On the recordJanuary 1, 1903
The ten master songs I have mentioned tell in word and music of trouble and exile, of strife and hiding; they grope toward some unseen power and sigh for rest in the End.
Said by
W.E.B. Du Bois
Source
gutenberg.orgThe ten master songs I have mentioned tell in word and music of trouble and exile, of strife and hiding; they grope toward some unseen power and sigh for rest in the End.
Du Bois describes the overarching themes and emotional depth found within the spirituals he identifies as "master songs."
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The Nation has not yet found peace from its sins; the freedman has not yet found in freedom his promised land.
Thus we have two great and hardly reconcilable streams of thought and ethical strivings; the danger of the one lies in anarchy, that of the other in hypocrisy.
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In song and exhortation swelled one refrain—Liberty; in his tears and curses the God he implored had Freedom in his right hand.