American Christmas Spirituals

Christmas celebrations nearly always include music. However, one of the richest sources of such music is widely overlooked: American Christmas spirituals.

A spiritual is a type of religious song, usually a folk song, made famous by Afircan-Americans of the southern United States. Spirituals typically have a strong rhythm and a deeply emotional character. Here are six Christmas spirituals that planners should keep in mind.

Behold That Star
Thomas W. Talley (1870-1952) wrote the words and music for Behold That Star when he was a faculty member at Fisk University, in Nashville, Tennessee. As director of the Mozart Society there (later known as the Fisk University Choir), he wanted to program a Christmas work that had the spirit of a jubilee song (a religious song usually referring to a time of future happiness). Unable to find one, he wrote Behold That Star. After years of leading people to believe that the song was a traditional spiritual, he revealed that he was the author and composer.

The text of Behold That Star concerns the star of Bethlehem. The form is refrain-verse for three verses, followed by a final refrain.

The music is in 4/4 meter and at a moderately fast tempo. It has a strong folk-spiritual quality, including both quarter-note and eighth-note syncopations and a melodic emphasis on the characteristically folk-spiritual sixth degree of the scale at the refrain cadence.

Children, Go Where I Send Thee
Children, Go Where I Send Thee has traditional words and music. The text is based on a numerical increase in each of ten verses: "one by one," "two by two," and so on to "ten by ten." The first verse is for the baby born in Bethlehem, the tenth for the Ten Commandments. The form is unusual, with the ten verses sandwiched between the first and second halves of the refrain.

The music is in cut time (2/2 meter) and at a moderately fast tempo. It has both quarter-note and eighth-note syncopations.

Go Tell It on the Mountain
Go Tell It on the Mountain has traditional words and music. The text exhorts the listener to go tell everyone about the birth of Jesus. The form is refrain-verse for two verses, followed by a final refrain.

The music is in 4/4 meter and at a moderately fast tempo. It has both quarter-note and eighth-note syncopations and a frequent melodic emphasis on the sixth degree of the scale.

Mary Had a Baby
Mary Had a Baby has traditional words and music. The text tells the story of the manger, the shepherds, and the naming of the baby Jesus. The form is verse-refrain for four verses.

The music is in 4/4 meter and at a moderate tempo. It conveys a strong rhythmic feeling without syncopations, and it has a frequent melodic emphasis on the sixth degree of the scale.

O Po' Little Jesus
O Po' Little Jesus has traditional words and music. The text laments, at the very birth of Jesus, that "Dis world gonna break your heart." The form consists of three verses, each ending with a two-measure refrain on the title words.

The music is in 4/4 meter and at a moderately slow tempo. It has eighth-note syncopations and a melodic emphasis on the sixth degree of the scale.

Rise up, Shepherd, and Follow
Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow has traditional words and music. The text is a call to "Rise up, shepherd, and follow" the star to Bethlehem. The form is verse-refrain for two verses.

The music is in 4/4 meter and at a fast tempo. It has many eighth-note syncopations, a frequent melodic emphasis on the sixth degree of the scale, and a colorful use of the lowered (bluesy) seventh degree.
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Ehret, Walter, and George K. Evans. The International Book of Christmas Carols. Lexington, Mass.: The Stephen Greene Press, 1986. First published 1963 by Prentice-Hall.