"Spirituals were a music of inspiration and hope; sometimes they were all that the slaves had," said Tina Snead, director of corporate research outreach at Cornell and an accomplished singer, talking about a concert performance of African-American spirituals that will be presented at the Unitarian Church of Ithaca on Sunday, Feb. 16. A novel blend of story and song, the program will put the spirituals in a historical setting and occasionally lend them some contemporary resonance as well.
Snead, who has studied voice for many years, received a grant from the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County and New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization Program to produce the program. The concert originally was conceived simply as a recital of the music that she loves.
"Being African-American and having grown up down South in Georgia, the songs that I love are the old spirituals," Snead said. "I also wanted to convey the idea that spirituals are for everyone and to reintroduce spirituals to the community."
With this in mind, Snead pulled together a diverse group of performers, all of whom are connected to the music world at Cornell. Maryanne Henson, the former head of voice coaching for the university, will be singing soprano along with Snead. Karlton Hestor, the Herbert Gussman Director of Jazz Studies and assistant professor of music, and Christopher Morgan Loy, the assistant director of Sage Chapel, both put a number of the spirituals in contemporary settings and also will be performing, respectively, on flute and piano in the concert.
The program includes familiar gospel songs such as There's a Balm in Giliad and Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen. One of the spirituals that the program will focus on is often performed by folk singers, Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child (A Long Way From Home).
Snead said this and other spirituals have as much significance today as when they first were sung. If it is put in reference to our increasingly disconnected and chaotic modern world, this song speaks to all those who feel that they have lost their place or who are unsure of what their place is, she said.
"Although slavery is over, we still have other problems and issues that concern us today," Snead said. "Spirituals can be a way to help get us through these."
The Concert of African-American Spirituals, held in celebration of Black History Month, will begin at 4 p.m. at the Unitarian Church, 306 N. Aurora St., in downtown Ithaca. The concert is free and open to the public.