Elizabeth A. Brantley interview with Lewis W. Bailey, Deacon Thomas Allen, and Deacon Hosea Alexander

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If you believe you are the copyright holder of any of the content published in this collection and do not want it publicly available, please contact the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center at 404-814-4040 or reference@atlantahistorycenter.com. The interview begins with a description of shape note singing and then an unnamed interviewee explains how he learned the method. The speaker also talks about joining the Atlanta United Singing Convention. He concludes by explaining how the Convention sings the notes by approaching each note beat by beat. At 9:58 Deacon Hosea Alexander talks about his experience with shape note singing and joining the Atlanta United Singing Convention. At 13:10 Deacon Thomas Allen, Deacon Alexander, and Lewis Bailey talk about learning shape note singing. Next, Elizabeth Brantley asks members from the group about their experiences singing. At 27:40 the topic shifts to shape note singing song books. The speaker describes music notes and tones commonly found in shape note singing sheet music, notations that signal when to inhale, and hand signals used during performance. At 35:00 the group begins their practice session, singing Christian hymns: Im Going to Move Away Someday, Id Rather Have Jesus, I Want to be Ready on That Day, Getting Ready to Leave This World, and Amazing Grace. The transcript contains more information about the United Singing Convention and its members, the sheet music for the songs, a letter between Elizabeth Brantley and Deacon Hosea Alexander, and two photos from the groups practice session. Deacon H. Alexander (1903-1981) was born and raised in Meriwether County, Georgia, and he started singing when he was twelve years old. Additional biographical information has not been determined. Fuging hymn; Tm: UNITI,D SINGING CONVI"NTION: CLASS NUMR1':R THREl' by l<iL IZABE:TH A. RR/\NTLEY for MR. JOHN RURIUSON G80rgla State College March 5, 1968 THE UNITE:lJ SINGING CONVENT' ION: CLASS NUMBE:R T'HRB]~ This is a capsule report on a class of shape note sln{-,;ers vd,thin the United Sing;inf~ Convention in Atl~ntaJ Georp;ia n Its members are Negroes and are e.bout tvmnty in number.. Tho regular rneeting;s are held each F-('iday j althoug;h sometimes an Gxtra meeting is conveneo. on Tuesday evening .. 1.'hey meat in 8. house which belongs to Shiloh Bnptist Churoh and which is Iooatad 8.djacent to it. ~:'he group is organized, and opens its moetings with prayers., minutes) and 8. regule-r business session.. Its officers are: Chairman - Mr .. Glaude Lead.er - MI' .. Alexeueler 'Preasurer - lVII' .. Alexander secretary - Mrs .. Grissom The age raneees seem to be from mid-fifty up. T'he major "euthority in tha g;roup is given to the Music Director, Mre otis James .. !VII'. James is 6'1 yeaers old. He h8.s an artificial eye on the right side of his head. His voice is a deep, resonant bass. He learned shape note music from his father who was taught by "Blind Latham." "Blind Latham" seems to have been an i.tinerant music teacher. Mr .. GTissom) who is in his early 801 s, also learned shape note singing from "Blind Lf:l.tham. lI 1\1r .. Jmnes t father was a rural mus ic teacher J accompl ished on the organ. He taught shape notes to the chil dren, incl udinp; his son, for their annual performanoe in what 1vas e. Sunday School Singing Convention. At the Sunday School Singing Convention, the chiidren competed against singers from other churches in en al1-d8.y singing meeting. At these Con- 2 ventions adults also competed. 1 stress the children' 8 part because both Mr. 'nd 1'11'8. Jomes leal'ned and competed in Lhese when they were childr'fm. Mr& James) himself, became a music teacher in his father's tradition. Mr. James is important to this report because he was the tea.cher for the pn rent group J the "F'latrock Convention. II The "Flu track Convention!! bep;an at J',ittle Mount Moriah B-ptist Church whioh is onche corners of Ashby and Fair Streets, Southwest. The "Flntrock Convention" attractecl so great a crowd that it wa's d.ivided into three sections.. gaoh section eleotecl. its own officers and. formc<l. into a class. It seems that as certain members become more proficient in shape note singing, and as they exhibit lea<l.e.rship traits, they are permitted to form new cla.sses. It is from the Flatrook "roup that the Unit"d Convention is formed. As ide from the United Convention, ohere are thirty other n;roups opere.tinp; in AtlanLa .Jf Three of these, the .IItle.nta Wonders, the Atll'. nta Tre:vellers, and the otis J"mes Note Singers are directed. by Mr. Otis James. Within the United Convention, the five classes come together for Sunday 1 afternoon sings in continuation of the rural tracilition. Within the city the sings begin in the afternoon and con.tinue on into early evenin~:. The classes move around from church to church, that is, each class ha.s an opportunity to become Il. host c1e.ss. At each sing a oollection. is taken from the au<l.ience ancil pa rtioipants to provi,,-e a treasury for each n;roup. They also pay dues. These dues collections are use"- to feed and house groups '1'el ephone Corrv eration wi til Mr. otis James, M" roh 3, 1968. I George Pullen Ja.okson, White Spir~tuals in the Southern Uplands. 