MUS 240 - Ebony and Ivory: Spirituals and The Sacred Harp

FDR: HA Fine Arts Distribution
Credits: 3

Forged in the furnace of chattel slavery, Negro spirituals combined African musical practices and the oral tradition of story-telling with texts from biblical sources to give voice to the sorrow and hope of the enslaved. At the same time, the white people of antebellum America were singing songs they learned in a tradition of written symbols dating back to Guido of Arezzo (ca. 1000 CE), codified and collected in oblong tune books, the most famous of which was The Sacred Harp of 1843. Through readings, listening assignments, films, student presentations, and in-class singing, we will explore the origins and legacies of spirituals and shapednote songs of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.