Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    We Look Back and Sing!: A History of the Spirituals
    We Look Back and Sing!: A History of the Spirituals
    We Look Back and Sing!: A History of the Spirituals
    Ebook30 pages9 minutes

    We Look Back and Sing!: A History of the Spirituals

    By Willie Mae Jordan

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Many years ago, during the slave trade, people were taken away from their families and all they knew in Africa. As the slaves lay shackled in the holds of ships and traveled unwillingly to American soil, they moaned, grunted, and cried. But despite their sorrow, the slaves had not forgotten the music and beats of their African homeland. It was not long before their moans and cries were transformed into original folk melodies now known as spirituals.

    Willie Mae Jordan, a well-known mezzo-soprano and music educator, shares a fascinating history of spirituals tailored for curious children. Jordan focuses on how spirituals were created, the ways slaves used words through song to convey messages of freedom, how soloists and their audiences came together in call and response style, how spirituals became connected to the Bible, and how slaves gathered to worship in spite of their endless work.

    We Look Back and Sing! shares a musical and historical narrative for children with the hope that the beautiful melodies created by slaves hundreds of years ago will prevail for the duration of humanity.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchway Publishing
    Release dateDec 15, 2014
    ISBN9781480803947
    We Look Back and Sing!: A History of the Spirituals
    Author

    Willie Mae Jordan

    Willie Mae Jordan is a mezzo-soprano who earned a bachelor’s degree in music at Virginia State College and a master’s degree in music at Eastern Michigan University; she also did post-graduate study in Graz, Austria. She has performed across the eastern United States, was profiled on the CBS Sunday Evening News in 1993, and has taught students of all ages. She is currently writing a children’s book series about the history of African American music.

    Related to We Look Back and Sing!

    Related ebooks

    Children's For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Edge Walker

      Feb 20, 2019

      Edge Walker
      19 min read

    • Article

      ‘A Problematic Past’: How My New Piece Commemorates Amazing Grace

      Jul 20, 2023

      How do you commemorate something without celebrating it? It’s a question I found myself asking when faced with a recent commission, a request for a composition to mark the 250th anniversary of the sermon that became known as Amazing Grace. On the fac

      4 min read

    • Article

      Joy Harjo

      Aug 23, 2019

      You found your voice as a poet in 1973, a time when a lot of Americans found theirs. How much was that a factor? I didn’t set out to be a writer. I was shy, quiet, and I loved art because I didn’t have to speak with anyone. At one point, my spirit sa

      2 min read

    • Article

      Gutbucket

      Feb 27, 2024

      Gutbucket
      18 min read

    • Article

      For Love Of The Beat!

      Jul 7, 2021

      For Love Of The Beat!
      3 min read

    • Article

      Nature Is Metal

      Feb 4, 2021

      Nature Is Metal
      5 min read

    • Article

      My Back Pages

      Jan 5, 2021

      My Back Pages
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Oshun of Beyoncé

      Feb 27, 2024

      The Oshun of Beyoncé
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Song Starts In My Body

      Nov 1, 2022

      I wanted to see her body. I’m aware it sounds strange, even lurid. What I wanted was to see her read her poetry, and her body reading it. Something about Rukeyser’s writing made me feel that she was at home in her flesh, and I wanted to see her lovin

      21 min read

    • Article

      On Humpback Whale Song And Poetic Constraint

      Jul 1, 2023

      It was not until February that I heard them. Minor tones underwater. Plaintive. Asking for others to hear. Hear and not to act. To witness the wonder of the ways in which light and sound travel and still underwater. I felt it in my pituitary gland fi

      14 min read

    • Article

      Allison Russell

      Jan 5, 2024

      There’s so many Joni records that have been deeply formative and influential for me as a musician and a writer and a human, but the reason I picked Ladies Of The Canyon is because that’s tied to my first musical memory. It was my mum’s favourite reco

      4 min read

    • Article

      Is this Land Your Land?

      Mar 25, 2022

      Is this Land Your Land?
      18 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for We Look Back and Sing!

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      We Look Back and Sing! - Willie Mae Jordan

      Copyright © 2013, 2014 Willie Mae Jordan.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      Archway Publishing

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.archwaypublishing.com

      1-(888)-242-5904

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1