale and syncopation in her compositions as in the opening of her Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho. During the height of the Harlem Renaissance, Bonds collaborated with prominent poets and writers, including Langston Hughes, to create acclaimed works that reflected the African American experience. Additionally, Moses Hogan (1957–2003) was renowned for his innovative choral arrangements that brought new life to traditional African American songs, earning him widespread recognition and influence in the world of choral music.

All these composers used distinctive compositional techniques in their arrangements that are essential to the unique sounds of Black music such as syncopation, polyrhythms, improvisation, repetition, and call and response. Additionally, the texts of the Plantation Songs speak not only of the Black condition, but also of the human condition at various stages of life, making them all-inclusive of humanity. As W.E.B. Du Bois writes in The Souls of Black Folks, “The Negro folk-song — the rhythmic cry of the slave — stands today not simply as the sole American music, but as the most beautiful expression of human experience born this side the seas.” These first songs of the New World remain true American treasures — historical, political, functional, and a living reality. Following in the steps of these revolutionary Black activists, I hope to elevate these collections of songs by realizing the Spiritual with Viol Consort. Though these folk songs were originally composed by a people of circumstance and in bondage, their message continues to speak of hope, justice, and the brotherhood of humankind drenched in unabashed God-given dignity. Spirituals are, at their heart, the sincerest form of human expression.

— Michael Walker II