An Introduction to America’s Music

CHAPTER 4 | REGIONAL DIFFERENCES IN ANTEBELLUM BLACK MUSIC MAKING 93

spirit and sound of the music at an Election Day gathering there in 1756, noting

its difference from white musical customs: “Every voice in its highest key, in all

the various languages of Africa, mixed with the broken and ludicrous English,

fi lled the air, accompanied with the music of the fi ddle, tambourine, banjo and

drum.”

Another holiday for Northern blacks was known as the “Pinkster Celebra-

tion,” held at Pentecost, seven Sundays after Easter. Pinkster festivities could fi ll

several days. An account of one such celebration in Albany, New York, during the

1770s recalls a dance that lasted from noon until midnight or later. The danc-

ers’ movements gradually grew more “rapid and furious,” fueled in part by their

date: unknown

performers: The Richard Allen Singers;

Theodore King, precentor; recorded in 1992

genre: traditional African American lined

hymn

meter: undefi ned

form: strophic

Listening Guide 4.2 “Am I a Soldier of the Cross?” ANONYMOUS

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR

• call and response between precentor and
  congregation


• free ornamentation of melody


• wordless interjections within and between
  lines of text

Listen & Refl ect

1. Compare this performance with that of the Old Regular Baptists singing “Guide Me,
   O Thou Great Jehovah” (see LG 1.3). What are some similarities and differences?

timing text comments

0:00 Am I a soldier of the cross,

A follower of the Lamb,

The precentor intones the fi rst two lines of text. Nonverbal

responses begin almost immediately.

0:10 Am I a soldier... The congregation sings the fi rst two phrases of the hymn

tune.

0:58 And shall I fear to own His cause,

Or blush to speak His Name?

Over the last notes of the congregational singing, the

precentor speaks the third and fourth lines of text.

1:07 And shall I fear... The congregation sings the third and fourth phrases of the

tune.

1:53 Before the fi rst stanza is ended, the precentor can be heard

intoning the beginning of the second stanza as the recording

fades.

note: The recording fades out after the fi rst stanza.

CD 1.13

Pinkster Celebrations

172028_04_086-105_r2_vs.indd 93 23/01/13 10:07 AM