Chapter VIII. Structural Features of the Poems; Funeral Music

CHAPTER VIII
STRUCTURAL FEATURES OF THE  POEMS— FUNERAL MUSIC

Improvization — Solo and Choral Refrain — Examples From Africa — Strange Funeral Customs — Their  Savage Prototypes — Messages to the Dead —  Graveyard Songs of the American  Slaves

 

\ \ The general structure of the simpler (and therefore
older) American songs shows a stanza containing an al-
ternating solo verse and refrain, with sometimes a chorus.
"The most common arrangement," say the editors of
"Slave Songs," in their directions for singing, "gives the
second and fourth lines to the refrain and the first and third
to the verse; and in this case the third line may be a
repetition of the first or may have different words. Often,
however, the refrain occupies only one line, the verse
occupying the other three, while in one or two songs the
verse is only one line, while the refrain is three lines in
length. The refrain is repeated with each stanza; the
words of the verse are changed at the pleasure of the
leader, or fugleman, who sings either well-known words,
or, if he is gifted that way, invents verses as the song goes
on. In addition to the stanza, some of the songs have a
chorus, which usually consists of a fixed set of words,
though in some of the songs the chorus is a good deal
varied. The refrain of the main stanza often appears in
the chorus."

There is nothing peculiar to these American folksongs
in this recurrent refrain, but it is worth noticing that the
feature in the form of an alternating line of improvization
and a reiterated burden is found throughout Africa^'Their
style is the recitative broken by a full chorus,'^ays Sir
Richard Burton, speaking of the people of the lake region

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STRUCTURE OF THE POEMS; FUNERAL MUSIC

of Central Africa. Carl Mauch, in his "Reisen in Svid-
Afrika" says of the music of the Makalaka that it usually
consists of a phrase of eight measures, repeated ad infinitum,
to which are sung improvized verses with a refrain. Walla-
schek cites Eduard Mohr^ as saying that the Damaras
rarely dance, in fact, only on extraordinary occasions; and
they sing together just as rarely, although fond of solo
singing, the words for which they extemporize, while the
refrains are taken up by a chorus. Wallaschek also says
{page 4), "The Balatpi reminded Weber* of Venetian gon-
doliers or of the lazzaroni in Naples. One would improvise a
stanza which others would immediately sing in chorus to a
charming melody. Each in turn improvises thus, so that
all have an opportunity of exhibiting their talents for
poetry and wit. The fact that all words ended in a vowel
sound simplified the extemporization of verses, which are
not invariably accurate as regards rhythm. The general
singing of these stanzas seemed to afford the greatest
amusement to the singers as they sat in a circle around
the campfire." In "Across Africa," by Verney Lovett
Cameron, C. B., D. C. L.,* we read this of the fortune-
telling by a fetich man: "On arrival he seated himself on
the ground, surrounded by his friends, and then commenced
a monotonous recitative. In this he accompanied himself
by shaking a rattle made of basketwork shaped like a
dumbbell, while the circle of attendants joined in a chorus,
sometimes striking their bells and at others laying them
down and clapping their hands in a kind of rhythmic
cadence."

Speaking of the Zulu-Kafirs, the Rev. Louis Grout says
in Chapter XIV of his book "Zulu-Land; or, Life Among
the Zulu-Kafirs of Natal and Zulu-Land":*

The most of their songs consist of only a few words, which they repeat
over and over again with such variations as their national taste and habit
or individual fancy may dictate. . ._ . Their songs often have a special
£tness for the occasion, as when a man in search of a cow goes humming:

» "Nach den Victoriafallen des Zambesi," I, 160.

* Ernst von Weber, "Vier Jahre in Afrika," I, 221.
» New York, Harpers, 1877.

* Philadelphia: The Presbyterian Publication Company, 1864.

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That is:

 

AFRO-AMERICAN FOLKSONGS

"Ma i ze inkomo yetw, si ya yi biza;

Si ti, ma i ze, ma i zeka;

Ma i ze kumi, ma i zeke;
Ma i ze inkomo yeiu, si ya yi biza."

"Our cow, let her come, we are calling her;

We say, let her come, let her come, so let her come;

Let her come to me, then let her come;

Our cow, let her come, we are calling her."

Several natives spent a rainy day hard at work digging out and killing
three or four porcupines which had made them trouble in their gardens;
and the next morning one of them passed my door singing the following song,
which I was told he indited for the occasion:

"Truly, oh, truly, they'll perish anon.

The land of the Zulu so slyly they leave.
AH the people, they come, they come.

The land of the Zulu so slyly they leave.
Truly, oh, truly," etc.

