Worksong
Worksongs (German: Arbeitslieder ) are songs by Afro-Americans who were deported from West Africa as slaves to the southern states of the later USA since the 17th century . They were mainly sung in the cotton fields at work, originally as improvised alternating chants between the lead singer and the group without instrumental accompaniment . Together with spirituals and gospels and other styles of African American music , they form an essential root of blues and jazz .
Form, content, purpose
Work songs were sung a cappella - without instrumental accompaniment - and not notated, but improvised. They were only carried out orally (handed down orally) and changed constantly with the work of the slaves. They therefore had only a few fixed formal elements such as the call and response : a leader gave a spontaneously invented melody line, and the working group ( choir ) responded immediately. This created a strong rhythm that guided the workflow. On the one hand, he maintained the concentration of each individual and, on the other hand, ensured better coordination of movements, distracted all singers from the monotony of the work, facilitated their common movement sequences and thus increased their stamina. Often the same well-known melodies were underlaid with new texts for new work in order to keep the group that had already been incorporated together.
species
The particular forms of work used by slaves in the United States gave rise to different types (genres) of work songs:
- Fieldhollers : loud chants sung in the cotton and corn fields
- Chaingang Songs : songs by inmates, especially those from the state prisons in the state of Mississippi ( parchment farms ), in whose penal system the prisoners had to do field work. This style was also sung by groups of prisoners, the so-called chain gangs , in the quarries and during road works.
Related to it are also:
- Herding Songs : To calm cattle herds on the cattle drive during the night, the cowboys sang songs that have their origins in the lullaby .
- Cattle calls : Small and large cattle were lured with certain sequences of syllables and tones that were based on the sounds of the animals.
Singers and their repertoire
Original texts of work songs before 1880 have hardly survived. Most of the melodies still known today go back to the work song renaissance of the 1950s and 1960s and have already been changed there. Typical representatives of the songs of mainly colored prisoners were the lead singer Huddle Ledbetter , called Leadbelly (1885-1949) and his guitar accompanist Blind Lemon Jefferson (1893-1929). Their songs were collected and published by white folklorists John and Alan Lomax (father and son) in the 1950s . Some typical of these songs are:
- Long John : It is believed to have originated in West Africa.
- Stewball goes back to an 18th century English ballad.
- The Gray Goose is originally an ancient slave song before 1865.
- Take This Hammer , whose melody is almost identical to a spiritual, became a protest song in the 1960s and is also known in folk music.
- I'm on My Way to Canaan's Land is a spiritual.
- Irene, Good Night is an English folk song similar to Good Night, Ladies .
- Cotton Fields is another old slave song.
- Cotton needs a picking comes from the USA, where it was mainly sung by slaves in cotton fields.
- The Midnight Special was probably a song that was sung at secret Bush meetings .
- The Rock Island Line was sung while the rock was being removed.
- Go Down Old Hannah is similar to the spiritual Go down Moses .
- Nye Gba (Pull!) From South Africa
- I'm Working My Way Back Home is already the individualized blues version of a work song. B. by Robert Johnson in the 1930s.
A well-known example of a work song that has become a hit is Harry Belafonte's Banana Boat Song .
history
The creation of the work songs is closely linked to the history of slavery in the USA . Afro-Americans had to work for white men on cotton plantations , but also in cities in the United States , since around 1660 . In contrast to the Catholic and syncretistic colonies of South and Central America, the predominantly Protestant North Americans of northern European origin largely forbade them to practice their own music. Drumming , in particular, was considered “ pagan ” and, according to the fear of the slave owners, could serve to communicate with blacks from a distance, for example for attempts to break out or rebellions.
So the slaves only had song as a means of expression. Some slave drivers ( drivers ) allowed them quiet songs ( quiet songs ) to sing as long as they are not turned against slavery. These songs made the workflow easier and served to cheer up by expressing feelings together, similar to the singing of galley slaves or prisoners ( chain gangs ). The lyrics of the songs , also called Plantation Songs , dealt with the daily life of the slaves and had no religious content. The work accompanied in this way was z. B. harvesting and collecting cotton blossoms in the fields, shoveling ditches, chopping wood, loading freight, hammering planks, lighting steam boats, hauling boulders, laying railroad tracks and others.
With the prohibition of the international slave trade in 1808 and the abolition of slavery in the USA in 1865, racist oppression, discrimination and disadvantage of black North Americans were far from over. It was only with the Christian revival movement that began around 1850 that some bans were relaxed. Blacks were now allowed to sing and dance together without drum accompaniment in Sunday services or other gatherings - the praise hours . Even at secret meetings ( camp meetings , bush meetings ), singing together was in the foreground in order to express and share joy, suffering and hopes.
The oldest work songs still known today come from the 1880s: They were the so-called shanties (from chant : "song") of the slaves on the Georgian coast that were adopted in Virginia , North and South Carolina . Many of these melodies were seamlessly incorporated into the later spirituals and gospels , so that from there one can draw conclusions about the character of the work songs. Often they simply provided the well-known corn ditties ("little corn songs ") with new, this time religious texts and gave them a stronger rhythmic basis by stamping their feet and clapping their hands. But also the sacred texts primarily expressed the common situation and the fate of the slaves.
From this musical tradition, the blues and later jazz developed, which used many of their musical elements - e. B. improvisation, call-and-answer scheme, speech melody, text content, expression - have recorded and preserved.
In the 1960s, white civil rights activists and casual workers roamed the southern states again, collecting and rediscovering many of the old chain songs of black prisoners, giving them new lyrics and making them known on their tours: Southern folk is also an offshoot of the early work songs.