So You Want to Sing Spirituals

In So You Want to Sing Spirituals (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019), soprano and music historian Randye Jones, who supervises the media room at Burling Library, gathers into one resource information musicians will find pertinent to developing an understanding of the vocal style. The history of spirituals — from their folk song roots, through their transformation to choral and solo vocal concert performance, to their development into art song — is followed by a discussion of the lives and recorded works of several composers who have contributed significantly to the spiritual art song repertoire. Jones also delves into the performance practice of spirituals, especially when and how to use dialect.

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