Sinner, Please Don’t Let Dis Harves’ Pass: Exploring Performance Practices in Solo Repertoire to Lessen Trepidation in the Study of Negro Spirituals

Negro Spirituals were first performed on stage and made famous by the Fisk Jubilee Singers. However, Negro spirituals were historically sung by singers of many different ethnicities. The academic study of the American Negro Spiritual as it relates to diction and text-music relationships must be approached with the same respect and care as someone studying Beethoven, Barber, and Brahms. Respected scholars compare our process of learning grammar and pronunciation in foreign languages and urge us to mirror the process to spirituals in order to understand the dialect. The hesitation to study spirituals then, perhaps stems from cultural appropriation and fear of exaggerating or mocking the dialect when singing the spiritual. According to multiple scholars like Lourin Plant, we currently see fewer spirituals sung by non-black singers than in previous years. The conversation of “Who should sing spirituals?” is becoming more common. My goal is to curate resources to aid in the understanding of the etymology of American Negro Spirituals and provide historical context to illustrate the idea that people of all backgrounds have performed these songs on the stage. This brings us to now, where we can continue performing these songs on the stage. Negro spirituals are songs whose history and style should be studied by anyone. Through the power of education, we can overcome our fear of appropriation and preserve this important art form as an integral part of the American Classical Art Song canon.