Louise T. Guinther

Black History Month is over, but my ears are still ringing with the sound of the great Black voices that have enriched our American musical heritage. In researching those voices, I was struck by how many of them began their vocal journeys in churches and gospel choirs, and how many of them made spirituals an essential part of their repertoires throughout their careers.

Indeed, it seems to me that it is the spiritual, devotional quality of their singing that makes these great Black artists so great, whether they are singing Mozart, Verdi, Schubert or “Go Down, Moses.” Yes, they were all endowed with magnificent natural instruments of tremendous power and beauty, but their art is elevated by a sense of unbounded personal investment, an awareness of the power of music to comfort the soul, revive the spirit and fill the heart with courage. When I listen to these singers in any repertoire, I hear a deep commitment not merely to the music’s message but to the glory of God. So here is a little playlist of the great Black classical singers who preoccupied me during Black History Month in the repertoire that inspired and sustained them, and that they all helped to preserve.

I wasn’t able to find any YouTubes of Reri Grist in this rep, so I’m sneaking in an extra soprano in Grist’s stead—a favorite of mine: the physically and vocally beautiful Barbara Hendricks. I tried to avoid repetition in the selections, but just for fun, since we compared the splendors of Paul Robeson and William Warfield in “Ol’ Man River” in a previous blog, I’ve stuck with the comparison—and the river theme—by selecting both of their takes on “Deep River.”

From the helpless isolation of “City of Heaven” to the joyful lilt of “This Little Light of Mine,” these songs offer a window on the Black experience, in all its pain and all its beauty. From Roland Hayes’s stark, unembellished a cappella rendering of “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?”, which manages (like Jesus) to be otherworldly and gut-wrenchingly human at once, to the lush choral cushion that anchors Leontyne Price’s “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” in a community of Christian grace, to Marian Anderson’s comforting warm-velvet robe of a voice wrapping the listener in the embrace of love and tenderness the song’s protagonist is missing, each of these artists puts an utterly personal and deeply moving stamp on these songs, tapping into centuries of oppression, resilience and transcendent faith.

Other great Black artists with a recorded legacy of spirituals that you can look up if you haven’t had enough include Mattiwilda Dobbs, McHenry Boatwright, Adele Addison, Kathleen Battle, Jessye Norman and Florence Quivar.