Cultural Divide and Wade in the water

Wade in the water is a symbol of hope in the black community and a song that I believe outsiders in our culture have abused and twisted into a song that is a ‘traditional religious tune’. It is not, it never was and never has been and I’m tired of those who don’t understand it continuing to disrespect my ancestors and by extension, my culture. Instead of gatekeeping though, I openly accept those who are willing to hear it’s story, as it’s history is one that has been buried by time, and butchered by musicians.

Harriet Tubman was a slave that helped free other slaves back in the day, she was a smart women, especially for her time, and helped form the underground railroad, which was not a train nor a train system but instead was a group of free slaves who returned to danger and tried to help free others, and were willing to risk it all. If caught, slaves could be Executed, Tortured, Castrated or even raped, or a mixture of those four, though sometimes they would die as a result of the other 3, not that their masters cared. They understood the risk and did it anyways. A common misconception I hear about Wade in the water is that is it talking to a person named wade or was an attempt to say Wait, and neither is true. Wade is a verb that is to walk intentionally into water. But why? well back in the day the Plantation owners used to hire slave catchers who used dogs to track the scent of slaves, and the only way for them to evade the dogs was to get in the water. Harriet knew that and the only way for her to tell them without saying it and risking the slave owners finding out was to sing the song and get the other slaves to understand it’s hidden meaning: get in the river, off the trail, and out of sight.

So what about this invoked my rage, well I’m a musician, and a composer and when I discovered the history behind this song, and seeing what had been done to it by other composers, that made it into a spectacle and a choral piece, and overlooked it’s meaning, I felt a certain kind of way about it, here’s the example that I used, and whilst yes it is my arrangement, its not my original work, we will get to that in a second.

Listen here

It’s a stunning and great piece of choral work, but completely undermines the meaning of this song, this is an act of unintentional disrespect to our culture. Speaking of Culture,

Yeah. Let’s not make this something it’s not, this is another part of the great american game, and while I finished the original version of my arrangement before this performance by Kendrick, I did think of him in terms of how everything is a message to those who listen. This song was a warning to the slaves, get off the trail, get in the water, survive. To those who hear it now, it’s a fun spiritual Tune devoid of meaning, that’s bullshit. I think that’s what set me off while i was arranging the ensemble version, it’s nice and fun but it is not wade in the water, it is a gross parody, same with all that are like it. This isn’t what Harriet risked her life to sing for, this isn’t what the underground railroad stood for, and this isn’t the song my people died to send a message with. Much like kendrick, I want people to miss the message when it is right in front of their face, and I want those who care to look at things differently from now on.

So I saw this and came up with a Thesis, and I will now present this next part as if I am defending my thesis, let me know what the committee (you) think (Pass, Pass with revision, Reject and here’s why). My thesis is as follows,

I want outsiders to leave this song alone, because if they understood, they would never want to sing this again.

So how was I going to reclaim this song from the mockery that the music community has turned it into? I wanted to start from a place I have never seen the Music community take this song, I wanted this to be a unique and leave the audience stunned. So how do I start, well of course I start how every other arrangement starts, the tune. but then I pivot, The next phrase begins with the Lead (Myself) name Dropping Harriet Tubman, and explaining how this song came from slaves, and how it told them to get in the water to avoid the dogs. Then we stop, and here is the moment I’ve been building Towards, I know that in a traditional Choral concert, the audience expects things to sound nice, and It does, but what they don’t expect is a history lesson, and especially not an argument. It’s important to understand that Art is something that when we create, it will outlive us, so I needed this moment to star.

That’s right, I am going to stage an argument on the stage, In the moment where I have placed a fermata, which means to pause until the director says to go again, I’m going to have my baritone suddenly stop and interrupt like something is wrong, then he will start questioning me asking why we’re doing this and what’s the point, to which I will go on an unscripted rant about black culture and say the quiet part out loud, of course, I am not meant to win, and I know this, so at an unscripted point in my rant, my Baritone will ‘rudely’ interrupt me and tell me bluntly “Shut up and give them their song.” to which I will act stunned and say “ok, show me something.” to which the others will resume the song with the words Wait in the water, not wade, and yes this is purposeful. This moment is dubbed the Resignation, because I have failed in my mission, but to those who care, this song carries the heart of the original, I wasn’t meant to win, my message is more subtle and meant to be missed by those who don’t care. The shift to the word wait is intentional, and the T is to be emphasized, because the song no longer has meaning, but we continue on to an ending chord that isn’t fully resolved, much like the history of the song. We must retreat and give the audience what they want, because they never cared, they don’t want the history nor the story, they want the classic tune, but to those who care, this song does what I set out to do, it reclaims the song to what it was meant for, not perverted into a fun parody that lacks meaning. Here is the score.

So what says the committee, have I succeeded in my attempt to protect my culture from those who have done it harm, or have I failed and only made the problem worse?