1871: Freedom Songs

1871, Ohio. A group of young Black students from Fisk University step onto a church balcony and begin to sing. Their repertoire is unlike anything most of the audience have heard before: spirituals, shaped by generations of enslaved African Americans and passed down through families, churches and communities. Before long, the Fisk Jubilee Singers are attracting attention on both sides of the Atlantic.

Formed to raise money for a struggling university founded after the American Civil War, the singers tour the United States, Britain and Europe, overcoming prejudice and hostility along the way. Their performances help establish spirituals as a recognised concert tradition, bringing songs once confined to private and religious settings into public musical life.

The influence of those songs reaches far beyond the nineteenth century. Through musicians such as Harry Burleigh and composers including Antonín Dvořák, spirituals become part of a wider conversation about what an American classical tradition might sound like. Their legacy can be heard in the work of generations of composers who draw on African American musical traditions in the concert hall.

Gillian Moore is joined by a roster of distinguished historians for this major new BBC Radio 3 series, charting a course through 1000 years of classical music history. For the next eight programmes, historian Kate Williams is in the chair, as together they explore the rich musical world of the nineteenth century.

Producer: Megan Jones
Academic Consultant: Professor Laura Tunbridge, University of Oxford
Story Consultant: Kate Leys
Series Editor for BBC Audio: Emma Harding

MUSIC DETAILS
Key Changes theme tune composed by Joseph Howard and performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Kerem Hasan.

Fisk Jubilee Singers: Give Way Jordan
Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" – I. Adagio – Allegro molto
Fisk Jubilee Singers: Steal Away
Fisk Jubilee Singers: Blow Gabriel Blow
Fisk Jubilee Singers: Go Down, Moses
Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" – II. Largo
Harry T. Burleigh: Southland Sketches
William Grant Still: Darker America

To listen to this programme using most smart speakers, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Key Changes."