From Denham and Clapperton's "Narrative of Travels
in Northern and Central Africa,"' Carl Engel quotes the
following extemporaneous song of negro bards in Bornou
in praise of their Sultan:

Give flesh to the hyenas at daybreak —

Oh, the broad spears!
The spear of the Sultan is the broadest —

Oh, the broad spears!
I behold thee now — I desire to see none other —

Oh, the broad spears!
My horse is as tall as a high wall —

Oh, the broad spears!
He will fight against ten — he fears nothing!

Oh, the broad spears!
He has slain ten; the guns are yet behind —

Oh, the broad spears!
The elephant of the forest brings me what I want —

Oh, the broad spears!
Like unto thee, so is the Sultan —

Oh, the broad spears!
Be brave! Be brave, my friends and kinsmen —

Oh, the broad spears!
God is great! I wax fierce as a beast of prey —

Oh, the broad spears!
God is great! To-day those I wished for are come —

Oh, the broad spears!

It would be an easy matter to multiply parallels of this
song in the matter of form from among the religious songs
of the American negroes. Let two suffice:

I want to be my fader's chil'en —

Roll, Jordan, roll!
O say, ain't you done wid de trouble ob de world?

Roll, Jordan, roll!

» London, 1826, II, 19.

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I ask de Lord how long I hold 'em —

Roll, Jordan, roll!
My sins so heavy I can't get along. Ah!

Roll, Jordan, rolll
I cast my sins in de middle ob de sea —

Roll, Jordan, roll!

Here the second:

Hurry on, my weary soul —

And I yearde from heaven to-day!
My sin is forgiven and my soul set free —

And I yearde from heaven to-day!
A baby born in Bethlehem —

And I yearde from heaven to-day!
De trumpet sound in de odder bright land —

And I yearde from heaven to-day!
My name is called and I must go —

And I yearde from heaven to-day!
De bell is a-ringin' in de odder bright world —

And I yearde from heaven to-day!

'''^Relics of ancient ceremonies connected with death and
burial have survived amongst the American negroes and
have been influential in producing some strangely beautiful
and impressive songs7 One of these, "Dig My Grave"
(see page 104), from the Bahamas, where the songs, though
they have much community of both poetical and musical
phrase with them, yet show a higher development than
do the slave songs of the States, is peculiarly impressive.
The first period of its melody — it might be called tripartite
— is fairly Schumannesque in breadth and dignity. An-
other, "I Look o'er Yander (see page 105), is not com-
parable with it from a musical point of view, but derives
peculiar interest from the ceremony with which it is
associated. This function is one of those which I call
a relic of ancient ceremonies, because, like the peculiar
idioms of the melodies, it cannot have been copied from
any of the funeral rites which the slaves saw among their
white masters, but does show affinity with Old World
and oldtime ceremonies.

Like the ancient Romans, the slaves were in the habit
of burying their dead at night. Like their savage ancestors
in Africa, they expressed their sorrow in nocturnal song.
It is remotely possible, too, that once they indulged in
funeral dances, even in such wild orgies as travellers have
described. These dances, like most others, have passed

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AFRO-AMERICAN FOLKSONGS

 

Largo

 

Dig My Grave

 

^' i >^ 't' l r I If r r '^ ^'^ ^^^ r p '

 

Dig' my grave long an' aar- row, Make my cof - fia

 


long an' strong.Bright an-gels to my feet, Bright an-gelsto myhea(l,Briglit

 


angels to car-ry me when ibadead.' Olimi iit-tlesoi(lgoin' shine,sliln^
(I die). —

 


Words and melody from "Bahama Songs and Stories" ty Charles. I.. Edwards, Ph. D., pub-
lished for the American Folk-Lore Society by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, and reprint-
ed by permission. The arrangement made for this bppjc by H. T. Bvrleigli,

 

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STRUCTURE OF THE POEMS; FUNERAL MUSIC

 

I Look o'erYander

(Bahama)

 

Adag'io

 

I look o'er 7an-der,what I see? Some-bodys dy. mg ev . 'ry day.
Seebrigbtan-g'el stand-in' dere; Some-body's dy.in^ ev.'iy day.

 


&▼ -.'ry day. pass- in' a • ray, Somebodys 4j

 

"ly d«y.

 


An "anthem" which is sung in the Bahamas at a "settiri op", a sort of aO-night watch In and
aronnd the hnt of a dying person. Words and melody from "Bahama Songs and Stories", by
Charles L. Edwards, Ph: p., published tor the American Folk -Lore Society by Hoiighton,Uif-
fcit Co. and reprinted by permission. The arrangement made for this work by B. T. Buleigh.

 

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AFRO-AMERICAN FOLKSONGS

away in communities in which Protestant influences were
dominant, especially where the teachings of the Methodists
and Baptists took strongest hold. There the "shout"
provided vent for the emotions to which their ancestors
gave expression in mad and lascivious dancing,

Paul B. du Chaillu' describes a nocturnal funeral chant
whose wailing seemed burdened with a sense of absolute
hopelessness and whose words ran thus:

Oh, you will never speak to us any more.
We can not see your face any more,
You will never walk with us again,
You will never settle our palavers for us.

