A New Perspective for the Use of Dialect in African American Spirituals: History, Context, and Linguistics

A New Perspective for the Use of Dialect in African American Spirituals explores the history, context, and linguistics of the African American English dialect in the spiritual genre, providing insights into its development, perception, and impact on performance. It offers practical guidance for applying dialect research to ten popular spiritual texts and concludes with insights from leading arrangers on their use of the dialect.

Format: Hardback
Length: 276 pages
Publication date: 06 October 2021
Publisher: Lexington Books

A fresh look at the use of dialect in African American spirituals is provided by A New Perspective for the Use of Dialect in African American Spirituals: History, Context, and Linguistics. This book explores the use of African American English (AAE) dialect in the musical genre of the spiritual, which is perfect for conductors and performers alike. It traces the history of the dialect, its use in early performance practice, and the sociolinguistic impact of the AAE dialect in the United States. Felicia Barber delves into the development of AAE during the African Diaspora and its correlations with Southern States White English (SSWE). She examines the perception of the dialect and how its weaponization has impacted the performance of the genre. Barber provides a comprehensive summary of research on the use of dialect in spirituals from the past century through the analysis of written scores, recordings, and research. She identifies common elements of early performance practice and provides the phonological and grammatical features identified in early practice. This book offers a practical guide for applying her findings on ten popular spiritual texts using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). It concludes with insights by leading arrangers on their use of AAE dialect as a part of the genre and practice.

Weight: 626g
Dimension: 228 x 163 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781793635341