Playing to One Conductor: Ur-text, Context, and Text

Excerpted from doctoral dissertation, The Incarnational Nature of Congregational Song: A Deeper Meaning of Performance, by Cynthia A. Wilson, Ph.D.

In the African and Black American historical context, Congregational Song functions as the perpetual soundtrack that speaks to the joys, concerns, hopes, and dreams of a marginalized people.

The Griot/Griotte are the keepers of the history, story, and well-being of village members, and epitomize the power of incarnational community song. As the primary composer, arranger, teacher, and conductor of that song, much like the Black preacher in present day faith communities, historically, the Griot/Griotte is symbolic of a priestly presence and is therefore honored and respected. For this reason I have chosen to capitalize the title throughout this work. Song stands as the fulcrum for spirituality and cultural dynamics in the lives of Black peoples.

The term “glocal” was coined in various social, academic and corporate contexts. It is obviously a synthesis of the words, “global” and “local,” suggesting that one’s indigenous or inside context is fundamentally affected by an external universal. This term strongly insinuates that without the specificity of local culture, the global agenda would be aborted.

The postmodern agenda re-evaluates and de-centralizes Western ideologies and norms toward culture and society. Also, it questions the grounds for Western claims about authenticity, truth, and knowledge.

Africana song has and continues to effect transformation in the church and the world. It demonstrates how artists, “gatekeepers of truth,” have led the way in the incarnational work of making the invisible visible. We hear testimonies and musical offerings of the primary voices that helped forge this contemporary Pentecost called the Civil Rights Movement; these voices include such persons as Bernice Reagon Johnson, Ysaye Barnwell, the Staple Singers, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Edwin Hawkins, Charles Albert Tindley, Thomas Dorsey, and Lucie Campbell’s outstanding contributions to the repertoire of corporate song in the Black Church.

Africa is believed to be the cradle of civilization by both paleontologists and archaeologists. If this is true, then a careful examination of life in Africa can serve as an ur-text that unveils valuable insight for our understanding of communal life. Without such clarity, the incarnational agenda cannot be fully apprehended. In notable ways, song has helped to shape, memorialize, propel, challenge, nourish and create community for Africana peoples. There can be no more appropriate launching pad for this treatise on incarnational song than to rehearse the deep structures of syncretistic worship for African slave communities. More specifically, this conversation provides profound insight into the healing and transformational properties intrinsic to the music of the Black Church in the United States.