3 whom the Convention invites from other oities. It is important to them that the collections be generous because it is those Sunday regular sings which have to bear the bunion of financing, rather than the dues. The group had invited the Alabama Singers to come to ,Atlanta on Sundey, March 10. At this occasion, a collection wi11 be token, and the money is then divided between the host ChUl'ch ana the singing g;roup invited. I was told that they haa chosen F'airhaven Baptist Church for the sing on March 10 because it has parking facilities; am! a large auditorium which could accommodate the crowd they expected to attena. The pendulum upon which these Conventions swing is cooperation. They group together to share expenses and singing experienoes on their big occasions, such e_s i.nviting; the Alabama group in, and then when they are invited to go elsewhere. j'hey mentione@. that they hact been to Cincinnati, Ohio lest yeer. 1'h8 five classes of the Unitea Convontion are: the By-Way Baptist Church in Thomasville, Number One; l'ru-Light Baptist Church, Number Two; Shiloh Baptist Church, Number Three; Winston, Number I"our; and Gordon Hoed Methodist Church) Number Five. 1'he 'Winston Class is not really a viable part of the Unite a Sing;ing Convention now) in that it is too far remove a from tIle others. Because of the distance they found it impossible to cooperate as they do within the city. Winston is beyond Douglasville, and thus too far for the others to travel after church on Sundays, hold the sing, an@. be finished before the evening services. The classes are numberea, and the US" of church names simply simpl ifi,," their titles. The church names mean only thet the classes meet roguhr ly at the church named.. The groups are not structureci on denominational lines either ... 4 Anyone who is interested me.y join any group) and the music director for that group instruots them if they are not familiar with she.pe notes vlhem they ,join. Those meniters of the olass Viith Vihom I was able to talk) seemed to have learned as children living in a rural area. Two) Mr. Lewis W. Bailey and Deacon Thomas A.llen learned after they joined the group here in Atlanta. " They were influencel!i. to learn because they enjoyed the music. Mr. Grissom is the oldest member of the present group. 'Chere wes a much older' man present at one of their practice sessions) and. 1 was told that he had been a member of this group. He does not take an aotive part now. He seems to have lost the power to speak as well. That he heercl e.nd enjoyed the music was obvious, however, beoause he noddecl his head and smiled as they sang .. The women would not reveal their ages to- Three women belong to this class .. I Vias never ahle to meet the full class or to get a list of their names, so that while the membership is given as twenty) I only saw about nine of the people involved.. The group exple,inecl this by s"yin,; that there were deaths 3.nel illnesses among the members of the p;roup which a.ffectecl attemlancll. 1'he Sunday sing was most interesting. Each of the several leeders hacl an opportunity to perform. I have already mentioned the cooperative nature of these performa.noes" T!.lach lead.er directs with a sori, of up and dOVln movement of the arm" '.lhese movements indicate 1St measure of musical time 2 to which a particular song is sung) 1. e., three-fourths time) etc. When the arm i.s in an upright posi.tion the stress is. light" "ihen the arm is brought down the stress is heavy. The "G" curve of the .finEers, 3.S usecl See Tl>.pe, Sid.e 1. 2 Jackson) 01" cit.) p. 8. in deaf and dumb sign lanp.;uage J indioates "back to the chorus .. " Pressing the thvmb and. forefinger together B.t the tips means the same thing. The gesture varies with the leader of the moment, a personal preference seems to be the rule. The only ornamentation in the three pe rformanoes which I witnessesed. 'was the use o.t:' grace notes.. :ehis was very marked in the rendition of "Amazing Grace" which w.s the parting hymn of the Sund.ay meeting" and. which they did at my request when I attended the praotice sessions. They seeme" 3 to follow the Southe rn tradition of preference for the "fuging; hymns. This is true of 9.11 the songs on the second. side of the tape. Also, they seem to follow the Southern trad.ition for note singing as a convention. They are seven-shapers; they meet as a unit every Sunday; as a city-wide unit twice a yeer, and on e,n unspecified yearly basis, either invite an 4 outsid.e group in, or are invited out by e.nother city or state group. 