Negro Spirituals und europäische Notenschrift.
Zur Aufzeichnung afro-amerikanischer Musik sowie deren Verarbeitung in der deutschen Musikerziehung
Since the sixties, Negro Spirituals, Gospel songs, Blues and Jazz appear with increased frequency in German music education. This music was not imparted during their training, leaving published material as the sole aid for perplexed music teachers. Musical notation and its usage, played an important role as conveyor of the unfamiliar music in these publications (articles, books).
The essential functions of European musical notation are primarily:
- to write a score which should produce the desired sound when played (composition)
- to retain an effective improvisation (transcription, for example finger patterns). Later, in addition, resulting from scientific research
- to transmit older notation into a more recent one (Musicology)
- to transcribe music from cultures primarily with an oral tradition (Ethnomusicology).
American research begins with the well-known discussion concerning the originality and origin of Negro Spirituals. The function of European musical notation played an important role in the hopelessness of the discussion. Since the thirties, Afro-American research has established itself. It uses the recording as the basis for research, and the transcription as supplementation. Recent work confirms the amount of African retention in the nineteenth century, up to and including today.
Publications in German about Negro Spirituals, mostly seen in connection with Jazz, are written by Jazz journalists, Theologians, and Ethnomusicologists. Research results performed in the USA are only considered in rare cases.
The first music didactic projects with Jazz and Negro Spirituals began toward the end of the fifties and beginning sixties. These projects developed from a popular enthusiasm for Jazz by many middle-class youths, and by the attempt to create new rhythmic songs for the church. Initially (around 1960) the attempt was to win back the youths' flagging interest in music instruction, with the help of Spirituals and Jazz. This newly kindled interest, however, should then be directed toward singing German folk songs and toward the higher, conventional "Kunstmusik". A large section of German music educators felt committed to the ideas expressed by the youth music movement but brusquely rejected Jazz: thereby hindering an open, thorough and broad discussion.
Music education works and song books reflect their insufficient familiarity with Jazz; the lack of practical experience and an unawareness of the scientific Afro-American literature. Publishers primarily printed spirituals from various editions (and continue to do this to some extent today) without critical commentary. Even at the beginning of the seventies, there appeared to be no critical awareness concerning the cultural environment from which Jazz and Spirituals originated.
Bibliographical material reveals that hardly anyone has informed himself about the basic literature. Commentary about Negro Spirituals and Jazz is of an unbelievingly poor quality. The central example of this is seen in the mistaken identity of European syncopation for the Offbeat phenomenon. Offbeat rhythm is neither correctly described by many music educators, nor are methods provided for acquiring and adopting it. The close connection, furthermore, between rhythm in Afro-American music, and the corresponding physical movement, is hardly recognized.
The methodological helplessness in relation to Afro-American music clearly reveals that the German music educator should have more thoroughly occupied himself with this music, before developing methodological models. He founders in the illusion that it is sufficient to sing "so-called" Negro Spirituals and discuss slavery.