Songs of ALL TIME

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 36, 17 February 1939, Page 9

Songs of ALL TIME

WHEN in October 1871, an octet of negro vocalists started out on a tour with the object of raising funds for the extension of Fisk University, a new page in niusical history was begun. ‘These eight fine singers, who became known as the isk Jubilee Singers, were to take the ‘‘songs of their people’? through America, Great Britain, and some coun- _ tries of Europe. They were to , delight Queen Victoria, other ""Crowned Heads of Europe,’’ statesmen and aristocrats, commoners, and artists of all kinds. Since then the negro spirituais have become popular all round the world, and later bands of Fisk Jubilee Singers travelled even farther afield and visited the Antipodes, and were heard with enthusiastic acceptance all over New Zealand. To this day our old folk talk ecstatically about these negro nomads of song. Primitive Dignity it is, of course, pardonable to smile at the naivete often exhibited in the words, as one negro writer reminds us, but it should be remembered that in scarcely no instance was anything humorous intended. When it came to the use of words, the maker of the song was struggling as best he could under his limitations in language, and perhaps, also under a misconstruction or misapprehension of the facts in his source of material, generally the Bible. And often, like his more literary poetic brothers, he had to do a good many things to get his rhyme in. But almost always he was in dead earnest, and this much must be con-ceded-the songs were clothed in primitive dignity. In a number of these songs there are leads, a response and a chorus -and the chorus becomes’ the most important part, dominating the whole song and coming first. Such a song is the well-known *Steal Away to Jesus," in which the congregation begins with the chorus, singing it in part harmony: Steal away, steal away, Steal away to Jesus. Steal away, steal away home, I ain't got long to stay here. Then the leader alone, or the congregation, in unison:Aly Lord He calls me, He cails me by the thunder: The trumpet sounds it in my soul. Then the response in part harmony:- . I ain't got long to stay here. The Jubilee Singers spent no less than eight months in Germany, and moved the _ severely-critical "Berliner Musik-Zeitung" to a pitch of enthusiasm. Of "Steal Away," this journal said: "What a wealth of shading! What accuracy of declamation! Such a ‘pianissimo,’ such a ‘crescendo,’ and a ‘decrescendo’ as those at the close of ‘Steal Away’ might raise envy in the soul of any choirmaster." The song "Steal Away to Jesus" is one of the negro’s grandest contributions to. music-once heard, understood and appreciated, it is never forgotten. 2YA listeners will hear the Jonson Negro Choir sing "Steal Away to Jesus," on Monday, February 20.