'fa check Jackson's points abcut publishers, alonE with his references to Negro publishing houses, I have only one souroe--the covers of the books. A sample of two oovers are enolosed.. These are from the books which were used during the Sunday sing.. To learn shape notes they Use the stanelarcl Unio,,; Rudiments, W1 ich Je.ckson refers to. An interesting faot, though I am unable to say howpertinent it is to shape note singing, is that Mr. James began his musio training on the orp;an. He told me that pianos were not used in the ohurohes until much Ie. tel' An organ was the ste.ncl.arcl. church accompaniement for music. One tape is inoluGi",Gi wi th this report. Only five parsons were present at this praotice session. Side One, except for the last number, represents Ibid.., pp 207-208 4 Ibicl., Pl" 393-95. 6 their response to my request that they s inr; something, even though the others were not there. Most of this tape is covere" with interITievl material ~nd attempts to work out the bugs in the microphone. Side 1:1'10 is a continuation of the concert. There Vias another tape, but it die), not come out at all well. The titles and the Ie aders of each song are indicate" on " separate sheet in the back of this report. Also, al;tacheel, are two pictures of the group in concert, " copy of Un~ Hueliments in a simp 1Hie" form, aml copies of those songs vh ich were sung .. Because I eli" not have enough backgroun" informat ion on this t ra,Ution, nor "i" I heITe any familiarity with it asiele from the name of shape note singinp;, my paper is m"r"ly a report anel eloes not present any conolusions about Negro tradition in shape note sinp;ing. As to this one !~roup, I can say that they seemed to enjoy it. The forthcoming visit of the Alabama group here, and the vis it they wi 11 make again to Cincinnati seem to indicate that the tradition is not dead. Many persons inelicate" that they feared the tradition will die out with them, beoause the younger people are no longer interested. The present group) insofar 9.8 I was able te tell} has a median age of about fifty-fiv". Unless younp;er people beoome involved, most certainly this type of singinp; will di.e out among; the Negroes in this area. BIBLIOGRAPHY .Jackson, George Pullen. Whi CGe Spirituals in the Southern Uplands. Chapel .Hill: University of No-rthC;':"olina Press, 1933. 7 8 SIDE: '1'\'10 1.. Tape Position 55 - IlI'm going to m.ove away some day 0 tl Hosea Alexander" Leader, (Note: otis James uses his voice to find the key, except in Il3; where Mr .. Grissom uses a tuning harp .. ) 2 .. 'rnpe Position 80 - "I'd rather have desus(llt Lewis (James" Leader .. (Mr. Lewis ,James is B. member of a cooper'ating gr'oup) 3, Tape Position 316 - "I wHnt to be r'eady on that day," Jordan Gr'issom, Leader .. 4. Tape Position 433 - "Getting: really to leave this world." 1I0sea Alexander, Leader. (Note: A GOpy of this song was not available. It came from The Good Songs Song Book) 'whioh seemed to be a Dew one, n.nd thn.t copy belonged to a member of the cooperating group. L;.. 'fape Position 692 - lIAmazinl~ Grace .. " Hosea .Alexander J LeaCier .. (Note A good example oj' givill[; the line--or "lining" process) and l~rRce notes used as ornRmentation.) A PDF transcript exists for this recording. Please contact an archivist for access. Professor John Burrison founded the Atlanta Folklore Archive Project in 1967 at Georgia State University. He trained undergraduates and graduate students enrolled in his folklore curriculum to conduct oral history interviews. Students interviewed men, women, and children of various demographics in Georgia and across the southeast on crafts, storytelling, music, religion, rural life, and traditions. As archivists, we acknowledge our role as stewards of information, which places us in a position to choose how individuals and organizations are represented and described in our archives. We are not neutral, and bias is reflected in our descriptions, which may not convey the racist or offensive aspects of collection materials accurately. Archivists make mistakes and might use poor judgment. We often re-use language used by the former owners and creators, which provides context but also includes bias and prejudices of the time it was created. Additionally, our work to use reparative language where Library of Congress subject terms are inaccurate and obsolete is ongoing. Kenan Research Center welcomes feedback and questions regarding our archival descriptions. If you encounter harmful, offensive, or insensitive terminology or description please let us know by emailing reference@atlantahistorycenter.com. Your comments are essential to our work to create inclusive and thoughtful description.