An Introduction to America’s Music

90 PART 1 | FROM COLONIZATION THROUGH THE CIVIL WAR

Penitentiary at Parchman, interviewed in the 1940s by folklorist Alan Lomax,

recalled of one leader: “He had a good voice, and he was an extra good worker.

And the main thing about it, he would keep it, keep his song in time.”

In 1959 Lomax recorded a group of retired stevedores singing one of their

work songs. “Carrie Belle” (LG 4.1) was also used in the fi eld as a song for chop-

ping or hoeing. The subject matter of the lyrics indicates that at least parts of

the song postdate slavery, but the musical devices match earlier descriptions of

African American work songs. The vocal parts display call and response, accom-

panied by a forceful exhalation (“huh”) on each pull of the rope. This simple

texture is made more interesting by a rhythmic detail that suggests an African

infl uence: the pulling of the rope is not on the downbeat but on the third beat

of each four-beat bar, creating a kind of syncopation, the accenting of a beat

or part of a beat that is usually unaccented. This feature, common in African

American work songs, can also be interpreted as a kind of polyrhythm, in which

the voice’s downbeat (“Carrie Belle.. .”) falls in one place, and the downbeat of

the ropes falls in another.

The melody of “Carrie Belle” is pentatonic, and the group harmonizes their

responses using notes of the pentatonic scale. But some of the pitches bend—

especially the third degree of the scale—in a way that came later to be a trait of

the blues.

REGIONAL DIFFERENCES IN ANTEBELLUM

BLACK MUSIC MAKING

Black music making in North America before the Civil War varied with the con-

ditions in which African Americans lived. The most dramatic difference existed

between the North, where slavery was sparse, and the South, where it was

entrenched.

THE NORTHERN UNITED STATES

By 1786 Pennsylvania and all states north except New Jersey had either abolished

slavery or decided how they would do so. Blacks formed only a small minority

of the population in the North. They worked alongside whites, though seldom

accepted as social equals, and were able to enter some skilled trades.

Sacred Music in the North

In both North and South, religion loomed large in black-white relations. Whites

disagreed about whether blacks should be Christianized, especially if they were

slaves. Some believed that religious teaching would help reconcile slaves to their

lot and make them more obedient, but others feared such instruction. Gener-

ally, however, Christian leaders favored the conversion of blacks. New York’s

Trinity (Anglican) Church was one place where evangelizing took hold early. In

1741 Trinity’s organist, Johann Gottlob Klemm, instructed forty-three Negroes

in psalmody. And two years later, the church’s minister wrote that when the

clerk rose to lead the congregation in psalm singing, “I can scarce express the

satisfaction I have in seeing 200 Negroes and W hite Persons with heart and voice

glorifying their Maker.”

LG 4.1

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