singing with your body

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Singing with your body'

African-American religious musical tradition showcased Saturday

By MARY C. SCHNEIDAU Staff Writer

An African-American religious musical tradition that was most popular in the United States along the Chesapeake Bay will be showcased Saturday at the Banneker-Douglass Museum in Annapolis.

Singing and praying bands flourished in Maryland and Delaware from the 1890s until the 1950s, said author Jonathan C. David. His book with photographer Richard Holloway, "Let Us Together Sweetly Live: The Singing and Praying Bands," will be published next month.

The bands were concentrated in black Methodist churches in the county and grew out of Methodist camp meetings, where hundreds of believers would gather for revivals that lasted as long as 10 days.

The worship begins with a prayer, then moves into repetitive hymns in which a cantor sings a line and the members respond. The music is all a cappella.

"They aren't like ballads," Mr. David said. "They are short, rhymed couplets that summarize a story from the Bible."

The bands, with between 30 and 60 members who wear white, often began songs near the church's altar, with the men and women on opposite sides facing each other while singing and clapping. Songs ended by marching around church grounds to simulate Joshua marching around Jericho, Mr. David said.

"It is a physical experience," he said. "You're singing with your body."

In the past, performances could last all night. That was because members sang according to rhythm, not according to a clock, and often became caught up in the worship, Mr. David said. Modern performances are often 20 or 30 minutes long.

The bands do not practice and members often have to get adjusted to each other during the first several minutes of a performance. Mr. David said they want to the worship to be an entirely faith-filled experience.

"It does invoke the Holy Spirit," he said. "You'd have to be dead not to experience it."

One of the groups, the Western Shore Singing and Praying Band, will perform Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. at the Banneker-Douglass Museum at 84 Franklin Street. Admission is free.

The performance is part of the museum's year-long exhibition "Trails, Tracks, and Tarmacs: Lives of African Americans in the History and Culture of Northern Anne Arundel County, 1850 to the Present."

Yvonne G. Henry, a member of the Northern Arundel Cultural Preservation Society, said the bands are a vital part of black religious history in the county.

"This is a dying art," she said. "You don't see people doing it anymore. We want to show what happened."

In the early 20th century, each black Methodist church had its own band. Today, members are culled from several churches around the region. Members of the Western Shore Singing and Praying Band are from churches across the county, including some in Pasadena, Annapolis and Arnold, Ms. Henry said.

The singing and praying bands are adopted from Africa, where new Christians combined their novice faith with their old religious practices.

The bands first appeared in writing in the United States in 1851, Mr. David said, but descriptions of worship that match what the bands do appeared as early as 1817.

One of the most famous churches to host singing and praying bands was Mt. Zion United Methodist Church-Magothy in Pasadena. The bands became big there after the Civil War, said Tony Spencer, a gospel singer who also will perform Saturday at the museum.

The bands were introduced there after some members of the church saw them during a trade mission to Africa, he said.

They flourished in the county because the Methodist churches here used the area's rural setting to host large camp meetings, Mr. David said. Believers often attended camp meetings at many churches in their areas - not just their own - creating a regional network that could sustain the bands.

Today the county has the largest concentration of singing and praying bands in the United States. There are also some scattered along the South Carolina coast and in Georgia.

The bands have declined in members and numbers as gospel music has become more popular and the area has become more developed, Mr. David said, because the sound was formed in an agrarian setting.

Their purpose has not changed, however.

"The role of singing and praying bands was always to covert the sinners," Mr. David said.

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"From the Motherland: Singing and Praying Bands" will be held Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. at the Banneker-Douglass Museum at 84 Franklin Street in Annapolis. Admission is free. Call 410-216-6180 for more information.

Published June 22, 2007, The Capital, Annapolis, Md.

Copyright © 2007 The Capital, Annapolis, Md.