Full Description
With their rich and complicated history, spirituals hold a special place in the American musical tradition. This soul-stirring musical form is irresistible to singers seeking to diversify their performance repertoire, but it is also riddled with controversy, especially for singers of non-African descent. Singer and historian Randye Jones welcomes singers of all backgrounds into the style while she explores its folk song roots and transformation into choral and solo vocal concert repertoire. Profiling key composers and pioneers of the genre, Jones also discusses the use of dialect and other controversial performance considerations. Contributed chapters address elements of collaborative piano, studio teaching, choral arrangement, voice science, and vocal health as they apply to the performance of spirituals.
The So You Want to Sing series is produced in partnership with the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Like all books in the series, So You Want to Sing Spirituals features online supplemental material on the NATS website.
Contents
Chapter 1: What Are Spirituals?
Chapter 2: From Cotton Field to Concert Hall
Chapter 3: Pioneers of the Concert Spiritual
Chapter 4: Song Literature
Chapter 5: Using Dialect in Performance
Chapter 6: Must You Be Black to Sing Spirituals?
Chapter 7: Collaborating with Pianists, Casey Robards
Chapter 8: African American Art Song, Emery Stephens & Caroline Helton
Chapter 9: Spirituals: Interpretative Guidelines for Studio Teachers, Barbara Steinhaus
Chapter 10: Choral Arrangements of Spirituals, Patricia J. Trice
Chapter 11: Spirituals: America's Contribution to World Sacred Music, Timothy W. Sharpe
Chapter 12: Gaining Perspective: A Linguistic Approach to Dialect, Felicia Barber
Chapter 13: Singing and Voice Science, Scott McCoy
Chapter 14: Vocal Health for Singers, Wendy LeBorgne
