One in the morning. Never a better time for a probing question of art and life.
Here's the situation. We're doing a modern arrangement of the old folk tune Pick a Bale of Cotton for County Choir. It's a pretty interesting arrangement, I guess. It's certainly different.
When my mother saw that we were doing that song she thought it was a little weird. Now that I've been thinking about it, I think it is a little bit too. Let me see if I can explain what I mean.
I suppose the central question is, why that song? Why make an arrangement of it, why perform it? Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't that a song black slaves sang as they worked to try and keep their minds off the horrors they were being subjected to? The words are just, "Jump down, turn around, pick a bale of cotton, jump down, turn around, pick a bale of hay, oh lordy, pick a bale of cotton, oh lordy, pick a bale of hay". We all learned it in grade school. And isn't that sort of where it belongs? As an important part of history, to teach young people about slavery, about the tragedies of the past and how far we've come (and how far we've yet to go)? Why make a bunch of rich white kids stand up on stage and sing a snazzy new arrangement of it, isn't that almost a little insulting? A little disrespectful?
There are so many good spirituals out there we could sing. Songs about God, about overcoming, about the spirit and perseverance of the negro slave, and many good arrangements of them too. Why sing about picking cotton? Why sing a song they only made up to keep from losing their minds, a song literally about what they were being forced to do? I don't know if there is a Nazi anthem, but if there were, it would be almost like singing that.
Maybe it's kind of catchy, maybe it's just fun to sing. But it's not just a fun song to sing. You're singing about picking cotton, for Christ's sake. Try to at least pretend to acknowledge the history there, how significant it still is.
I tried talking about this with Mr. Smith, but he didn't really get what I was saying. I think I'll try and talk to the guest conductor about it tomorrow, see what she thinks. I'm pretty sure she's the one who picked it, after all. She's a little flighty though, kind of a ditz, so maybe she won't get it either. Oh well.
It's now one thirty. Never a better time to eat cold pizza and ice cream and go to bed.
_Dr. M
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4 comments:
Thanks for the post. I am doing research on the song for a paper, and I agree with your sentiments regarding the choir, and the song as a teaching tool.
Any new developments around the song?
I am a music teacher, doing reserach on maerican Folksong. When I did a search, your blog came up. So now I am interested to know whether you sang the arrangement or persuaded your choir director otherwise.....
I am an African-American choral director and my choir is planning to sing Linda Spevacek's American Folk Rhapsody which includes "Pick A Bale of Cotton". My choir is predominately Caucasian. I feel that singing this songs and many songs like it offer wonderful teaching opportunities to reflect on American history. True, the conditions which slaves sung these songs were deplorable. However it is remarkable that they were strong enough to endure and not only endure but create beautiful, enduring music in the process. Performing such music and allowing authentic dialogue about the people and events that created it is far better than pretending that it did not happen and ignoring the strength and beauty of a people that have endured. As an African-American seeing a stage full of Caucasians singing spirituals and work songs is a beautiful thing. I don't see it as poking fun or offensive in anyway. The applause that the choir will receive not only goes to the choir that is singing but it also goes to the unknown composers who were able to birth the first authentically American musical genre and the applause shows that they are not forgotten. Let's not forget that African-American history IS American history. To sweep it under the rug, to fail to present music from this era is far more offensive than a choir of whites singing work songs.
.... Just my thoughts
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