In his latest book to date, Sacred Symphony; The Chanted Sermon of the Black Preacher, Spencer states in the introduction that there are seven musical elements that make up the  chanted sermon  and these include melody, rhythm, call and response, harmony, counterpoint, form, and improvisation. He not only states that these musical components appear in the chanted sermons, but he illustrates how they are manifested in the sermon event through sermons and/or testimonies of white male and female observers, ex-slaves, ministers, and scholars of black preaching

Nelson, Angela M. S.

English

VCU Scholars Compass

prose volumes, Lesser Evils: Ten Quartets. The last poem in the first portion is about death, finishing with the book's title line, "Who will know us when we breathe through the grass?" The second set of verses contains sixteen pieces that are just as serious in nature as those in the first, yet here the poet occasionally deals with lighter matters . "Target Practice, " for example, describes an afternoon two boys spend shooting rifles at cans and bottles. Soto's  skillful hands make the poem spring to life so the reader hears the reports of the guns, senses the fear of the canine companion, and smells the gunpowder. The poetic voice returns often to more serious themes. In "Learning My Lesson," the young narrator first comprehends danger and death. "Small Town with One Road" is a reflection on what life would have been like if a person who makes his living with "only words" had instead been forced to work outdoors and with his hands,  " a  hard life where the sun looks."  The third division has a few more personal poems, especially in that the reader familiar with Soto's entire corpus of prose and poetry will sometimes be on familiar ground. " Our Days" is a family portrait of Saturday activities and " Evening Walk" describes a man and his daughter's shared outing. But the voice persistently returns to a thread running throughout Who Will Know Us ?--death--as it does in the final section " Ars Poetica,  or Mazatlan on a Day When Bodies Wash to the Shore ."  In Who Will Know Us ? Soto once again demonstrates that he is both technically and thematically a highly-skilled poet. Gary Soto's previous work is excellent and praiseworthy, but his latest collection contains poetry that is brilliant, resonant, lucid, highly evocative, and immensely satisfying. -Carl R. Shirley University of South Carolina Jon Michael Spencer. Sacred Symphony: The Chanted Sermon of the Black Preacher. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1 987) xvi, 1 60 pp. ,  $29.95. In his latest book to date, Sacred Symphony; The Chanted Sermon of the Black Preacher, Spencer states in the introduction that there are seven musical elements that make up the "chanted sermon" and these include melody, rhythm,  call and response, harmony, counterpoint, form, and improvisation.  He not only states that these musical components appear in the chanted sermons, but he illustrates how they are mani­fested in the sermon event through sermons and/or testimonies of white male and female observers, ex-slaves, ministers, and scholars of black preaching. Explorations in Sights and Sounds No. 10  (Summer 1 990) 5 1  The Introduction is followed by twelve sections of what he terms "modern spirituals ."  The spirituals include " Sinner, Please Don't Let This Harvest Pass," "Give Me Jesus ,"  "You Must Have that True Religion,"  " Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel?" .  The 1 00 transcriptions of musical  excerpts from "modern spirituals ,"  or chanted sermons ,  contained here in the Sacred Symphony evolved during sermons or prayer services of sixteen ministers representing various Baptist, Methodist, Holiness, and Pentecostal demoninations across the United States and were collected and notated by Spencer over a three-year period. One exciting element about Spencer's work is that it is the first of its kind: notating the chanted sermons of black preachers in America. I believe he is correct in suggesting that the continuity between antebellum spirituals and their modern counterparts notated in this book can be easily traced in a comparative study with earlier collections like William Francis Allen's Sla ve Songs of the United States ( 1 867) and Natalie Curtis Burlin's Negro Folk-Songs ( 1 9 1 8) .  Moreover, the main accomplish­ment ofthis work is how it, by its theme alone, illustrates the continuity of elements in African American culture. In each description of a musical component, Spencer concisely describes and details how this element was seen in other African American musical forms and West African musical forms and practices. For example, when he writes about the musical component, melody, he states: "That black preachers intoned their sermons and prayers is no historical novelty, for their African ancestors chanted oral history and folk stories, and their African­American progeny moaned bluesy hollers, and vendors whooped street cries. Additionally, j ust as Africans chanted tribal laws, folk stories, and proverbs,  so have black preachers intoned biblical laws,  Old Testament stories, and folkloric exempla." Spencer's work also suggests documentation possibilities for connec­tions to newer African American musical forms like hip-hop, or rap music. For instance, when he includes research done in Macon County, Georgia by William Pipes, he summarizes that Pipes found that "black preachers customarily fit sentences into metrical units by squeezing together and stretching out words, while simultaneously accompanying their delivery by striking the lectern or stomping the foot. " Is that not what rap artists do (with the substitution of the lectern for a turntable) "fit sentences into metrical units by squeezing together and stretching out words"? So, Spencer's compilation will certainly open up oppor­tunities for documenting continuities between black preaching and rapping, for example, and other projects not yet investigated. Although at times Spencer's use of terms seems burdensome, he rephrases and simplifies most concepts so that they can be fully understood. Additionally, his inclusion of examples and primary sources help to fully develop his ideas. Other features of Sacred Symphony include a Foreword by William C. 52 Explorations in Sights and Sounds No. 10  (Summer 1 990) Turner, Jr. (one of the ministers observed by Spencer) of the Divinity School at Duke University in Durham, North C arolina. Turner explains homiletical musicality, or black preaching, as a product of culture, kratophany, oppugnancy, and glossa. He, too, employs terms which are not readily accessible to the "lay" ethnic studies scholar, but, in most cases, he endeavors to rephrase and to simplify concepts wherever possible. In addition to the sections already noted, the book includes a select bibliography, an index of first lines, and a general index. Sacred Symphony, indeed, relates to the ethnic experience, or more specifically, the African American ethnic experience, in that it docu­ments musical excerpts from a style of communication that grew out of the needs of African peoples in a New World. Black preaching, along with other African American products like j azz, rhythm-an-blues and hip-hop music, has been and probably will continue to be looked down upon by E uropean Americans as well as many African Americans; but it neither needs nor wants any excuses or apologies for itself because it is and has been one of the unifying elements of African American communities all over the United States. -Angela M. Spence Nelson Bowling Green State University M arion Wilson Starling.  The Sla v e  Narrati v e: Its Place in A merican History. Second Edition (Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1 988) xxx, 375 pp.,  $ 1 2.95 paper. This is another reprint of Marion Wilson Starling's breakthrough study of the slave narrative, which she undertook for her Ph. D .  disser­tation at New York University in 1 946 under the advisorship of Oscar Cargill. During the 1 960s and 1 970s when slave autobiography became a serious critical endeavor, many scholars referred to Starling's thorough historical and literary research ; however, her dissertation was not published until 1 98 1 .  Then, Starling's work became more readily available, and now the paperback edition allows this well-deserved book to reach a wider audience. One reason the dissertation took so long to be published is explained by Starling herself in the prologue in the first edition. Surprisingly enough, it was her family that stood in the way. Belonging to the genteel tradition of African American cultural society, her family never forgave her for wanting to teach black students and for concentrating her scholarly pursuits on slave narrative studies. The value of much of Starling's work lies in the monumental research Explorations in Sights and Sounds No. 10  (Summer 1 990) 53 

