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Program Particulars
*Times indicated refer to web version of audio
(01:41–02:25) Music: "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"
This song was performed live by Joe Carter at Minnesota Public Radio.
(02:47–03:28) Music: "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" piano interlude
(03:33) Audio Clip of Wings Over Jordan
Wings Over Jordan was a renowned African-American choir formed in 1937 by Rev. Glen T. Settles in Cleveland, Ohio. The Wings Over Jordan choir was featured as a popular family radio program for the CBS network. The Wings Over Jordan Celebration Chorus was formed in 1988 to carry on the original group's mission.
(05:03) Reference to Sorrow Songs
Carter notes that there are an estimated 5,000 spirituals in existence, which were originally called "sorrow songs." In The Soul of Black Folk, W.E.B Du Bois devotes an entire chapter to "sorrow songs," describing them as "the rhythmic cry of the slave, the most beautiful expression of human experience, the siftings of centuries, the voice of exile."
(06:53–09:09) Music: "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen"
This song was performed live by Joe Carter at Minnesota Public Radio. Joe recounts a story told to him by the daughter of slave parents about emancipation day in which promises by the government went unfulfilled. According to legend, the song was born on this day.
(09:48–10:55) Music: "Poor Pilgrim of Sorrow"
(13:48) Music: "Standing in the Need of Prayer"
Carter recites lines from the spiritual "Standing in the Need of Prayer." In an excerpt from a book with the same title, the widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., Corretta Scott King, writes about how the prayer and song of African-American slaves became a spiritual lifeline for her and other civil rights advocates in the 1960s.
(14:42) Quote from James Weldon Johnson
The line cited by Krista, "the verging of the spirit of Christianity with the vestiges of African music" comes from James Weldon Johnson's 1925 anthology, The Book of American Negro Spirituals, the first published collection of Negro spirituals. Johnson published a second volume a year later.
(15:05) Religious Music in Africa
Music and religion were inseparable to many Africans. The Gullahs of South Carolina serve as a good example of the importance of this syncretic combination of Christianity and African rituals and traditions. Music played a dual role of spiritual exaltation and secret communication with other slaves in the community.
(17:35–18:45) Music: "Daniel in the Lion's Den"
This song was performed live by Joe Carter at Minnesota Public Radio. The Old Testament story mentioned can be found in the book of Daniel, chapter 6. According to the text, Daniel was a pious and wise youth who able to see visions of future events. King Nebuchadnezzar exiled Daniel and other prominent citizens to Babylon around 597 BCE. The following passage was excerpted from the Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures:
That very night, Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, was killed,
and Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two
years old. It pleased Darius to appoint over the kingdom one hundred
and twenty satraps to be in charge of the whole kingdom; over them
were three ministers, one of them Daniel, to whom these satraps reported,
in order that the king not be troubled. This man Daniel surpassed the
other ministers and satraps by virtue of his extraordinary spirit, and the
king considered setting him over the whole kingdom. The ministers and
satraps looked for some fault in Daniel's conduct in matters of state, but
they could find neither fault nor corruption, inasmuch as he was trustworthy,
and no negligence or corruption was to be found in him. Those
men then said, "We are not going to find any fault with this Daniel, unless
we find something against him in connection with the laws of his God."
Then these ministers and satraps came thronging in to the king and said
to him, "O King Darius, live forever! All the ministers of the kingdom,
the prefects, satraps, companions, and governors are in agreement that a
royal ban should be issued under sanction of an oath that whoever shall
address a petition to any god or man, besides you, O king, during the
next thirty days shall be thrown into a lions' den. So issue the ban, O
king, and put it in writing so that it be unalterable as a law of the Medes
and Persians that may not be abrogated." Thereupon King Darius put
the ban in writing.
When Daniel learned that it had been put in writing, he went to his
house, in whose upper chamber he had had windows made facing Jerusalem,
and three times a day he knelt down, prayed, and made confession
to his God, as he had always done. Then those men came thronging in
and found Daniel petitioning his God in supplication. They then approached
the king and reminded him of the royal ban: "Did you not put
in writing a ban that whoever addresses a petition to any god or man
besides you, O king, during the next thirty days, shall be thrown into a
lions' den?" The king said in reply, "The order stands firm, as a law of
the Medes and Persians that may not be abrogated." Thereupon they
said to the king, "Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah, pays no heed to you,
O king, or to the ban that you put in writing; three times a day he offers
his petitions [to his God]." Upon hearing that, the king was very disturbed,
and he set his heart upon saving Daniel, and until the sun set
made every effort to rescue him. Then those men came thronging in to
the king and said to the king, "Know, O king, that it is a law of the
Medes and Persians that any ban that the king issues under sanction of
oath is unalterable." By the king's order, Daniel was then brought and
thrown into the lions' den. The king spoke to Daniel and said, "Your
God, whom you serve so regularly, will deliver you." A rock was brought
and placed over the mouth of the den; the king sealed it with his signet
and with the signet of his nobles, so that nothing might be altered
concerning Daniel.
