Gospel Spirituals (con't)
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Because of the importance of the textual content,
gospel singers started a revival of interest in the spiritual during the
World War II and Martin Luther King, Jr. eras. In the midst of these
periods of severe hardships and struggles, the gospel song, like the spiritual
during slavery, was a source of strength and vided twentieth-century gospel
singers with words that were strong in their spiritual convictions and
carried a message of the social pressures and frustrations that had burdened
black Americans since slavery. Such a revival of interest serves
to connect and pressures and frustrations that had burdened serves to connect
and preserve an oral tradition passed down from the earliest existence
of the spiritual that continued through the 1940s.
Three sections of the spirituals’ texts frequently
borrowed for the texts of gospel songs are the chorus, an incipit, and
part of an inner verse. In addition to these direct borrowings, gospel
texts often substitute or omit some of the original words (see Appendix
A).
“Oh, Give Way, Jordan” is found in the collection
Hampton and Its Students, 1874, 1875, 1878.(5) There are two parts,
the chorus:
Oh, give way, Jordan, Oh, give way, Jordan
Oh, give way, Jordan, I want to go across to
see my Lord
and the stanza:
Oh, I beard a sweet music up above
I want to go across to see my Lord
An’ I wish dat music would come here,
I want to go across to see my Lord.
A gospel song of the 1950s, “Oh, Get Away, Jordan”,
borrows only the text of the chorus. It is sung in a call and response
style:
CALL: Get away
RESPONSE: Get away Jordan
CALL: Get away
RESOPNSE: Get away on chilly Jordan
CALL: Get away
RESPONSE: Get away Jordan
ALL: I want to cross over to see my Lord.
Some of the words of the spiritual are omitted
or substituted. The original text, “Oh, give way, Jordan, I want
to go across to see my Lord, “becomes in the gospel song, “Get away, Jordan,
I want to cross over and see my Lord.”
The second stanza appears as follows:
Oh, stow back de powers of hell,
I want to go across to see my Lord
And let God’s children take de field,
I want to go across to see my Lord
I want to go across to see my Lord
Now stan’ back Satan, let me go by,
I want to go across to see my Lord
Gwine to serve my Jesus till I die,
I want to go across to see my Lord.
“Stow back” means to shout backward.”(6)
This term is used in reference to the religious dance that was an integral
part of the early folk church worship. This shout ceremony took place
after the main part of the service:
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