The newest installment of the popular Portraits in Song series is an exceptional collection of some of the most popular spirituals set by many of the finest arrangers of our generation. The solos can be performed in worship or recital. A brief explanation is offered for each of the selections and for the genre as a whole---creating an exceptional resource for worship or recital planning. Titles Include: Carry Me Home (Shafferman) * Every Time I Feel the Spirit (Hayes) * Give Me Jesus (Shackley) * Go Tell It (Sterling) * Here's One (Fettke) * Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho (Hayes) * Were You There (Shackley).

The newest installment of the popular Portraits in Song series is an exceptional collection of some of the most popular spirituals set by many of the finest arrangers of our generation. The solos can be performed in worship or recital. A brief explanation is offered for each of the selections and for the genre as a whole---creating an exceptional resource for worship or recital planning. Titles Include: Carry Me Home (Shafferman) * Every Time I Feel the Spirit (Hayes) * Give Me Jesus (Shackley) * Go Tell It (Sterling) * Here's One (Fettke) * Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho (Hayes) * Were You There (Shackley).

This first installment in the new Portraits in Song Series is an outstanding collection of hymnwriters and arrangers. Each of these solos may be performed separately, or -- paired with the brief biographical information -- together, creating an excellent recital or special worship program. Titles: * Amazing Grace (Althouse) * Blessed Assurance (Drennan) * Holy, Holy, Holy (Hayes) * I Sing the Mighty Power of God (Page) * It Is Well with My Soul (Page) * Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee (Larson) * My Life Flows On in Endless Song (Shafferman) * O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing (Wagner)

Fight On brings together three dynamic elements to tell the story of the African American Spirituals tradition: fifty-nine paintings from a series by Aaron F. Henderson, the lyrics of fifty-six spiritual songs, and narrative writings by scholars of art and culture, and Henderson himself. The elements come together to make this more than an art book, a lyric book, autobiography or cultural commentary. Fight On is a celebratory document of African American culture, giving evidence to how Black people in a nation that grew rich and powerful on the strength of their unpaid labor survived and liberated themselves.Two things have been a consistent in the life of Aaron F. Henderson: making art and listening to spirituals-at home, in church, and later in college. He has also always valued history, the scholarly work required to write it, and recognizes its power expressed in different ways, including music. Fight On reveals how music has served as medicine, spiritual sustenance and a means of communication for Black people in general, and himself in particular. He studies great African American thinkers, such as W. E. B. Du Bois who in The Souls of Black Folk called spirituals sorrow songs that "articulate messages of the slave to the world," messages of suffering, despair, freedom, faith, hope, and the power of the spirit. Henderson references Frederick Douglass who wrote about the double meanings in their words and how every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. The paintings in Fight On show us the spirit of Harriet Tubman who used the spirituals as a signal of her arrival to facilitate the escape of others by way of the Underground Railroad. The songs kept people working in the fields, on the railroads and marching during the civil rights movement. The songs are the foundation of Black music, i.e., blues, jazz, R&B, gospel, Rock & Roll, rap, and hip hop. Du Bois said it this way "by fateful chance the Negro folksong---the rhythmic cry of the slave---stands today not simply as the sole American music.

The way we worship becomes the way we believe, which in turn becomes the way that we think, interact and feel. No wonder worship is at the heart of so many controversies in the church. Paul’s teaching on psalms, hymns and spiritual songs explores the relationship between this familiar song triad and spiritual maturity, making the bold claim that worship can lead to unity rather than conflict and division. This book links Paul’s song triad with other scriptural triads in a way that radically changes the lens through which the practice of worship is viewed. Practical strategies and study make this book an essential individual or small group resource.

Exploding the assumption that black women's only important musical contributions have been in folk, jazz, and pop Helen Walker-Hill's unique study provides a carefully researched examination of the history and scope of musical composition by African American women composers from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Focusing on the effect of race, gender, and class, From Spirituals to Symphonies notes the important role played by individual personalities and circumstances in shaping this underappreciated category of American art. The study also provides in-depth exploration of the backgrounds, experiences, and musical compositions of eight African American women including Margaret Bonds, Undine Smith Moore, and Julia Perry, who combined the techniques of Western art music with their own cultural traditions and individual gifts. Despite having gained national and international recognition during their lifetimes, the contributions of many of these women are today forgotten.

Including thirty-nine pieces for voice and piano created since 1968 by eighteen artists, ANew Anthology of Art Songs by African American Composers navigates a varied musical terrain from classical European tradi­tions to jazz and spirituals. With nearly half of the featured songs composed by women and with others by lesser-known and emerging composers, this im­portant collection offers a diverse, representative sampling of African American art songs and works to secure the places of these songs and artists in the canon of contemporary American music.