[Review of] Jon Michael Spencer. Sacred Symphony: The Chanted Sermon of the Black Preacher

prose volumes, Lesser Evils: Ten Quartets. The last poem in the first 
portion is about death, finishing with the book's title line, "Who will 
know us when we breathe through the grass?" 
The second set of verses contains sixteen pieces that are just as serious 
in nature as those in the first, yet here the poet occasionally deals with 
lighter matters . "Target Practice, " for example, describes an afternoon 
two boys spend shooting rifles at cans and bottles. Soto's  skillful hands 
make the poem spring to life so the reader hears the reports of the guns, 
senses the fear of the canine companion, and smells the gunpowder. The 
poetic voice returns often to more serious themes. In "Learning My 
Lesson," the young narrator first comprehends danger and death. 
"Small Town with One Road" is a reflection on what life would have been 
like if a person who makes his living with "only words" had instead been 
forced to work outdoors and with his hands,  " a  hard life where the sun 
looks."  
The third division has a few more personal poems, especially in that the 
reader familiar with Soto's entire corpus of prose and poetry will 
sometimes be on familiar ground. " Our Days" is a family portrait of 
Saturday activities and " Evening Walk" describes a man and his 
daughter's shared outing. But the voice persistently returns to a thread 
running throughout Who Will Know Us ?--death--as it does in the final 
section " Ars Poetica,  or Mazatlan on a Day When Bodies Wash to the 
Shore ."  In Who Will Know Us ? Soto once again demonstrates that he is 
both technically and thematically a highly-skilled poet. Gary Soto's 
previous work is excellent and praiseworthy, but his latest collection 
contains poetry that is brilliant, resonant, lucid, highly evocative, and 
immensely satisfying. 
-Carl R. Shirley 
University of South Carolina 
Jon Michael Spencer. Sacred Symphony: The Chanted Sermon 
of the Black Preacher. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1 987) 
xvi, 1 60 pp. ,  $29.95. 
In his latest book to date, Sacred Symphony; The Chanted Sermon of 
the Black Preacher, Spencer states in the introduction that there are 
seven musical elements that make up the "chanted sermon" and these 
include melody, rhythm,  call and response, harmony, counterpoint, form, 
and improvisation.  He not only states that these musical components 
appear in the chanted sermons, but he illustrates how they are mani­
fested in the sermon event through sermons and/or testimonies of white 
male and female observers, ex-slaves, ministers, and scholars of black 
preaching. 
Explorations in Sights and Sounds No. 10  (Summer 1 990) 5 1  
The Introduction is followed by twelve sections of what he terms 
"modern spirituals ."  The spirituals include " Sinner, Please Don't Let 
This Harvest Pass," "Give Me Jesus ,"  "You Must Have that True 
Religion,"  " Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel?" .  The 1 00 transcriptions of 
musical  excerpts from "modern spirituals ,"  or chanted sermons ,  
contained here in the Sacred Symphony evolved during sermons or 
prayer services of sixteen ministers representing various Baptist, 
Methodist, Holiness, and Pentecostal demoninations across the United 
States and were collected and notated by Spencer over a three-year 
period. 
One exciting element about Spencer's work is that it is the first of its 
kind: notating the chanted sermons of black preachers in America. I 
believe he is correct in suggesting that the continuity between antebellum 
spirituals and their modern counterparts notated in this book can be 
easily traced in a comparative study with earlier collections like William 
Francis Allen's Sla ve Songs of the United States ( 1 867) and Natalie 
Curtis Burlin's Negro Folk-Songs ( 1 9 1 8) .  Moreover, the main accomplish­
ment ofthis work is how it, by its theme alone, illustrates the continuity of 
elements in African American culture. In each description of a musical 
component, Spencer concisely describes and details how this element 
was seen in other African American musical forms and West African 
musical forms and practices. For example, when he writes about the 
musical component, melody, he states: "That black preachers intoned 
