African American spiritual

Introduction African American Spirituals are considered the first distinctive music genre of African people in the American diaspora. These unique folk songs, born out of the substance and experience of an oppressive sociological environment combined with the natural musical gifts of African peoples in the American diaspora, subsequently became the foundation of ALL African American music forms. Their continued existence and usage around the world attests to the spiritual depth of their roots and the nature of their musical and poetic adaptability in any culture. According to scholarly research there are more than six thousand extant Spirituals independently catalogued (Lovell, 1972, p...

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