Read about the history of the ring shout, its African roots and its influence on several African American music styles

"Upon first hearing the ring shout repertory, even the sophisticated listener can be fooled by the simplicity of the musical construction," writes Johann S. Buis in the Transcriber's Note section of the book. "the improvisational artistry of the leader's singing is so fleeting and varied that putting such virtuosity on paper has been an extremely daunting task."

Buis continues to explain the rhythmic patterns with which the group sings, claps, and responds in this call-and-response form of music.

The term "shout" in no way refers to the vocal exclamation as one might tend to assume. The call-and-response songs are begun by the lead songster. In response to his lead, the clappers, basers, and shouters follow in the song.

The ring shout refers to the counterclockwise direction in which the women move while pantomiming the words to the songs.

ABOUT DR. JOHANN S. BUIS, contributor to the book:

Dr. Johann S. Buis is Assistant Professor of Musicology at Wheaton College in Illinois. Johann S. Buis held positions at the Center for Black Music Research (CBMR), Columbia College Chicago and the University of Georgia, where he was tenured in musicology. He holds degrees and diplomas from London University, Ball State University, the University of Cape Town, and the Orff Institute, Mozarteum Academy, Salzburg, among others.

He held a Fulbright Fellowship in 1982-83 and was a Rockefeller Resident Research Fellow during 1995-96 at the CBMR. His scholarship ranges from early music performance history to the aesthetics and reception history of black music between the United States and urban centers in Africa. He has had articles and reviews published in College Music Symposium, Issue, Ethnomusicology, Early Music America, MLA Notes, and other periodicals, and he was a co-author with Art and Margot Rosenbaum of Shout Because You're Free! The Ring Shout Tradition in Coastal Georgia (University of Georgia Press, 1998). During the last several years he has been very active in interdisciplinary scholarship integrating musicology, ethnomusicology, and cultural theory.

He has been in demand as a lecturer for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago, and other organizations. In addition, he held seminars in the USA, the Caribbean, and Germany. His professional activities include service on standing committees of the American Musicological Society (AMS) and the Society for American Music (SAM). His international activities include conference and seminar presentations, consultation, and service as an external examiner for doctoral dissertations.

Source: http://www.wheaton.edu/Academics/Faculty/B/Johann-Buis

Purchase the book that was written largely about the McIntosh County Shouters, "Shout Because You're Free" by Art Rosenbaum, University of Georgia Press, 1998. See book review below.

Book Review

Shout Because You're Free

POST & COURIER (Charleston, SC)

October 18, 1998

Anyone who was fascinated by the McIntosh County Shouters at last season’s Spoleto Festival should take notice of this fine new book about the “oldest African- American performance tradition surviving on the North American continent,” a religious dance that combines a distinctive counter-clockwise movement, call-and-response song and percussion.

Art Rosenbaum’s first, long chapter charts the history and development of the ring shout in the sea islands and coastal regions of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. His second chapter explains why the shout survives to the present in the Bolden community in McIntosh County, GA., when it has disappeared from more isolated places.

A third chapter gives a portrait of Lawrence McIver, current leader of the McIntosh County Shouters. The next part of the book is a set of careful transcriptions of 25 shout songs with words, music, and contextual information. In closing, a brief historical essay considers the Islamic influences on the African roots of the ring shout. Rosenbaum’s charcoal sketches and Margo Newmark Rosenbaum’s photographs add yet another dimension to one of the best written documentations of a folk performance tradition one is likely to encounter. This book sells for $25 plus $5 shipping.

From the University of Georgia Website:

Shout Because You’re FreeThe African American Ring Shout Tradition in Coastal Georgia

by Art Rosenbaum

Photographs by Margo Newmark Rosenbaum

Musical transcripts and historical essay by Johann S. Buis

Keeping African traditions alive through dance, song, and percussion

Description

The ring shout is the oldest known African American performance tradition surviving on the North American continent. Performed for the purpose of religious worship, this fusion of dance, song, and percussion survives today in the Bolton Community of McIntosh County, Georgia. Incorporating oral history, first-person accounts, musical transcriptions, photographs, and drawings, Shout Because You’re Free documents a group of performers known as the McIntosh County Shouters.

Derived from African practices, the ring shout combines call-and-response singing, the percussion of a stick or broom on a wood floor, and hand-clapping and foot-tapping. First described in depth by outside observers on the sea islands of South Carolina and Georgia during the Civil War, the ring shout was presumed to have died out in active practice until 1980, when the shouters in the Bolton community first came to the public’s attention.

Shout Because You’re Free is the result of sixteen years of research and fieldwork by Art and Margo Rosenbaum, authors of Folk Visions and Voices. The book includes descriptions of present-day community shouts, a chapter on the history of the shout’s African origins, the recollections of early outside observers, and later folklorists’ comments.

In addition, the tunes and texts of twenty-five shout songs performed by the McIntosh County Shouters are transcribed by ethnomusicologist Johann S. Buis.Shout Because You’re Free is a fascinating look at a unique living tradition that demonstrates ties to Africa, slavery, and Emancipation while interweaving these influences with worship and oneness with the spirit.

Our CDs recorded with the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings in 1984 are also for sale. Many of the original McIntosh County Shouters on this CD are deceased now but the tradition is still being upheld by the younger generation(s). CD is $20 + $5 shipping.