their sermons and prayers is no historical novelty, for their African 
ancestors chanted oral history and folk stories, and their African­
American progeny moaned bluesy hollers, and vendors whooped street 
cries. Additionally, j ust as Africans chanted tribal laws, folk stories, and 
proverbs,  so have black preachers intoned biblical laws,  Old Testament 
stories, and folkloric exempla." 
Spencer's work also suggests documentation possibilities for connec­
tions to newer African American musical forms like hip-hop, or rap 
music. For instance, when he includes research done in Macon County, 
Georgia by William Pipes, he summarizes that Pipes found that "black 
preachers customarily fit sentences into metrical units by squeezing 
together and stretching out words, while simultaneously accompanying 
their delivery by striking the lectern or stomping the foot. " Is that not 
what rap artists do (with the substitution of the lectern for a turntable) 
"fit sentences into metrical units by squeezing together and stretching 
out words"? So, Spencer's compilation will certainly open up oppor­
tunities for documenting continuities between black preaching and 
rapping, for example, and other projects not yet investigated. 
Although at times Spencer's use of terms seems burdensome, he 
rephrases and simplifies most concepts so that they can be fully 
understood. Additionally, his inclusion of examples and primary sources 
help to fully develop his ideas. 
Other features of Sacred Symphony include a Foreword by William C. 
52 Explorations in Sights and Sounds No. 10  (Summer 1 990) 
Turner, Jr. (one of the ministers observed by Spencer) of the Divinity 
School at Duke University in Durham, North C arolina. Turner explains 
homiletical musicality, or black preaching, as a product of culture, 
kratophany, oppugnancy, and glossa. He, too, employs terms which are 
not readily accessible to the "lay" ethnic studies scholar, but, in most 
cases, he endeavors to rephrase and to simplify concepts wherever 
possible. In addition to the sections already noted, the book includes a 
select bibliography, an index of first lines, and a general index. 
Sacred Symphony, indeed, relates to the ethnic experience, or more 
specifically, the African American ethnic experience, in that it docu­
ments musical excerpts from a style of communication that grew out of 
the needs of African peoples in a New World. Black preaching, along with 
other African American products like j azz, rhythm-an-blues and hip-hop 
music, has been and probably will continue to be looked down upon by 
E uropean Americans as well as many African Americans; but it neither 
needs nor wants any excuses or apologies for itself because it is and has 
been one of the unifying elements of African American communities all 
over the United States. 
-Angela M. Spence Nelson 
Bowling Green State University 
M arion Wilson Starling.  The Sla v e  Narrati v e: Its Place in 
A merican History. Second Edition (Washington, DC: Howard 
University Press, 1 988) xxx, 375 pp.,  $ 1 2.95 paper. 
This is another reprint of Marion Wilson Starling's breakthrough 
study of the slave narrative, which she undertook for her Ph. D .  disser­
tation at New York University in 1 946 under the advisorship of Oscar 
Cargill. During the 1 960s and 1 970s when slave autobiography became a 
serious critical endeavor, many scholars referred to Starling's thorough 
historical and literary research ; however, her dissertation was not 
published until 1 98 1 .  Then, Starling's work became more readily available, 
and now the paperback edition allows this well-deserved book to reach a 
wider audience. 
One reason the dissertation took so long to be published is explained by 
Starling herself in the prologue in the first edition. Surprisingly enough, 
it was her family that stood in the way. Belonging to the genteel tradition 
of African American cultural society, her family never forgave her for 
wanting to teach black students and for concentrating her scholarly 
pursuits on slave narrative studies. 
The value of much of Starling's work lies in the monumental research 
Explorations in Sights and Sounds No. 10  (Summer 1 990) 53 


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[Review of] Jon Michael Spencer. Sacred Symphony: The Chanted Sermon of the Black Preacher

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