SPIRITUALS AS CODED COMMUNICATION Pethaps the best known use of spirituals in the service of freedom during the slave period was the imbedding of “hidden” or coded messages in song lyrics for the purpose of clandestine (secret) communication on the Underground Railroad’. One of the first public revelations by a former slave of this practice of secret communication through spirituals is found in the autobiographical writings of the noted Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass, in which Douglass revealed to his readers that some songs interpreted by outsiders as referring to life after death in Heaven", were actually understood within the enslaved African community as signifying a determination to reach freedom in the North, outside the reach and power of Southern plantation owners. Two common types of coded spirituals were signal songs and map songs. In a signal song", a singer or group of singers communicated in code that a certain event — such as a planned escape from a plantation ~ was imminent. In a map song, the lyrics actually contained elements of a map that directed people to significant points of escape along the. routes of the Underground Railroad. The most famous map song wes “Follow the Drinking Gourd,” which used the metaphor of a drinking gourd to symbolize the constellation of stars known as the Big Dipper, containing the North Star, an important compass guide for individuals and families who needed to be certain that they were continuing to travel in the direction of north as they made their way to freedom. It is very likely that both signal songs and map songs were utilized in combination with any number of other clandestine communication tools, including the extensive use of symbols sewn onto quilts'® that assisted prospective “passengers” on the Underground Railroad in rehearsing the specific places that would need to be reached for a successful trip to safety in the North or Canada. It is worth noting that in all of the categories of spirituals discussed earlier in this section (Singing as an expression of democratic values and community solidarity; singing as a source of inspiration and motivation; singing as an expression of protest), coded communication was always prevalent in varying degrees. Since the struggle for freedom!” ‘was such a salient part of daily life experience of enslaved people, it was critical for them to have a safe means of communication with each other, and their songs were an essential tool in this effort. Copied from: http://ctl.du.edw/spirituals/Freedom/coded.cfin© Chapters Teaching Music through Performance in Choir: Volume 1 there are certain issues which need to-be considered: 1am indebted to Andre Thomas for his research in this work, too. Phonetic decay: Let's use Andre Thomas’ “Keep Your Lamps” as an example. “Keep your lamps trimmed and burning, the time is drawing nigh” is the way the words ace read in the score, and many choits sing them with articulate, proper English pronunciation. If we apply phonetic decay to the words, we would first have to decay the final “g” in the words “in burning” and “drawing” so they are sung “burnin” and “drawin.” Consonants: We have to recognize that certain. sounds commen in the English language are absent in many of the African dialects. For example, some of the harder consonants, such as the voiced “th” in words like “the” and “there” simply did not exist in many African dialects. Rather, the use of a harder consonant or a substitute conso- nant eventuated—for example, “d” instead of a voiced “th.” Hence the words would be sung: “Keep your lamps trimmed and burnin’, de time is drawin’ nigh” rather than “the time is drawin’ nigh.” There is also a softening of certain consonants. For example, “v” becomes “b,” and “t” becomes “d.” Hence, “heav’nly” sounds like “heab'nly.” Diphthongs: We also have elimination of diphthongs: “Keep your lamps trimmed and burnin’, de tahme is drabwin’ nah,” features elimination of the diphthong, which reflects more of the speech pattern of the people of the southern United States. Schwa [2]: There is also more prevalent use of the schwa. For example, “heavenly Father” would be softened to “Hea-bukn-ly” and the ‘” would be softened to “Fatheh.” Clipping words: Sometimes there is a clipping of certain words. For instance, the word “plantation” may be clipped to “plan'tion” or “wit- ness” may be clipped to “witness” as seen in the spiritual “Witness” “Who be a wi’ness foh mah Lawd? Soul is a wi’ness foh mah Lawd." 2. Tempo and rhythm: We need to be careful not to confuse the music of the slave song with later forms that derived from it, such as ragtime, jazz, and gospel. Most often we have a problem with the concept of. “swing,” how people understand the idiom of swing, and how it is translated from jazz to the spiritual. Curtis (1991) says, “The swing of the spiritual is a part of the reli gious experience of African Americans. It is a feeling, not a notation, and in order to feel it, one must be aware of the history of the music or the time of