There is indeed a wonderful power in some of these songs, and the
charm undoubtedly lies in the fact that they are founded on Bible
texts.
No one questions the remarkable hold the genuine negro music has upon
the Anglo-Saxon race, as is evidenced by the success of the Jubilee
singers years ago and of the Hampton students now. The negroes have
simply used the weird African melodies as a fascinating vehicle for
Bible truths.
Most students of English hymnology have observed a similar fact in
their own religious poetry. One of the most powerful devotional hymns
in the language--How Firm a Foundation, ye Saints of the Lord--is
largely indebted for its perpetuity to the fact that almost every line
is taken directly from the Bible.
To illustrate the power of this music upon the colored people
themselves, I may be permitted to give this little bit of personal
experience:
A few nights ago I went to pay a visit to an old "mammy" from
Charleston. All her family sat round the room when they found I was
from the South. The eldest daughter said: "Bress de Lord! I'm glad to
see you! The Norf am no place for people what's been used to
eberyting. Nuffin but wuk, wuk, wuk; all's jes money. No fun, nor lub,
nor Jesus Christ nowhar! Why, dey'll jes meet you and pass de time ob
day, and dey'll let you go away widout eber stoppin' to ax yer ef
you's prepared to die, and how's your soul. Why, I neber seed no
stranger in Charleston 'thout axin' 'em how's der soul comin' on? De
niggers heah ain't got no Holy Spirit and dey is singing no 'count
songs--dese white songs from books."
At this juncture I quietly began to sing, "I don't want to be buried
in de Storm." Suddenly they all began to sing and pat with me, and
quickly adapted their different versions to mine. They lost no time in
getting happy. They all jumped up and down in a perfect ecstasy of
delight, and shouted, "I feel like de Holy Spirit is right on my
hade!"
Another one exclaimed: "People! dem songs makes de har rise up. Mine
a-risin' now."
We all had a good time, and I felt greatly complimented when the head
of the house explained enthusiastically: "You does shore sing 'em
good; and for a white lady you is got a good deal ob de Holy Spirit in
you, honey"; and before I left the house they had tried to convince me
that God has surely blessed this music by taking a hand in forming it
himself.
We find many of the genuine negro melodies in Jubilee and Hampton Song
Books, but for the uninitiated student of the future there is little
or no instruction given, and the white singer in attempting to learn
them will make poor work at their mastery; for how is he, poor fellow,
to know that it is bad form not to break every law of musical phrasing
and notation? What is there to show him that he must make his voice
exceedingly nasal and undulating; that around every prominent note he
must place a variety of small notes, called "trimmings," and he must
sing tones not found in our scale; that he must on no account leave
one note until he has the next one well under control? He might be
tempted, in the _ignorance_ of his twentieth-century education, to
take breath whenever he came to the end of a line or verse! But this
he should never do. By some mysterious power, to be learned only from
the negro, he should carry over his breath from line to line and from
verse to verse, even at the risk of bursting a blood-vessel. He must
often drop from a high note to a very low one; he must be very careful
to divide many of his monosyllabic words in two syllables, placing a
forcible accent on the last one, so that "dead" will be "da--_ade_,"
"back" becomes "ba--_ack_," "chain" becomes "cha--_ain_."
[Music:
1. Ma- ry and Marthy had a cha-_ain_--Walk Jerus'lem jis like Job! An' a
2. I tell you bredderin, fur a fac'-- Walk Jerus'lem jis like Job! If you
3.Some says Pe-ter and some says Paul-- Walk Jerus'lem jis like Job! But dey
eb'-ry link was a Je - sus Na-_ame_! Walk Jeru-s'lem jis like Job!
ebber leabs de debbil you musn't turn back! Walk Jeru-s'lem jis like Job!
ain't but one God saves us all-- Walk Jeru-s'lem jis like Job!