A History of the African-American Spiritual

How the African-American Spiritual has maintained its integrity
in the face of major social and musical challenges

[Based on an article by Thomas Lloyd published in the August 2004 issue of the Choral Journal of the American Choral Directors Association; all rights reserved.]

11. William Dawson and the Emergence of Large Mixed Choirs in HBCU choral programs

During this same pre-war period, the professional touring ensembles from the HBCU schools (Historical Black Colleges and Universities) faced more of a struggle, affected not only by changing musical fashions, but by drastic budget retrenchment in their institutions brought on by the Depression. Fisk University itself decided to disband the Jubilee Singers in 1932 until their director, Henrietta (Mrs. James) Myers, formed a successful octet touring group and persuaded the university to stay the course.[1] Recordings of the octet under Mrs. Myers' direction[2] show the arrangements moving in a more choral direction. Meanwhile, the college began to develop a larger all-student mixed choir, as was the case at many other schools, such as the Hampton Institute under the Canadian-born composer R. Nathaniel Dett.

A major step forward in the performance of the spirituals by larger college choirs came with the leadership of William L. Dawson (1899-1990), who directed the Tuskegee Institute Choir in Alabama from 1931-55. Dawson began his tenure at Tuskegee by bringing a 100-voice college choir to perform at the opening of Radio City Music Hall in New York City for an entire week in 1932. Dawson’s arrangements and the sound of his choirs introduced a more vigorous style of singing the spirituals. In arrangements such as his Ezekiel saw de wheel, Ev'ry Time I feel the spirit, and Ain'-a That Good News! the rhythmic momentum of the song brings to mind the contemporary accounts of the slaves singing in a ring shout, where they "would make the dense old woods, for miles around, reverberate with their wild songs."[3] His trademark closing phrases are full of richly voiced extended harmonies that bring the accumulated rhythmic energy to an ecstatic conclusion:

 

Some of his arrangements of the slower songs, especially Steal Away explore unexpected harmonic regions and take on the character of an extended tone poem, looking at the same material from different points of view. In this, he was not unlike his contemporaries Hall Johnson and R. Nathaniel Dett, who were unafraid to let their musical training and imagination build highly original arrangements that went well beyond the simple harmonization of the folk melodies. An unusually large number of Dawson’s arrangements are still among the most performed of any composer in the choral repertoire, and remain models for many composers who have followed in the tradition.

Musical Example:

14. "Ezekiel Saw De Wheel," arranged by William L. Dawson, Tuskegee Institute Choir, William L. Dawson, director, on the album Spirituals, originally released on Westminster Gold/MCA Records WGM-8154, re-issued by MCA Records as CD MSD-35340.

Notes:

[1]Doug Seroff, "Mrs. James A. Myers, 1989 Gospel Arts Day Honoree: A Life devoted to the Spiritual," in Gospel Arts Day-Nashville, June 18, 1989, cited by Brooks 307.

[2]Document-Records DOCD-5535 tracks 9-29 (1935-1940).

[3]A recording of Dawson conducting the Tuskegee Institute Choir on the album Spirituals was originally released on Westminster Gold/MCA Records WGM-8154, re-issued by MCA Records as CD MSD-35340, currently available from Dawson’s publisher, Neil A. Kjos Music Co.