Ante Bellum
Rhapsody for brass band
Robert Getz
Dedicated to our beloved “Tante
Maria” the power, grace and beauty behind
“That Amazing Mr. Leidzen”
1. Midnight Funeral
2. Prayer Meetin’ In The Woods
3. Death, Where is Thy Sting?
4. The Rattling Chains of Freedom
5. Specters of War
(approximately 7:00)
The tragedy of human slavery clearly predates written history. While paper laws
from President Lincoln’s time prohibit it in America, there is little doubt that
it would be re-instituted in a heartbeat today by many, if allowed. Strangely,
it was in the 20th century that it became illegal in Africa. Abolitionist
movements date to the 1500’s in Europe. What is called the Ante Bellum period in
America dates from 1784 to 1860 – “before the Civil War.” I am indebted (among
others) to Ken Davis for his counsel and generous loan of the rare book Slave
Songs of The Georgia Sea Islands. Other than Slave songs
there is sparse record of secular songs about the growing political conflict of
the period. However, the war itself created a veritable explosion of musical
output. As many as 750 pro-South songs were printed in that five-year period,
while over 9,000 were printed in the North supporting Abolition! It was from
this vast mix that Erik Leidzen could choose for his immortal Post Bellum
Rhapsody. Virtually all of “the Battle Hymns” post-date the Ante Bellum period.
Consequently, it is with a healthy
mixture of trepidation, great respect and even a sense of futility that I
embarked upon the task of writing a prequel to Mr. Leidzen’s masterful Post
Bellum Rhapsody. To tread where he trod (in any sense!) is indeed to walk on
hallowed ground. However, it is into such a daunting realm that I ambled. The
elements of deep respect were, to be sure, for Mr. Leidzen, but greatly less
than that for the subject of this discourse – American Slaves. The trepidation
was/is that one cannot from the distance of a thousand miles and a century and a
half begin to grasp the events that caused our nation’s most horrible event, The
Civil War. Sitting in a stuffed leather chair sipping a mug of hot tea is not
the catbird seat for understanding the demonic depravity of slavery. Can you say
that you really understand how a bullwhip feels across your back . . . across
that of your mother? Without rehearsing the rest, it can be said that the whip
was an almost tolerable routine compared to much that took place. What my
research uncovered was vast and interesting. Controversial to be sure, but the
fact of slavery was not simply an indifferent cruelty of the landed gentry
toward Negroes, it was a relatively dispassionate economic reality. They wanted
money and the Slaves could provide the means. However, the greatest revelation
was found in the attitudes of the Slaves toward whites. It was not universally
angry (as manifest itself a century later); it was generally charitable and
demonstrated reliance on Christ Jesus. “Nobody knows, but Jesus” and “Glory
Hallelujah!” are not phrases born of anger, but of charity. Slaves, for the most
part, did not retaliate against their masters after the war but simply and
happily tried to live the American Dream. This charity of spirit, above all
things, is what research unveiled and personal experience has proven to be the
hallmark of this noble people.
A rhapsody is a free-formed piece of
an heroic, national or rhetorical nature. In this case I have elected to use
mostly (now) well-known tunes to illustrate prevalent attitudes of the period
leading to the American Civil War – Ante Bellum. While all of the songs were
apparently written before the war actually broke out, at least The Battle Cry of
Freedom was not actually published until after the start of the war and gained
most of its popularity thereafter. I use it and Dixie merely as a ghostly
foreboding of things to come. Someone actually set different words to The Battle
Cry of Freedom, making it a campaign song for Mr. Lincoln in 1864. I could have
elected to use songs that were popular in the pre-war time but few are known
today. (Still fewer have the musical/textual elements I seek!) Like Mr. Leidzen,
I wish to write this one for the little old lady in the last row. Almost all the
tunes selected are well known and clearly represent various mind-sets of the
Ante Bellum period. So, this piece is about Ante Bellum thinking, not about
period songs.
After an attention-arresting timpani
roll, the familiar “Pharaoh . . . Pharaoh . . . let my people go!” is heard as a
plaintive bass trombone solo. The hammer-blows of the timpani set the stage for
Midnight Funeral, the piece’s first section. This dirge represents the sad
reality that Slaves often had to secret their dead into the woods for
clandestine burials. The “Massah” would not often permit funerals during the
workday, and then frequently the graves (if known) were disrespected by
mischievous paid staff. While the whip was clearly not present at these covert
services, the memory of it never retreated -- even when laying little Toby to
rest in stealth. The basses repeatedly intone a fragment of Nobody Knows The
Trouble I’ve Seen, while the drudgery of life is illustrated by the incessant
hammering of the timpani and the gloomy glissandi in the bass trombone. The one
almost-bright moment comes from the trombones’ triumphant “Glory Hallelujah!”
The word, “Jesus”, from Nobody Knows is heard accompanying this threnody.
The funeral fades into another
section of the forest and Prayer Meetin’ In The Woods ensues. Steal Away To
Jesus is not only a Negro Spiritual, it was a fact of their lives of triumph
over barbarism. Soon the trudge back to their shacks resumes with a sense of
even deeper foreboding as the timpani brings back the dirge.
The quickening tempo indicates that
Slave-dreams were upbeat and of A Balm in Gillead and that Sweet Chariot that
would one day descend to “Carry Me Home”. The third section is Death, Where is
Thy Sting? Indeed. “To Heal The Sin-sick Soul” was clearly a phrase they aimed
at themselves in the song, and it was underscored with “But Then The Holy
Spirit, Revives My Soul Again.” One can wonder at what might constitute the sins
of faithful Slaves, but . . . The indomitable spirit of the Christ-centered
human being was never more profoundly manifest than among American Slaves.
One can historically and politically
reconstruct and rationalize, but the fact remains that tens of thousands of
Americans died in the most hideous of circumstances so that these good people
could be free, if not equal. The Rattling Chains of Freedom is intended to give
a sense of the growing conflict of ideologies. Here a now lesser-known but then
very popular Slave song is presented as well: “Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel?
Then why not every man?” The wrenching of a nation ripping itself in half is not
a felicitous event. Brother against brother . . . father against son . . . At
least some were right. None were happy. There is an old saying that “no soldier
remains un-scathed in war.” Nor does a nation -- America has clearly not
altogether healed from the War Between The States, even now. As freedom “rattles
her chains”, the final section, Specters of War blends Ante Bellum tunes of the
day which supported segments of a country divided against itself. The Battle Cry
of Freedom dominates Dixie musically as it did historically. However,
Dixie
seems to be getting the upper hand toward the end, but it is not to be. Go Down
Moses’ “Let my people go!” was almost the National Anthem of Slaves and is heard
at the beginning, throughout and as the Final statement – strangely but aptly
juxtaposed with the song-fragment “ . . . and crown thy good with brotherhood .
. .” Look for no easy resolution in this music . . . as it is yet to come. If
there is triumph in the end, it is the triumph of the human spirit, which never
resided more nobly than within broken black bodies of those days of Ante Bellum.
The piece gradually picks up speed and volume from the beginning to the end as a
symbol of this indomitable spirit – a freed spirit – as a nation emerges from
the frigid fog of slavery.
God bless you, and our nation!
EXCELSIOR!
Bob Getz
February, 2006