Art and Culture

Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments: What are Spirituals?

KWBU | By Robert Darden

Published October 23, 2016 at 10:51 AM CDT

On this episode of Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments, Robert Darden explores what spirituals could have sounded like. The technology to record these songs was nonexistent during the 1800s, but versions of the spirituals were sung in the 20th century.

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Robert Darden

Robert F. Darden is the author of two dozen books, most recently: Nothing But Love in God’s Water, Volume II: Black Sacred Music from Sit-In to Resurrection City (Penn State University Press, 2016); Nothing But Love in God’s Water, Volume I: Black Sacred Music from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement(Penn State University Press, 2014); Jesus Laughed: The Redemptive Power of Humor(Abingdon Press, 2008), Reluctant Prophets and Clueless Disciples: Understanding the Bible by Telling Its Stories(Abingdon Press, 2006); and People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music(Continuum/Bloomsbury, 2004).

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