This might well be the most important book on the subject, and it certainly is obligatory reading for all choral conductors and devotés of the spiritual – that font of American musical identity.
 
Dr. Thomas is the Owen F. Sellers Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Tallahassee’s Florida State University, previously on the faculty of the University of Texas-Austin.  His education was secured in his hometown of Wichita, at Friends University (B.M.E.), Northwestern University (M.M., piano), and the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana).  He surveys a vast body of choral literature with the skills of a first-rate musicologist and bibliographer, totally satisfying the implications of the book’s subtitle, which make up the two main areas of his study.  In the process, one is struck by what must be the extent of his library since every title was individually and carefully examined.

The first section is historical, indicating the transition from the oral tradition to the treatment of major figures, grouped chronologically by historical periods.  Portraits and biographic sketches on the individuals are provided.  The second section addresses matters of performance, going into specific details that confront any performer engaged in this repertoire. 

Within those areas is a direct confrontation with the matter of dialect and the performance of spirituals by non-Black performers.  This matter arose in the August review in this publication of Philip Brunelle’s recordings.  A writer quickly expressed anxiety that the diction by someone not immediately from this culture could result in innocent caricature, but Dr. Thomas puts that concern to rest.  Not unrelated is the splendid CD of Dr. Armstrong’s in works of William Dawson by his campus chorus at St. Olaf (and available from that school), which beautifully exemplifies the treatment.  In fact, the book does not shy away from other-race matters – although the emphasis is understandably on African American matters – as the contributions of Robert Shaw, Alice Parker, and Roy Ringwall are not ignored.

The first part is illustrated by excerpted quotations from the settings of Moses Hogan, R. Nathaniel Dett, Undine Moore, Hall Johnson, and other giants, while the second section reprints in full works by Dawson, Hogan, Thomas, and Stacey Gibbs. 

The back matter provides 30 pages of settings, arranged alphabetically, of spirituals by 53 figures, indicating title, setting, ranges, publisher and year of issue, and even the publisher’s catalog number, all of which is repeated with a chart by title.  This treatment would have been impossible without actual contact with the publications.  An extensive bibliography, back notes, and selected citations of audio and visual resources conclude the publication.

One reservation can be stated.  It is customary to indicate those who set spirituals as arrangers (if in fact, the work bears only the label of “traditional”).  In other applications, an arrangement refers to an existing work that is totally reset for different performing forces, such as Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an exhibition, originally for piano, of Stokowski’s use of Bach now with a lavish orchestra.  In these instances, however, nothing else is added to the original music by the arranger.  In the case of the spiritual, it is only a melody that is borrowed – the harmonization is that of the “arranger”.  We would never regard Bach’s treatment of Lutheran chorale preludes as only arrangements.  In some circumstances ignoring the originality of the composer demeans the contribution, to the discredit of the person who composed the setting. 

That by no means diminishes the unqualified significance of Dr. Thomas’ important work.

Dominique-René de Lerma
Lawrence University