Reflections

I started playing violin when I was nine years old. While I have had a curiosity about music, throughout my playing career, I have never had an opportunity to study music by musicians and composers who look like me, an African American female. Over the past few years, I have had opportunities to perform classical music in predominantly Black churches. I have attended workshops where I was the only African American violinist in the ensemble. I have adjudicated assessments and served as guest clinician for elementary, middle, and high school ensembles where there were no African Americans (or women) composers on the program.
I attended a music conference and enjoyed a performance by the Moses Hogan Chorale. It was this phenomenal experience that gave me a glimpse into the beautiful profundity of the spirituals. The stories and the history in the text and harmonies of the spiritual caused me to beeline to every available source validating the presence and contributions of African Americans.

As an educator, I incorporated my knowledge of spirituals in my curriculum. I loved making the connection from the music of enslaved people of color of the 17th century to the music of present-day. I have even explored music and musical instruments of countries in the early centuries with my students. We – the students and I – were in awe of the legacy of music and music making from the peoples of old. Museum visits solidified the visuals of our research. I gave my students an opportunity to perform at a church with a predominantly Black congregation, where they also had the option of sitting in the service to get a first-hand look (and listen) at the Black church, especially the music.

Having explored the music of ancient people of color before the exploration of “The New World” and music of enslaved people of color during the onset of colonization, I am realizing that there is a disconnect of information pertaining to the music of early Black. Your research bridges the gap, further defining the wonderful musical contributions of early Black Americans. A thorough compilation of your research on one site makes the information accessible, complete with art and music examples from highly-regarded sources like the Library of Congress. I know this project will be an asset and resource to many for generations to come.

Bringing early black music into my classroom has been an overall positive experience that I have enjoyed. Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to introduce early black music in several different musical spaces including the general music classroom, choral ensembles, and the orchestral ensembles. I have always felt as though teaching this kind of music comes with a deep sense of responsibility and gravitas to make sure that its origins are honored and respected.

I have mainly shared African American spirituals with my students because they perfectly illustrate the strength and hope of black people throughout history. Despite the horrific treatment of black people since the founding of the country, African Americans have persevered and even created beauty in the face of unimaginable hardship. I also have enjoyed the fact that a lot of the African American spirituals can and should be performed at any time of the year and are not confined to just black history month. I would encourage other educators to do the same.

If I could go back in time and adjust a few things about those lessons, I would like to add an easy one-page fillable document into the students’ music folders that helped give the students a little more context through discussion and listening while also offering them something tangible that they could reflect on in the future for each of those wonderful pieces of music.

Though they aren’t early in the sense of what is reflected in this website (pre-civil war), one of the most frustrating challenges of teaching choral spirituals, is that you spend so much time teaching students proper vocal technique and vowel shapes on traditional western music, yet when applied in the context of early black music, it changes the overall feel and sound to mimic a more European style. While I always loved the idea of introducing this music to students, I also felt that it became somewhat inauthentic when those traditions were superimposed on early black music. I would love to see more curriculums out there that talks about how to teach early black music not just musically (notes & rhythms), but stylistically as well.