With their rich and complicated history, spirituals hold a special place in the American musical tradition. This soul-stirring musical form is irresistible to singers seeking to diversify their performance repertoire, but it is also riddled with controversy, especially for singers of non-African descent. Singer and historian Randye Jones welcomes singers of all backgrounds into the style while she explores its folk song roots and transformation into choral and solo vocal concert repertoire. Profiling key composers and pioneers of the genre, Jones also discusses the use of dialect and other controversial performance considerations. Contributed chapters address elements of collaborative piano, studio teaching, choral arrangement, voice science, and vocal health as they apply to the performance of spirituals.
The So You Want to Sing series is produced in partnership with the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Like all books in the series, So You Want to Sing Spirituals features online supplemental material on the NATS website.

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- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
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Subtopic
Folk MusicTable of contents
- List of Figures
- Series Editor’s Foreword
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Online Supplement Note
- 1 What Are Spirituals?
- 2 From Cotton Field to Concert Hall
- 3 Pioneers of the Concert Spiritual
- 4 Song Literature
- 5 Using Dialect in Performance
- 6 Must You Be Black to Sing Spirituals?
- 7 Collaborating with Pianists
- 8 African American Art Song
- 9 Spirituals: Interpretive Guidelines for Studio Teachers
- 10 Choral Arrangements of Spirituals: Birth and Perpetuation of a Genre
- 11 Spirituals: America’s Original Contribution to World Sacred Music
- 12 Gaining Perspective: A Linguistic Approach to Dialect Found in African American Spirituals
- 13 Singing and Voice Science
- 14 Vocal Health for Singers
- Glossary
- About the Author and Contributors
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Yes, you can access So You Want to Sing Spirituals by Randye Jones in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Media & Performing Arts & Folk Music. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.