360 - Protest and Praise: Sacred Music of Black Religion

Protest and Praise: Sacred Music of Black Religion

By Jon Michael Spencer

Minneapolis, Fortress, 1990. 262 Pp. $14.95.

Long before African American history was documented in written form, the realities of life were expressed and transmitted through a natural human form, the oral tradition. For people who view life holistically, there is an inseparable connection between rhythm of the cosmos, rhythm of human life, and rhythmic expression. For an African people, the unity of various life rhythms finds corporeal expression most naturally in music and motion, more specifically song and dance. The African oral tradition includes, in essence, music, words, and actions which chronicle history. Through an analysis of the music, words, and actions, a researcher may determine the role that music played in the life and struggles of a people. Herein is the foundation for Protest and Praise.

Jon Michael Spencer provides evidence of serious and thorough scholarship as he relates the liberation struggles of African Americans through the window of sacred songs. "Sacred," in this volume, denotes music that is worthy of respect, thus, sacred to black religion. He begins the documentation with spirituals, affirming this song form as the prototype of the music of African American religion. In each chapter, Spencer examines the extent to which songs, forged out of and because of the black experience, reflect the theology of liberation.

The book is divided into two major sections with five chapters in each section. Part one covers the "protest song," and part two examines the "praise song." Musical genres identified as "protest songs" include the spiritual, antislavery hymnody, social gospel hymnody, civil rights songs, and blues. Song forms identified as "praise songs" are the ring shout, tongue-song, Holiness-Pentecostal music, [Black] gospel music, and chanted sermon. As the titles indicate, two of the musical genres, antislavery hymnody and social gospel hymnody, have their origins in Euro-American rather than African American traditions. They are included because "they are sacred to the Black tradition." The other chapters refer to musical genres that originated with or were shaped and claimed by African Americans.

Music topics of each chapter follow a detailed "major title," each of which reflects the unique socio-historical context out of which the music evolved. The reader is able to follow the theological approach used by the author to analyze the contents of the chapter. For example, chapter one is entitled "Promises and Passages: The Exodus Story Told through the Spirituals." One can anticipate that liberation themes of Scripture will be used to interpret the meaning of certain spirituals.

 

362 - Protest and Praise: Sacred Music of Black Religion

The author proposes to tie the chapters of the book together by a methodology that combines the disciplines of musicology and theology. Through this process, "theomusicology," the author incorporates methods of anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, and philosophers.

While the role that African American music has played and continues to play in chronicling the liberation struggles of African Americans has been documented previously, Spencer is to be commended for sequencing this information in one document. It is also significant that the sacred music of African Americans, understood as both protest and praise, is set forth in a single volume. His "Exodus Story Told Through the Spirituals" is fresh and exciting. His theological analysis allows a holistic interpretation of data.

Evidence of Spencer's research skills is apparent in his historical documentation of antislavery hymnody. These "songs of the free" broaden an appreciation for non-Blacks who advocated for the abolition of slavery from a theological perspective in poetry and hymnody. It is significant to note the number of women poets among the abolitionists.

The author's underscoring of the relationship between traditional spirituals and freedom songs of the civil rights movement is helpful. In keeping with the "oral tradition," spirituals as a folk music idiom continue to provide the momentum for communal unity. People of God can voice concern for the exigencies of life as a form of protest, yet voice hope as they praise God for the liberation that God will surely give!

Spencer is to be commended for his exploration of various musical styles of African origin, which are manifested in highly emotional religious services. Many of these forms, adapted and shaped through earlier periods of struggle for liberation, continue today. This careful documentation provides evidence of the influence of the African oral tradition on contemporary Christian religious rites and forms. Students of theology and history will find this data helpful for future research.

MELVA WILSON COSTEN

Interdenominational Theological Center
Atlanta, Georgia