The Spiritual Connection
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Lillian Richter’s “Spirituals” (circa 1935-43), Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
It’s been said that through adversity comes strength, and the way we deal with affliction defines who we are as human beings.
There may be no greater example than the African American spiritual, a deeply felt response to desperation in untenable circumstances, a grasping for hope, and a carefully disguised defiance of forced servitude. And somehow, through it all, flashes of humor and joy.
In this hour, some of the best-known spirituals and their appearance in instrumental and orchestral music, including Florence Price’s The Mississippi River and Antonin Dvorak’s New World Symphony.
FEATURED RECORDINGS
| Title |
Group/Artist |
Catalog # |
UPC |
| Seraph [for opening trumpet “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen”] |
Alison Balsam |
EMI Classic
6 78590 2 |
5099967859023 |
| American Spirituals, Folk-Songs [for “Go Down, Moses”] |
Willard White |
Chandos CHAN 8960 |
095115896020 |
| Uncovered, Vol. 2: Florence B. Price [for Negro Folksongs in Counterpoint for String Quartet: No. 1, “Go Down Moses”] |
Catalyst Qua |
Azica Records 71346 |
787867134627 |
| Lifeline - Music of The Underground Railroad[for “Wade in the Water.”] |
Michelle Mayne-Graves, Lifeline Quartet |
Yarlung Records YAR78677 |
193428786776 |
| Soulscapes [for “Troubled Water,” by Margaret Bonds] |
Maria Thompson Corley |
Albany Records TROY 857 |
034061085720 |
| The Best of the Moses Hogan Chorale [for “I Got a Robe”] |
Marletta Simpson, Moses Hogan Chorale. |
MGH Records
MGH-2581 |
750458258125 |
| Composers in New York [for Morton Gould’s Spirituals for Strings] |
I Musici de Montreal, Yuli Turovsky |
Chandos CHAN 9848 |
095115984826 |
| Book & CD: New Worlds of Dvorak [for piano of “Swing Low” and New World Symphony] |
Michael B. Beckerman |
W.W. Norton Company |
9780393047066 |
| Dvorak: Complete Symphonies |
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Paavo Jarvi |
Brilliant Classics 99572 |
0675754995724 |
| Summertime, [for “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” break] |
Isata Kanneh-Mason |
Decca 4851663 |
028948516636 |
| Old American Songs, Spirituals, Folk-Songs [for “Deep River”] |
Willard White, Graeme McNaught |
Chandos CHAN 8960 |
095115896020 |
| Coleridge-Taylor Clarinet Quintet, etc, [for “Deep River” from 24 Negro Melodies Transcribed for the Piano] |
Virginia Eskin |
Koch 3-7056-2H1 |
099923705628 |
| On My Journey Now: Spirituals & Hymns[for “Stand Still, Jordan”] |
Lester Lynch |
PentaTone
PTC 5186571 |
827949057168 |
| Price - Symphony No. 3, The Mississippi River |
ORF Vienna Radio Symphony, John Jeter |
Naxos 8.559867 |
636943989722 |
| Tippett: A Child of Our Time |
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir, Andre Previn |
RPO Records
CDRPO 8005 |
5011975800521 |
