At the Symposium (Day 2–or is it 3?)
Tuesday was very busy. Last minute details that always seem to crop up. Sessions were interesting with lively discussion, especially a couple that dealt with Newfoundland musical history. My presentation came that afternoon. I’d put together a slideshow with pix and musical examples, then ended up not using most of it. Surprisingly, when I asked how many of the audience attendees had either studied or performed a spiritual, they all raised their hands. So, that changed the focus from presenting on the basics to getting into specific decisions on when I use dialect, choose to swing the melody and other stylistic considerations. We also talked a bit about some of the recordings and in-print music scores available–recommending both the Hall Johnson collection and Willis Patterson compilation. My audience was, as expected, all White, so we also dealt with the concern about non-Blacks singing spirituals. As I only had 30 minutes…
Burleigh canada Cantata Deep River Hale Smith hall johnson I Want to Die Easy John Carter music Newfoundland Red Barron singing spirituals St. John's symposium travel Willis Patterson