African American Music

At the 19^th century, African-American were free from the slavery following the American Civil War. And their music was a combination of Scottish and African roots, like the African American gospel that display the polyrhythm and other uniquely African traits. The work chants and fiddle hollers were also renowned, but it was spirituals that became a major beginning for the music in the 20^th century.

source of picture: wikis.nyu.edu

Spirituals (or Negro spirituals, as they were then recognized) were Christian chants, led by the passionate and earthy choral are similar to the church music of Scotland, which were done in an African-pattern and Scottish pattern known as the call-and-response method using the hymns originated from the sung in colonial New England choirs, which were based on the Moravian, Dutch and English church music. These hymns extend to the south through the Appalachia in the late 18^th century and they were partnered with the African slaves. During the Great Awakening of the religious dedication during in the early 19^th century, spiritual throughout the south, among some of the whites, slave music increased speedily famous, particularly after the American Civil War, when black and whites soldiers worked together and the Southern slaves migrated to the north in a large numbers. In the end of the 19^th century, minstrel concerts had extended throughout the country, and even to the continental Europe. In the minstrel concerts, artists copied slaves in crude caricatures, singing and dancing to what was known as Negro music, however it had little in common with authentic African American traditional patterns. The African American type of dance, which is known as the cakewalk also became famous, changing into the ragtime by the beginning of the 20^th century.