90-52

Eileen Guenther, author of In Their Own Words: Slave Life and the Power of Spirituals, offers some insight on using the book as an effective resource.

On this text's ability to save time and increase relevance in service:

There are two concordances listing 100 of the most frequently-sung Spirituals that will be of immense help to those planning worship. One gives the texts of the Spirituals, paired with the biblical verses relating to those texts, and the other is the reverse: listing Bible passages and the Spirituals that are connected with them. They will save musicians and clergy a lot of time as they choose music that relates to the scripture used in a given service.

Guenther’s book is organized into three main parts. The first is about the beginnings of spirituals, including various influences, characteristics and performance practice, origins and justifications (of the time) for slavery, slave interviews and testimonies, Christian religion and slavery, slave owners' control of slave religion, and slave preference for their own religious practice. Part Two deals with aspects of slave life, and is, at times, very emotional to read. Subjects include: the big house and the master; life in the slave quarter; the most vulnerable (women, children, the elderly, families, mulattos); slave work; slave rituals; slaves bought and sold; control of slaves; rebellion; and escape. Part Three features spirituals after the Civil War, including famous early arrangers Harry T Burleigh, James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, Nathaniel Dett, Hall Johnson, and William Dawson, as well as later arrangers including Moses Hogan, André Thomas, Rollo Dilworth, and Rosephanye

Understanding the issues around cultural appropriation is one of the most prominent subjects being discussed by musicians around the country today. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with well-known conductors Anton Armstrong and André Thomas, as well as writer Eileen Guenther to discuss this important topic and discuss the use of Spirituals in particular. This discussion addresses subjects like the appropriate use of dialect, the history of the spiritual, as well as why this body of literature is so important.

We're looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones at the upcoming National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM) conference in Baltimore in just a few short weeks! From July 9-13, MorningStar & E. C. Schirmer will have a booth at the event, and partner with NPM to present several sessions that are great opportunities for Catholic musicians to come together and learn from one another.

We are especially excited to sponsor local clinicians Dr. Eileen Guenther to share her knowledge and passion regarding Spirituals and their roots in slave narratives, and Dr. Stephen Caracciolo to share his expert techniques for successful choral conducting.

Showcases

MSM-90-52

Eileen Guenther's groundbreaking study of slavery and spirituals is the first to place the unique voices of an enslaved people squarely within the context of their daily lives. Dr. Guenther's deeply researched account weaves a succinct history of “America’s original sin” into an examination of the role of singing and religion in slave life and directly correlates slave testimonies—in their own words—to the themes of Spirituals. In addition to surveying the musical styles, performance practices, and melodic and rhythmic characteristics of spirituals, In Their Own Words includes a biblical concordance to 100 of the spirituals