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Call and Response

Traditional African Song and Dance

In African cultures, call and response is a form of expressive participation found in religious and public gatherings, the discussion and debate of civic affairs, as well as through traditional and contemporary African music.

Origins

The Call and Response tradition dates back as far as the seventeenth century in Sub-Saharan West Africa, prior to the African Slave Trade. Ancient African tribes had begun a tradition of singing as a means of prayer and building community. According to Nathan Keegan, ancient Africans were inspired by the sounds of nature. Each song had a distinct meaning and rhythm that reflected African tribal life. Before the arrival of Europeans, Africans relied heavily on oral tradition rather than on reading and writing as a means of storytelling and communication. Call and response originated as a form of oral tradition; people told stories and passed them on through word of mouth. In ancient Africa, the callers (griots [gree-o] or griottes [gree-ot]) would begin narrating a story or singing a song in such a way that prompted those responding to retell the story or repeat the rhythm and beat of a song in order to create a consistent pattern. Gradually, the call and response tradition made its way into spiritual rituals, paving the way for a new way of worship in West African religion.

Adaptation through slavery

The rise of call and response music in African American culture can be traced back to the struggle their ancestors faced upon arriving in a distinctly different environment than the one they left.  The challenges and strains felt by these communities during the trans-Atlantic Slave trade were assuaged by recollecting a cultural inheritance rooted in mystery, music, and song.  After surviving the journey through the Middle Passage, African slaves sought relief from their troubles by tapping into memories of their homeland and engaging in call and response singing. Traditional forms of music and song meshed with ideologies put forward by European settlers.  At the same time, Protestantism was taking root in the New World, which furthered the ability of African Americans to engage in more praise and worship, adding to the spiritual intensity already being established through call and response singing.

This syncretic form of African traditional song often began with participants gathering in a circle, often called a “ring,” and while the music would begin at a gentle and slow pace, over time the singing would increase in volume and emotion until the call and response song met a fever pitch with prayers and affirmations to God shouted out during the height of passion. In many places across the United States, these rituals became a threat to slave owners, who often banned congregations which became too exuberant.  In certain regions, slaves would take their songs to the fields and surrounding wilderness areas in order to avoid being heard by their masters and potentially punished for engaging in when they deemed as blasphemous rituals.  African Americans continued practicing their unique version of traditional songs and the soul of their music was not lost under the gravity of this particular time period in American history. Black Americans maintained a thread of connection to their homeland of Africa and re-imagined a musical style that would hold both cultural and spiritual significance in the decades and musical genres to come.

Influence on music

There are two types of song brought to America by African tradition which would influence and develop African-American music genres. Spirituals, which were religious songs that described both the aspirations for freedom and dedication to the religious faith of the slaves brought to America, and work songs, which were sung in groups during slaves’ work using the rhythm of that work to keep in time. These songs showcased the call-and-response pattern of West African tradition, sung by the African slaves of the 18th and 19th century with an emphasis on rhythm over vocals. Countless contemporary music genres such as modern gospel, swing and blues have come to incorporate the call-and-response pattern in their song (see page Call and response (music)). Among them is also Jazz, originating in 19th century New Orleans from the influence of slaves brought in from Africa and the West Indies as well as the arrival of refugees fleeing the Haitian revolution in the Caribbean.

Dancing in Congo Square, New Orleans

Call-and-response in jazz

Jazz originated in New Orleans, where African slaves of the 18th and 19th centuries would gather on Sunday afternoons to preserve their original tradition and culture through music and dance, in what was then known as the Place des Negres, then as Place Congo, then (and still) as Congo Square. These performances involved instruments, dancing, gatherings somewhat by tribe, and those same uses of improvisation and rhythm used in call-and-response chanting and songs. The gatherings continued into the late 19th century and over time, African traditional rhythm began to blend with European traditional vocals to create a unique combining of musical cultures - what would come to develop into Jazz.

Later on into the 20th century, America’s post-WWI environment called for a reform of social norms. African-American expression of freedom and movement through the improvisations of Jazz music became the representation of cultural change that people craved, leading to the Harlem Renaissance and the Jazz Age of the 1920s, as advancing technology made the sharing and influences of music much more widespread.

Contemporary Jazz songs are still representative of their root in African tradition, often using call-and-response patterns to repeat a certain lyric in rhythm, or to encourage group participation with various sounds and vocalizations that will embellish the song’s expression and interaction with its audience.