Saturday, February 9, 2008

Spirituals ... with a Japanese twist

This is really neat - The Alumni Glee Club of North Japan College, founded in 1957, under the direction of Victor C. Searle, singing Black Spirituals. The director had come under fire for the pronunciation of the words, but his argument was, this music was passed down from generation to generation, and was a manifestation of the suffering the black slaves had undergone whilst in the service of their white masters, so they were pronouncing the words as they knew how, given that they would also be learning how to speak English.

I think this is amazing work, and worth a listen.


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