The king then went to his palace and spent the night fasting; no
diversions were brought to him, and his sleep fled from him. Then, at
the first light of dawn, the king arose and rushed to the lions' den. As
he approached the den, he cried to Daniel in a mournful voice; the king
said to Daniel, "Daniel, servant of the living God, was the God whom
you served so regularly able to deliver you from the lions?" Daniel then
talked with the king, "O king, live forever! My God sent His angel,
who shut the mouths of the lions so that they did not injure me, inasmuch
as I was found innocent by Him, nor have I, O king, done you any injury."
The king was very glad, and ordered Daniel to be brought up out of
the den. Daniel was brought up out of the den, and no injury was found
on him, for he had trusted in his God. Then, by order of the king, those
men who had slandered Daniel were brought and, together with their
children and wives, were thrown into the lions' den. They had hardly
reached the bottom of the den when the lions overpowered them and
crushed all their bones.
Then King Darius wrote to all peoples and nations of every language
that inhabit the earth, "May your well-being abound! I have hereby
given an order that throughout my royal domain men must tremble in
fear before the God of Daniel, for He is the living God who endures
forever; His kingdom is indestructible, and His dominion is to the end
of time; He delivers and saves, and performs signs and wonders in
heaven and on earth, for He delivered Daniel from the power of the lions."
Thus Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and during the reign
of Cyrus the Persian.
(18:55–21:02) Music: "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" piano interlude
(21:15) Gospel versus Spiritual
Negro Spirituals are sacred folk songs that were first sung by African Americans during their enslavement in the southern United States. The original composers are unknown, and the spirituals are considered to be collectively owned by the Black community. Because they are often used in communal singing, many spirituals are based on a call-and-response structure, in which a leader and a group conduct back-and-forth exchanges.
The gospel music tradition originated in the churches of the urban North in the early 1900s and can be directly traced to its roots in spirituals and the blues. Whereas spirituals have no identifiable composer, most gospel songs can be attributed to an individual. Gospel music fuses musical elements of both the spirituals and the blues, and incorporates extensive musical improvisation — using pianos, guitars, and other instruments as accompaniment.
(23:00) Music: "Let My People Go"
Carter often uses this song to teach children how spirituals were used by slaves as a way of flying in the face oppression.
(24:42) Music: "Steal Away"
This spiritual served not only as a song of transcendence and hope, but as a signal for escape.
(31:31) Music: "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me home,
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me home.
I looked over Jordan, and what did I see?
Coming for to carry me home,
A band of angels coming after me,
Coming for to carry me home.
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me home,
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me home.
If you get there before I do,
Coming for to carry me home,
Tell all my friends I'm coming, too.
Coming for to carry me home.
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me home,
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me home.
I'm sometimes up and sometimes down,
Coming for to carry me home,
But still my soul feels heavenly bound,
Coming for to carry me home.
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me home,
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me home.
The brightest day that I can say,
Coming for to carry me home,
When Jesus washed my sins away,
Coming for to carry me home.
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me home,
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me home.
(35:11–37:00) Music: "Wade in the Water"
Spirituals were a means for slaves to communicate. In many spirituals, the lyrics functioned as code, which disguised the slaves' yearning for freedom. The lyrics for "Wade in the Water" warned an escaping slave to get to the river, where bloodhounds would not be able to follow the scent.
(40:51–41:55) Music: "Motherless Child"
(44:43) Gershwin and the Spirituals
One of George Gershwin's best-loved musicals "Porgy and Bess" incorporated spirituals into the action of the plot. Gershwin went to Folly Island off the coast of South Carolina to observe the customs of the local people, the Gullahs, and listen to their music, using their "shouting" to create rhythms with hands and feet as accompaniment to the spirituals.
(45:41) Reference to the Robeson and Anderson
Paul Robeson, the son of a runaway slave, was considered by many a Renaissance man because of his athletic, academic, and artistic talents. He is most noted for his singing and acting, playing lead roles in Shakespeare's Othello and in O'Neill's The Emperor Jones, and is widely remembered for singing "Ol' Man River" in Showboat. He was an outspoken critic of racism and a supporter of socialism who would later be targeted by McCarthy and others during the Red Scare.
Marian Anderson is considered one of the great operatic voices of the 20th century. Although she gained international acclaim by the late 1930s — Arturo Toscanini once stated, "Yours is a voice one hears once in a hundred years." — Anderson would face discrimination in the United States through most of her life and was eventually invited to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in 1954.
(49:47–50:35) Music: "Be Ready When He Comes"
(50:47–52:32) Music: piano interlude from "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"
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