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00:15:37
00:17:43
00:15:37
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Transcription: [00:15:37]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Fish University out there, let me hear you. There's one right there. And the name of that group, this is your test.

[00:15:43]
The name of that group that started us singing negro spirituals for the public like this in the 1870s that are still singing at Fish now and there's a big mural of them in this hall if you ever go through Nashville, you should see it. You wanna yell out the name of that group for us?

[00:16:03]
The Ju- ah! The Jubilee singers! The Fish [Fisk] Jubilee singers! Right!

[00:16:09]
So, from the Jubilee singers, they sang songs called spirituals. Sometimes, the songs were called jubilees. Later, there started Jubilee quartets. These groups sang in an acapella style.

[00:16:21]
They had no instrumentation whatsoever. Following that came gospel quartets that sang in an acapella style like the Sensation Cherubims sang, and not until the 1940s did we start with acapella secular groups, like the Doo-Woppers we're hearing now.

[00:16:41]
And that tradition led into groups like, the Temptations, the Drifters, and other groups like you're familiar with. So, that's why you can see all of these similarities between sacred and secular here on stage.

[00:16:56]
You have any other questions, we've got about a minute to go. Yes, right here.
{SILENCE}

[00:17:14]
The question is how on earth do they know what pitch to start on? Now, everybody has seen acapella choirs. You have them at the great music schools of the country, the Indiana University where I'm from. The Julliard School of Music.

[00:17:32]
How on earth do they know what pitch to start on? There's no piano here. There's no pitch pipe here.

[00:17:39]
Where does it come from? Y'all carry a pitch pipe with you gentlemen?