San Antonio College Library

Contains 30 well-known spirituals, arranged for voice and piano, and 6 modern compositions, 2 of which are arranged for male quartet.

This is the first examination of the background and meaning of the best known Negro Spirituals. A consideration of their texts shows the spirituals to be songs of faith, deeply rooted in affirmations and experiences from the Bible. Examining over twenty spirituals, the author shows how the early singers shaped and reshaped their biblical texts in the light of the Afro-American backgrounds out of which the songs emerged and the slavery situation in...