Never has there been a more urgent time to foster cultural humility, diversity, and community dialogue while addressing systemically exclusionary teaching practices in vocal music. Singing Down the Barriers offers readers from all ethnic backgrounds a space in which to better understand the historical and cultural barriers to researching, programming, and performing repertoire by composers from the African diaspora. Emery Stephens and Caroline Helton present a pedagogical guide for singers, singing teachers, students, and administrators that will assist not only with programming but also in creating sustainable, brave spaces for critical conversations on race, equity, and American music. The book is divided into three parts: Part one presents historical context for African American song from the 19th century to the 21st century. Part two examines the culture of academic institutions and provides a framework for positive change. Part three provides strategies to foster integrated communities that can explore this repertoire with respect and mutual support as well as ways to incorporate Afrocentric music into the canon. This book is a seminal resource for higher education, community music programs, private studios, and beyond, and will help support DEI initiatives for vocal music programs.

Drawing on 30 years of teaching experience, author Timothy Cheek demonstrates how a university lyric diction class—traditionally specialized and Eurocentric—can become transformative, through engaging students with other languages and cultures, and promoting diversity, equity, inclusivity, and antiracism. Raising new possibilities for traditional lyric diction pedagogy, this book explores how to provide students with experiences that speed their growth, help them to see the big picture, spark their curiosity, clarify and expand their digital resources and skills, and set them on a path of international collaboration. Arguing against compartmentalization in voice curricula, and exploring opportunities for creativity, the author provides a guide to new approaches that will aid schools’ decisions about diction curricula in the challenging but promising era of 21st-century pedagogy. Voice faculty, diction instructors, curriculum committees, graduate students in related fields, and music school administrators should all find this book insightful and thought-provoking as it goes to the heart of issues critical to the long-term development of today’s voice students.

Spirituals originated among enslaved Africans in America during the colonial era. They resonate throughout African American history from that time to the civil rights movement, from the cotton fields to the concert stage, and influenced everything from gospel music to blues and rap. They have offered solace in times of suffering, served as clandestine signals on the Underground Railroad, and been a source of celebration and religious inspiration. Spirituals are born from the womb of African American experience, yet they transcend national, disciplinary, and linguistic boundaries as they connect music, theology, literature and poetry, history, society, and education. In doing so, they reach every aspect of human experience. To make sense of the immense impact spirituals have made on music, culture, and society, this bibliography cites writings from a multidisciplinary perspective. This annotated bibliography documents articles, books, and dissertations published since 1902. Of those, 150 are books; 80 are chapters within books; 615 are journal articles, and 150 are dissertations, along with a selection of highly significant items published before 1920. The most recent publications included date from early 2014. Disciplines researched include music, literature and poetry, American history, religion, and African American Studies. Items included in the annotated bibliography are limited to English-language sources that were published in the United States and focus on African American spirituals in the United States, but there are a few select citations that focus on spirituals outside of the United States. Of the one thousand annotations, they are divided, roughly evenly, between: general studies and geographical studies; information about early spirituals; use of spirituals in art music, church music, and popular music; composers who based music on spirituals; performers of spirituals (ensembles and individuals); Bible, theology, and religious education; literature and poetry; pedagogical considerations, including the teaching of spirituals as well as prominent educators; reference works and a list of resources that were unavailable for review but are potentially useful. This book also offers considerable depth on particular topics such as the Fisk Jubilee Singers and William Grant Still with over thirty citations devoted to each. At the same time, materials included are quite diverse, with topics such as spirituals in Zora Neale Hurston’s novels; bible studies based on spirituals; enriching the teaching of geography through spirituals; Marian Anderson’s historic concert at the Lincoln Memorial; spiritual roots of rap; teaching dialect to singers; expressing African American religion in spirituals; Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s music; slave tradition of singing among the Gullah. The book contains indices by author, subject, and spiritual title. Additionally, an appendix of spirituals by biblical reference, listing both spiritual title to scriptural reference as well as scripture to spiritual title is included. T. L. Collins, Christian educator, compiled the appendix.

With their rich and complicated history, spirituals hold a special place in the American musical tradition. This soul-stirring musical form is irresistible to singers seeking to diversify their performance repertoire, but it is also riddled with controversy, especially for singers of non-African descent. Singer and historian Randye Jones welcomes singers of all backgrounds into the style while she explores its folk song roots and transformation into choral and solo vocal concert repertoire. Profiling key composers and pioneers of the genre, Jones also discusses the use of dialect and other controversial performance considerations. Contributed chapters address elements of collaborative piano, studio teaching, choral arrangement, voice science, and vocal health as they apply to the performance of spirituals. The So You Want to Sing series is produced in partnership with the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Like all books in the series, So You Want to Sing Spirituals features online supplemental material on the NATS website.

Your music can be filled with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit! The Rebirth of Music is quickly becoming a classic in its presentation of the Bible's major emphasis on music. You will discover why music is mentioned 989 times in the Scriptures and why God places such a major priority on it. Some of the topics include: Music - Where does it come from? Music and satan Which music is of God? Music in Heaven - What will it be like? Music in warfare and in healing "I highly recommend The Rebirth of Music to anyone involved in music ministry or anyone who simply wants to better understand music's role in our lives according to Scripture --Phil Driscoll

(Music Pro Guide Books & DVDs). Most choirs spend their rehearsal time focusing on notes, rhythms, and precision. They rarely, if ever, discuss a song's meaning and feeling, even though those elements are precisely what draws people to the music in the first place. Thousands of books have been written about choral technique, teaching people how to sing technically well. What sets The Heart of Vocal Harmony apart is its focus on honest unified expression and the process of delivering an emotionally compelling performance. It delves into an underdeveloped vocal topic the heart of the music and the process involved with expressing it. The Heart of Vocal Harmony is not just for a cappella groups it is also for vocal harmony groups, ensembles, and choirs at all levels, with or without instruments. In addition to the process, the book features discussions with some of the biggest luminaries in vocal harmony: composers, arrangers, directors, singers, and groups including Eric Whitacre, Pentatonix, the Manhattan Transfer, and more!

The relatively recent "worship wars" over styles of worship — traditional, contemporary, or blended — have calmed down, and many churches have now reached decisions about which "worship style" defines them. At a more fundamental level, however, change has yet to begin. In From Memory to Imagination Randall Bradley argues that fallout from the worship wars needs to be cleaned up and that fundamental cultural changes — namely, the effects of postmodernism — call for new approaches to worship. Outlining imaginative ways for the church to move forward, this book is a must-read for church leaders and anyone interested in worship music.