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Digitized Publications of Spirituals from the Nineteenth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 November 2023
Extract
Compilers and editors of hymnals and scholars of hymnology have often lacked suitable tools for identifying the earliest sources of spirituals, or even key sources that serve as models for later arrangements. In the twenty-first century, the development of internet-based repositories of digital books has enabled the ability to search for publications of spirituals using strings of lyrics or keywords, but more importantly, these repositories allow researchers to examine the relevant sources and glean contextual information about those spirituals beyond what might exist in any list or index. Although African slaves had been present in North America since 1619, this unique musical artform was not considered a national treasure worth preserving and publishing until the onset of the Civil War, thus any study of sources of antebellum plantation spirituals really begins at the end of that era and moves forward from there. In order to understand the problem and the digital solution to tracing these songs, a brief overview of the longstanding publishing standard will be presented, followed by an overview of older research materials, then a detailed examination of three existing repositories (HathiTrust, Google, Internet Archive), and one forthcoming repository (Sounding Spirit). The publications located in these repositories have been tied together through a pair of web-based bibliographies at Hymnology Archive, covering the years 1862–1900 and 1901–1942.
- Type
- Digital Resource Review Article
- Information
- Nineteenth-Century Music Review , Volume 21 , Special Issue 1: Clara Schumann: Changing Identities and Legacies , April 2024 , pp. 195 - 204
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press
References
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13 A couple of existing repositories with digitized sheet music folios include the African American Sheet Music Collection at Brown University, https://library.brown.edu/cds/sheetmusic/afam/about.html, and IMSLP Petrucci Music Library, https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Spirituals.
14 Twenty-Two Years’ Work of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (Hampton: Normal School, 1893).
15 For these and other variants, see Chris Fenner, ‘Were you there when they crucified my Lord’, Hymnology Archive,28 January 2019, rev. 15 February 2021), www.hymnologyarchive.com/.
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25 Participating institutions include Emory University, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, University of Kentucky, Middle Tennessee State University, University of Michigan and Brown University.
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