Edwards, in his history of the West Indies," says of the
slaves in those islands:

At other times, more especially at the burial of such among them as were
respected in life or venerable through age, they exhibit a sort of Pyrrhick or
war-like dance, in which their bodies are strongly agitated by running, leaping
and jumping, with many violent and frantick gestures and contortions. Their
funeral songs, too, are all of the heroick or martial cast, affording some colour
to the prevalent notion that the negroes consider death not only as a welcome
and happy release from the calamities of their condition, but also as a passport
to the place of their nativity; a deliverance which, while it frees them from
bondage, returns them to the society of their dearest, long lost and lamented
relatives in Africa.

From the description by Francisco Travassos Valdez,'
it appears that in Loanda, Lower Guinea, when a death
occurs the friends of the dead person not only sing and
dance at the funeral, but repeat the rites at intervals of a
week and a month. In the songs the good deeds of the
departed are celebrated and his virtues extolled. The
eulogies are interrupted at intervals by one of the mourners
exclaiming, "He is dead!" whereupon all the others reply
in chorus, "Woe is me!"

In some sections of Africa the period of mourning is, or
was, a period of cessation from musical performances; in

•The song is quoted by Prof. Edwards from Du Chaillu's "Explorations
and Adventures in Equatorial Africa," and Prof. Edwards refers for similar
examples to Major A. G. Laing's "Travels in Western Africa," London, 1825,
pp. 233 and 237; Theodor Waltz's "Anthropologic der Naturvolker," Leipsic,
1860, II, pp. 240 and 243; and K. Endemann's "Mittheilungen iiber die
Sotho-Neger," Berlin, 1874, pp. 57, 63.

' "The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West
Indies," by Bryan Edwards, Esq., F. R. S., S. A., Vol. II, p. 103.

» "Six Years of a Traveller's Life in Western Africa," London, 1861, cited
by Engel,

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STRUCTURE OF THE POEMS; FUNERAL MUSIC

others death and burial were accompanied by noisy
lamgiitations. \

/The Abbe Proyart, in his "History of Loango, Kakongo \
and Other Kingdoms of Africa,"* tells of a custom, when
a native is sick, of summoning, with the physician, a band
of musicians, who assemble around his house and play
on instruments incessantly day and night, presumably till
the patient is recovered or dead. It is not unlikely that in
this custom (which, in a way, suggests the practices of the
shamans of the North American Indians) is to be found
the origin of the singular custom of "settin' up," which is
described by Professor Charles L. Edwards in his "Bahama
Songs and Stories." This nocturnal song-service, which
Jenny Woodville described as a feature of slave life in the
Southern States,* is held when a negro is supposed to be
dying. "The singers, men, women and children of all
ages," says Professor Edwards, "sit about on the floor
of the larger room of the hut and stand outside at the
doors and windows, while the invalid lies upon the floor
in the smaller room. Long into the night they sing their
most mournful hymns and 'anthems,' and only in the light
of dawn do those who are left as chief mourners silently
disperse."

The "anthem" which is most often used on these occa-
sions is "I Look o'er Yander." A notable thing about it
is that it is one of the rare examples of a negro melody
in three-part measure (compound); but there is no sug-y
,_ge|,tion of a lightsome mood on that account in the melodyy'
' "With all the sad intonation accented by the tense emo-
tion of the singers," says Professor Edwards, "it sounds
in the distance as though it might well be the death tri-
umph of some old African chief :

Each one of the dusky group, as if by intuition, takes some part in the
melody, and the blending of all tone-colors in the soprano, tenor, alto and
bass, without reference to the fixed laws of harmony, makes such peculiarly
touching music as I have never heard elsewhere. As this song of consolation ac-
companies the sighs of the dying one, it seems to be taken up by the mournful
rustle of the palm and to be lost only in the undertone of murmur from the
distant coral reef. It is all weird and intensely sad.

1 In the Pinkert Collection.

» "Lippincott's Magazine" for November, 1878.

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AFRO-AMERICAN FOLKSONGS

Closely related to this custom of "settin' up" apparently
is one to which Mrs. Jeannette Robinson Murphy called
attention in an interesting article, accompanied by songs
and stories, which she published some years ago in "The-
Independent." In this custom the hymns which are sung
at the deathbed become messages to loved ones gone
before, which the departing soul is chargedtobear to heaven^
"When a woman dies," wrote Mrs. Murphy, "some friend
or relative will kneel down and sing to the soul as it
takes its flight. One of the songs contains endless verses,,
conveying remembrances to relatives in glory." Here,
surely, is a lovely and truly exalted variant of the primitive
custom of placing coins in the mouths of the dead to pay
the Stygian ferryman, or slaughtering dogs, horses and
slaves for a chief's companionship on the journey into
the next world.

