...John Howardton Smith Copyright © 1990 by Duke University Press 1990 22 Just Tell Others a n n: , r11 ,1 i 1 I tt1 1 1. Is Christ your Sav-iour pre- cious t:> your 2. If your soul has been washed in His Crim-son ~ eIi T?d rn91 w~ I I II r nl t~1,1 ~ I ~ f &~ & I ~ I soul; Do you serve Him...

...Jon Michael Spencer Jules Schwerin . Got to Tell It: Mahalia Jackson, Queen of Gospel . New York : Oxford University Press , 1992 . 204 pp. Copyright © 1994 by Duke University Press 1994 136 Black Sacred Music Jules Schwerin. Got to Tell It: Mahalia Jackson, Queen of Gospel...

...Paul Robeson Copyright © 1993 by Duke University Press 1993 Paul Robeson Tells Why He Will Not Star in Orthodox Operas Paul Robeson Critics have often reproached me for not becoming an opera star and never attempting to give recitals of German and Italian songs as every accomplished singer...

... Help me, help me, help me, Lord help me. When down in sorrow calling, Save men, God from falling. Speak the words of God's delight, Tell men how to come out of shame. Tell men how to be watchful. 3 Tell men how to be strong; Tell men how to be brotherly, Tell men how to be healed. Tell me, Jesus...

.... Death is neither an enemy nor an evil. It is what many of our forebears talked about in the words of that familiar gospel hymn: 0 they tell me of a home far beyond the skies, 0 they tell me of a home far away; 0 they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise, 0 they tell me of an unclouded day. 0...

... lives were sometimes honored and sometimes dishonored, but they were always connected to life in action-the life I lived. In this discursive world, history and culture were always already made and in the making through the stories of a living and loving presence, through the performed "telling" evoked...

... Angeles is "Jesus on the Main Line." The leader starts off with the "call" and the congregation gives the "response·· (italicized): Jesus on the mainline Tell him what you want (3X) Call him up and tell him what you want. If you want the Holy Ghost Tell him what you want (3X) Call him up and tell him what...

... perspective as the solution to the problem of black suffering. Instead, they sang, "Got the blues, and too dam' mean to cry." The blues depict the "secular" dimension of black experience. They are "worldly" songs which tell us about love and sex, and about that other "mule kickin' in my stall." They tell us...

... persists today amidst "inner-city" housing in large urban areas. Sylvester Monroe, in his book about growing up in the Robert B. Taylor Homes in Chicago during the sixties, tells of living conditions somewhat similar to those of the southern ex-slaves: the themes of despair, poverty, and being caged...

... at the third verse, Surely if you work on Sunday it's the Sabbath, you will surely be cursed. Read Hebrews 4 and 4, if you don't want to read no more, Read Acts chapter 16 and verse 13, tells how and where the Saints convened to meet on the Sabbath day To teach and hear what the word of God did say...

...John Howardton Smith Copyright © 1990 by Duke University Press 1990 58 Steal Away with Jesus I Steal away alone with Jesus, To some quiet lonely spot, Close the door on all intruders, There commune with Him alone. Tell Him all about your struggles, And the things that do annoy, He will help...

... Gawjay, But ah can' make it up in mah min'. 1. A stranger song in two modes at once. Appendix of Negro Songs 241 Now, ah done got me a Stetson hat, Now, ah done got me a Stetson hat, Now, ah done got me a Stetson hat, Ain' gwine tell you where I got it at. Don' never fool 'round no gamblin' game, Don...

...," because, like most of our artists, Lionel Hampton is alive to progress, and alert to the needs of the people of which he is a part. He has his finger on the pulse of the plain people-and most of us are plain people. There are more of us than of any other kind! Lionel Hampton, wise and observant, tells us...

... On dere knees. See fo' an' twenty elders On dere knees. 108 Black Sacred Music Refrain An' we'll all rise together An' face de risin' sun. Oh Lord, have mercy If you please. 5. Repetition of no lines: Go down Moses; Way down in Egypt Land. Tell ol' Pharoah, To let my people go! 6. Partly from literal...

... and went home. That's how important it was for a woman to have a child, and more important a male child. Yet, Isaiah takes this person, this despised and outcast individual, this woman who is looked down on in the eyes of the rest of society, and tells her to sing: "Sing, oh barren one, break forth...

... degrees in which recognition of these contributions to our common culture has been accorded to the Negro. For more than a century the Negro had been singing his Spirituals before their beauty and significance were recognized. For a still longer period the "ole folks" had been telling the plantation...

... black worship. "She was real close to God, very religious," recalls one of her musicians. "She always mentioned the Lord's name. That's why her blues seemed almost like hymns."16 Similarly, Don McLean tells of Josh White's ability to obliterate the barrier between the spheres of sacrality and secularity...

... by a desire to enflesh this spirituality, to enable others to perceive the vision that energizes and empowers 11. Jackson, 261-62. 12. Ibid., 272. 13. Ibid., 12-13. him, and in the process to transform people's lives with his art, with the stories that he sings and "tells": I've always wanted to be able...

... of meaning, significance, and application. The hermeneutical task is the heart of a theological approach and should be the primary aim of the theomusicologist- to ask the questions of meaning, of significance for one's life, of import for the reality of everyday existence. What does this composition tell me...

... of African-American music, whether sacred or secular, is the history of black peoples' attempt to name the world and to define their place in that world. Consistent with its African heritage, African-American music tells the story and the stories of black folk. Music tells the story of the historic struggle...