Fisk Jubilee Singers sheet music folio
About this photograph
"Songs of the Jubilee Singers from Fisk University" Created/Published by John Church & Co., Cincinnati, 1881.
- Date created
- 1881
- License
- This work is believed to be in the public domain. Users are advised to make their own copyright assessment and to understand their rights to fair use.
- Source
- Original image housed by Library of Congress
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- North Carolina in the early 20th century: Primary sources and readings explore North Carolina in the first decades of the twentieth century (1900–1929). Topics include changes in technology and transportation, Progressive Era reforms, World War I, women's suffrage, Jim Crow and African American life, the cultural changes of the 1920s, labor and labor unrest, and the Gastonia stirke of 1929. (Page 6.10)
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Cover of a sheet music folio entitled “Songs of the Jubilee Singers from Fisk University.” The Fisk Jubilee Singers were a group of African American singers at Fisk University in Tennessee who sang spirituals and other American songs. The first incarnation of the ensemble came together in 1871, but the group still sings today. The cover of this sheet music folio lists seven songs, including “The Gospel Train” and “Swing Low Sweet Chariot.”
The Fisk Jubilee Singers launched the jubilee singing tradition, which grew in popularity through the first half of the twentieth century. Early jubilee singing ensembles adhered closely to the style of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, performing religious songs in close harmonies. As time went on, many jubilee groups branched out to perform popular, non-religious music.
