Story by Cody Jones, Singing Justice Research Associate & U-M Musicology PhD Candidate
Singing Justice presented our research to a public audience last month at the annual conference of the Society for American Music (SAM) in Minneapolis. In a special presentation that included live musical performance, we shared findings and observations from our seminar recitals and scholarship over the last two years. Scholars from across the US enthusiastically engaged with us by asking questions, providing feedback and expressing an interest in bringing projects like this to their institutions.
Singing Justice taps into the scholarly diversity and artistry here at U-M. We bring together individuals invested in Black American music from various fields and perspectives, with performers and scholars in Music, Musicology, American Culture, History, and Afroamercian and African Studies. We study “Black song,” or the rich traditions of music made by or for Black Americans, which includes music from more than 400 years of history and countless genres.
At the conference, we shared observations from our “seminar recitals” — concerts we gave in churches, concert halls, and classrooms, in which we also asked questions, built discussions, and solicited feedback from audiences about the music they heard.
A particularly special part of our session was the live performances. Tyrese Byrd, Prof. Louise Toppin, and Prof. Caroline Helton sang several concert spirituals and art songs written by Black composers. We also shared video of the rock-and-roll song “Hound Dog” — made famous by Big Mama Thornton and Elvis Presley — from past seminar recitals of popular music performed by U-M musical theatre students.
Sharing quotes and insights from our past recitals, we provided a basic roadmap of how others might put on seminar recitals of Black song themselves. We were excited to share our research and to get such a warm reception at the SAM conference. The Singing Justice team will be writing a book based on our research this summer.
