White choirs shouldn’t sing spirituals

by August Linton

The last time I sang in a choir concert, I felt uncomfortable singing one particular piece of music from the repertoire. The song was “Everybody Rejoice (A Brand New Day)” from the soundtrack of iconic 1970s movie musical “The Wiz.” It wasn’t that the notes stretched my voice, or that the melody was hard to remember. Rather, it was the historical context of the song which made me think twice about performing it; as a white person in a majority-white choir. 

For those who aren’t familiar with “The Wiz,” it’s a 1978 retelling of “The Wizard of Oz” starring Micheal Jackson, Diana Ross, Nipsey Russel, and Lena Horne. Hailing from Brooklyn rather than Kansas, the Dorothy in this adaptation is whisked away from a Thanksgiving dinner to an Oz more city than rolling field. The musical accompaniment to her adventure is influenced by Disco, Soul, and R&B. 

The song in question was brought to my choir by the director and upon reading the lyrics I almost immediately had misgivings about singing it, given the lyrics’ explicit allusions to the end of slavery in the U.S. and its connection to spirituals as a musical genre. An excerpt from those lyrics follows.

Everybody look up

And feel the hope that we’ve been waiting on

(Everybody’s glad)

(Because our silent fear and dread is gone)

…

Hello world

It’s like a different way of living now

(And thank you world)

We always knew that we’d be free somehow

In harmony

Let’s show the world that we’ve got liberty

It’s such a change

For us to live so independently

Freedom, you see

Has got our hearts singing so joyfully

It seems undeniable to me that these lines are an explicit reference to slavery, the deliverance from which I am uncomfortable celebrating via such a personal medium as singing as someone who benefits from its legacy. 

This isn’t the only time I’ve had these misgivings. Choral singing as a whole seems to me to have a problem with cultural appropriation. There are entire genres of choral music which appropriate the musical traditions of minority groups while tokenizing their non-western styles. 

As a member of a state-level auditioned choir in 2016, I was asked to sing “Witness,” an arrangement of traditional American spiritual “Who’ll Be a Witness for My Lord,” by white composer Jack Halloran. Various other western choral arrangements of traditional African, Latin American, and Asian songs similarly leave me with an appropriative taste in my mouth. 

The musical heritage of Black Americans in the wake of slavery, especially, shouldn’t be taken by the choral world for its musical value without first considering what power structures are at play. 

Everybody look up

And feel the hope that we’ve been waiting on

(Everybody’s glad)

(Because our silent fear and dread is gone)

Hello world

It’s like a different way of living now

(And thank you world)

We always knew that we’d be free somehow

In harmony

Let’s show the world that we’ve got liberty

It’s such a change

For us to live so independently

Freedom, you see

Has got our hearts singing so joyfully