Rosie (CD2, Tk1) Recording of prisoners at Mississippi State Penitentiarys Parchman work camp, in 1947. Recorded by song collector/archivist Alan Lomax Mississippis Parchman Farm included 15 labor camps, where inmates were contracted out to chop trees and wood, hoe, lay track, cut cane, plough fields, shovel gravel, and perform other hard labor that benefited both the industries and the State that sold them. John and Alan Lomax had gone to Southern prisons in the early 1930s, looking for songs that might not have been touched by the outside world. According to Alan Lomax, These songs belong to the musical tradition which Africans brought to the New World, but they are also as American as the Mississippi River … They tell us the story of the slave gang, the sharecropper system, the lawless work camp, the chain gang, the pen. Alan Lomax went to the Parchman labor prisons in 1947 and 1948, and found the equivalent of a plantation mind-set, with prisoners enduring harsh beatings and other forms of brutal and violent treatment. For this reason, it would be ten years before he released the first volume of prison songs. Songs like Rosie not only coordinated the dangerous teamwork of several men chopping trees but also made the workers more productive and helped the time pass. As with slave songs, the work songs also helped prisoners give vent to intense pent-up feelings, whether the words were specifically about that or not. Such singing and chanting can also ease the spirit, bring harmony to the group, and can even bring some pleasure to the moment. Rosie must have been a well-known prison work song, since Lomax found former prisoners who still knew it in the 1970s. This recording was made onsite at the prison, and is sung by inmates who actually used it in their work gangs. The performance has an interesting structure. Musically, there are only two musical phrases. Each one has the lead singer sing a line, followed by the group/workers singing a response. Notice how the group ends the first phrase/couplet like a question, with the last pitch going up. With the second phrase/couplet, the response singers resolve the pitch downward like an answer to a question. Throughout this performance, each half-phrase starts with a stomp on the downbeat, which represents the axe blows (or other work) that the song would help coordinate. Though the melody is essentially the same, the call-and-response lines Well, Rosie/Oh, lord, gal; Ah, Rosie/Oh, lord, gal occur three times on the recording, acting like a sort of refrain. The meaning of the words seems less important than merely singing together. The leaders voice is strong and commanding. Throughout the song, the response is sung somewhat in unison and somewhat in harmony, with individuals singing in their own way and time; an echo of the lining-out style of response. A stomp starts the song. The lead singer starts with a call, and the group/other workers respond with the second half of the phrase. Lead Singers Call: Be my woman, gal, Ill- Group Response: -be your man. (Ends like a melodic question.) Repeat of the call and response. Ends with a resolution to the melodic question. Second two-phrase unit begins, with the pattern continuing: Stomp-call, stomp-response. Call: Every Sundays dollar- Response: -in your hand. Call: In your hand, Lordy- Response: -in your hand. Call: Every Sundays dollar- Response: -in your hand. Call: Stick to the promise, gal, that- Response: -you made me. This is sung three times, like the songs first line. Call: Wasnt gonna marry til-uh- Response: -I go free. Call: I go free, lordy- Response: I go free. Call: Wasnt gonna marry til-uh- Response: -I go free. Call: Well, Rosie- Notice how the melody is similar but adjusted to the new words; ornaments inflect the text. Call: -oh, lord, gal. A similarity in the polyvocal responses with slight variations. The vocal intensity changes with each statement, especially with the lead singer Call: Ah, Rosie- Response: -oh, lord, gal. Each of the next two call-and-response lines repeat twice; the two-phrase melodic units continue. Call: When she walks she reels and- Response: -rocks behind. Call: Aint that enough to worry- Response: -[a] convicts mind. A repeat of the Well, Rosie/Ah, Rosie lines from 1:17. There are few syllables here, so the lead singer can really modify the melody. A repeat of the first four lines of the song: Be my woman, gal, Ill be your man (three times)/Every Sundays dollar in your hand. Well, Rosie/Ah, Rosie lines return for the third time. Fade out. End (coastonline.org/mml/opus/opussearch_detail.php?id=120)
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 05:22:02 +0000
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