Plog Number 288
Nobody knows…
Hello Ploggers, how are you. I hope you are doing well and bright. I hope that work is going smoothly for you, that your💲 finances are growing in the right direction. I am cheering you all on.
I am learning a new song on the 🎹 piano and it has made me think. The song is called “Nobody🎼 knows the trouble I’ve seen” One of the first things I noticed about the song is that it says Spiritual where the author or composers name would normally be. That is because they do not know the author. My super smart piano teacher shared with me some things that he learned in Music History class. He said he had a class called Aural👂 History instead of Oral History, pun intended. He learned that slaves sang songs and told oral history and passed it down from generation to generation. That is exactly what happened in this case. The song became popular soon after the Civil War in 1867. Then in 1917 the song was reduced to writing by Harry Thacker Burleigh, a black man. He lived from 1866-1949. Thacker wrote a voice and piano arrangement of the lyrics that were learned through Aural history. In the early 19th century much African-American music began to make its mark in classical music. A music borne of pain and sorrow. The music lacked the fame of Beethoven and Mozart but it was just as compelling.
I read a version of the origin story of the song. This version says it was written by a female slave who was begging her husband to buy her soon before someone else gets her. “Dear husband you know not the trouble I see." Her name was Harriet Newby. One of the aspects of the song is the religious hope that it describes. That no matter how bleak, the Almighty is aware of everything and waiting on the other side. The song hints that the misery ridden slaves were never alone and that Jesus was casting a watchful eye over them. The sad part is that the slaves had to wait for death to get relief.
Many singers have sung the song including Sam Cooke, Paul Robeson, Harry James, Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne and Marian Anderson. It has earned its place as a classic by all accounts. Yet for reasons unbeknownst to me, the song is often mocked, over-exaggerated and chided. I honestly thought of the song as “A Bummer” with a negative connotation. I have done a complete 180 on that. I think that the song has been chided just as we as African Americans are chided. Our accomplishments have been white washed and anything that points out our deep pain from SLAVERY is considered too woke. People don’t want to hear about our sorrow that lasted more than 400 years at the hands of our colonizers and enslavers. They just want to brush it away or make fun of it. That is despicable and racist. I consider it a homage to my ancestors and feel privileged to be able to play a song that one of my elders originated, felt lived and passed on through time. We may not have a name to put in the place where the composer should be, but we have the song and the feeling and undeniable connection. I am thankful for the music and the purposeful glimpse into African American history. RECLAIM!
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