And yet even this affecting ceremony may have had
its origin in the awful practice which prevails in Dahomey,
to which every year a large number of lives are, or used
to be, sacrificed. On the death of a Dahoman king the
"grand custom," as it is called, is celebrated, at which at
times as many as five hundred captives have been slain
to make up the household of the departed monarch in the
other world. Besides this sacrifice there is an annual one
at which from sixty to eighty are killed and sent as bearers
of messages and news from the new king to his predecessor.
Into the ear of each unfortunate the king whispers the
words which he wishes to have reported, whereupon the
executioner immediately strikes off the ghostly postman's,
mortal head. -s^

''■'^Much more singular than this singing to the soul, is a
custom which is said to have prevailed in South Carolina,
where, on the death of the father of a family, his relatives,
assembled around the coffin, ranged in order of age and
relationship, sang the following hymn while marching
around the body:

Dese all my fader's children.

Outshine de sun!
My fader's done wid de trouble o' de world —

Outshine de sun!

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STRUCTURE OF THE POEMS; FUNERAL MUSIC

The youngest child was then taken and passed first
over, then under the coffin, whereupon two men took it
on their shoulders and carried it to the grave "on the run."^

Among the songs which Colonel Higginson imprisoned
in his notebook — writing it down, perhaps, in the darkness,
with his hand, as he says, in the covert of his pocket, as
he overheard it from dusky figures moving in "the rhyth-
mical barbaric chant called a 'shout' " beside the campfire,
then carrying it to his tent "like a captured bird or insect"
— was a nocturnal funeral song which surprised him most
because its images were furnished directly by external
nature. "With all my experience of their ideal ways of
speech," he says, "I was startled when first I came on such
a flower of poetry in the dark soil."

I know moonlight, I know starlight;

I lay dis body down.
I walk in de moonlight, I walk in de starlight;

I lay dis body down.
I know de graveyard, I know de graveyard,

When I lay dis body down.
I walk in de graveyard, I walk troo de graveyard

To lay dis body down.
I lay in de grave and stretch out my arms;

I lay dis body down.
I go to de judgment in de evenin' of de day

When I lay dis body down.
An* my soul an' your soul will meet in de day

When we lay dis body down.

And Colonel Higginson comments : " 'I'll lie in de grave
and stretch out my arms.' Never, it seems to me, since
man first lived and suffered, was his infinite longing for
peace uttered more plaintively than In that line." The
phrase of melody which the editors of "Slave Songs" ap-
pended to Colonel Higginson's words is altogether too
banal to be accepted as the one to which a poem bearing
such a burden of pathos could possibly have been sung.
The music is much more likely to have been something
like that of "O Graveyard" (see page no), which I have
included in my list — the words a variant of "O Moon-
rise," the tune quite worthy of being described as a flower
of melody floating on dark waters in the shifting shadows
of the moon:

» "Slave Songs," page 101.

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AFRO-AMERICAN FOLKSONGS

 

Graveyard!

 

Andante

 


S. I knoir moonlig'ht, I know starligbt,
I'm walkin' troo de starljg'lit;
Lay dis body down.

3. O my soull Oyour soul!

I'm walkii^ troo de graveyard;
Lay dls body down.

The arrangement made Tor tbls work by H. T. Burlei^ Words and fflelod; from "Slav*
Songs of «lie United States;' New York, 1867.

 

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STRUCTURE OF THE POEMS; FUNERAL MUSIC

graveyard! O graveyard!
I'm walkin' troo de graveyard —
Lay dU body down.

It was Mr. Allen's ingenious surmise that this was the
song which was heard by Mr. W. H. Russell, war corre-
spondent of the London "Times" and which he described
in Chapter XVIII of "My Diary, North and South."
He is telling of a midnight row from Potaligo to "Mr.
Trewcott's Estate" on Barnwell Island:

The oarsmen, as they bent to their task, beguiled the way by singing in
unison a real negro melody, which was as unlike the works of the Ethiopian
Serenaders as anything in song could be unlike another. It was a barbaric
sort of madrigal, in which one singer beginning was followed by the others
in unison, repeating the refrain in chorus, and full of quaint expression and
melancholy:

Oh, your soul! Oh, my soul!

I'm going to the churchyard

To lay this body down;

Oh, my soul! Oh, your soul!
We're going to the churchyard
To lay this nigger down.

And then some appeal to the difficulty of passing the "Jawdan'' constituted
the whole of the song, which continued with unabated energy during the
whole of the little voyage. To me it was a strange scene. The stream, dark
as Lethe, flowing between the silent, houseless, rugged banks, lighted up near
the landing by the fire in the woods, which reddened the sky — the wild strain
and the unearthly adjurations to the singer's souls as though they were pal-
pable, put me in mind of the fancied voyage across the Styx.

 

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