A Comparative Study of Religious Songs in the United States : Buddhist Hymns and Black Spirituals

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This comparative study of religious songs in the United States explores especially the beginnings and the developments of Jodoshinshu Buddhist songs and Black spirituals. Both types of songs are the offspring of minor cultures and are good samples of acculturation in Christian dominated American society. They are also examples of cultures which show the feelings and mentality of oppressed people.There are three types of Jodoshinshu Buddhist songs. One type is the songs imported from Japan and sung in Japanese or in English translation. The second is the English songs created especially for English speaking Buddhists. Many of them were created at about the same time when Black gospel songs were rapidly gaining popularity in Chicago and elsewhere, i.e., in the mid 1920s. English Buddhist songs for children were created after the Second World War to strengthen the identity of Japanese Americans as American citizens. There are folk religious songs which sprang in Hawaii islands, especially … More in Kona, during and immediately after the war when Japanese Americans were most oppressed.When white Americans collected and documented Black spirituals in the South at the beginning of the Civil War, black slaves had orally transmitted numerous songs, both sacred and secular. The songs are the acculturated fruits of African music, religious tradition and Christian tradition. After the Civil War, black college chorus groups made much money by touring the country and the world by giving concerts of Black spirituals. Then there rose an argument in the 1920s whether the Black spirituals arranged for concerts were "genuine" black culture. The concert tradition and folksong tradition of African American songs became separate. At about the same time, "gospel songs" arose in urban environment to express the feelings and mentality of new generations. It was the time when the black people suffered from severe poverty and oppression because of Jim Crow laws and economic depression.The research shows that the creation of new songs or great changes in songs occur when American society is intolerant to ethnic minorities. The minority people voice their fear against the society implicitly in religious songs. They make sure of their social identity by controlling the fear while singing religious songs. Less