The Spiritual – America’s First Folk Music

Inspired by a number of African American artists today, the American Spiritual, first authored by unknown enslaved bards, remains a standard part of the repertoire of classical music vocal performers of African heritage in the United States.

Spirituals, whether performed in a recital setting with just voice and piano or on the grand stages of concert halls around the world with full orchestral support, is arguably America’s first folk music sustained not so long ago by classically trained artists like Marian Anderson, Leontyne Price, Paul Robeson, Simon Estes, William Warfield and, more recently by Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle.