Mt Moriah Baptist Church in Chester, South Carolina - "Father I Stretch My Hands to Thee" (An Example Of African American Lining Out Singing)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post presents information about "lining out" hymns in African American churches.

This post also showcases an example of a lining out hymn that was sung by Mt Moriah Baptist Church congregation (Chester, South Carolina).

Selected comments from this video's discussion thread is also included in this post.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/08/soulful-black-churches.html "Soulful Black Churches (Dr Watts songs sung in African American churches)" for additional examples of African American lining out songs. This was the very first pancocojams blog post (August 29, 2011).

The content of this post is presented for religious, cultural, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to all those who are featured in these YouTube examples.

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INFORMATION ABOUT LINING OUT
These excerpts are given in no particular order.
Excerpt #1:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lining_out
"Lining out or hymn lining, called precenting the line in Scotland, is a form of a cappella hymn-singing or hymnody in which a leader, often called the clerk or precentor, gives each line of a hymn tune as it is to be sung, usually in a chanted form giving or suggesting the tune. It can be considered a form of call and response. First referred to as "the old way of singing" in eighteenth-century Britain, it has influenced twentieth century popular music singing styles.[1]

[...]

Lining out persisted much longer in some churches in the American South, either through theological conservatism or through the recurrence of the conditions of lack of books and literacy, and in some places is still practiced today. In African American churches this practice became known as "Dr. Watts Hymn Singing," a historical irony given Watts' disapproval of the practice.

Current usage
Some Christian churches in the U.S. still practice lining out. While some churches calling themselves Primitive Baptist or Regular Baptist use it, this form of singing predominates among the Old Regular Baptist churches. The practice is becoming attenuated in some of them—the leader will begin lining out, but after the first verse or two will say "Sing on!", or a part of the service is lined out but other parts are not—so it is unclear how long it will survive."...

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Excerpt #2:
From https://www.urbancusp.com/2014/09/lined-hymn-african-american-vocal-tradition/ "The Lined-Hymn: An African American Vocal Tradition" By Urban Cusp on September 23, 2014
..."In the sweltering summers of my childhood, I spent many Sunday mornings with family tracking that clay into my grandparents’ small church. It was here where the elders – iron men and women who’d seen and survived a lynch-happy South, Jim Crow laws, and the hardscrabble lives of sharecroppers – brought their troubles to the altar and renewed the faith that sustained them. The Sunday ritual began with a time-honored tradition that is equally haunting and hopeful: a singing method called “lining a hymn.”

Lining a hymn is a common art form that has been practiced for centuries. The basic scheme is a leader, or precentor, raises the song by reciting a lyric, and the congregation carols the line back. This is done a cappella and follows a distinct melody that may sound a bit haphazardly constructed to the untrained ear. As is to be expected with such an old practice, it has many names: lining-out, surge-singing, deaconing, long meter, or Dr. Watts (named after 17th century Englishman and songwriter Isaac Watts who produced hymnals).

This method of singing originated in England as a way of compensating for the lack of hymnals and facilitating participation for illiterate parishioners. Gilbert Chase writes in America’s Music that the practice was legally sanctioned by Westminster in 1644, citing,

“for the present, where many of the congregation cannot read, it is convenient that the minister, or some other fit person appointed by him and the other officers, to read the psalm, line by line, before the singing thereof.”

This practice made its way to Scotland and eventually across the Atlantic to the colonies, from northeasterly winds in New England to the red clay of Georgia. Upon arrival on the American shores, whites and blacks in various parts of the land adopted the custom to their developing subcultures. During slavery, lining a hymn accompanied blacks’ conversion to Christianity and flourished because of their forced illiteracy. Whites in the hills of Appalachia sing it a little differently than blacks along the river banks of Mississippi. No matter the melodic dialect, lining a hymn is intrinsically American. The Smithsonian Institute calls it “the oldest English-language religious music in oral tradition in North America.”

There’s speculation that the oral tradition of many West African cultures made the practice particularly appealing to black slaves thrust and pressed into servitude. The horrific conditions of their existence certainly made the Christian teachings of a utopian afterlife attractive. As with the more familiar Negro spirituals, the lyrics of lined-out hymns center on enduring suffering with strength, believing that an end to grief will one day come.

As such, in the black church, the purpose of lining a hymn arguably always has been more than a utilitarian practice based on the availability of songbooks. It serves as a choral binding of the congregation, one to another, expressed in the harmonies of shared sorrows and the strength drawn from chords of accord.

After the end of slavery, the Reconstruction period, and Jim Crow, this custom has slowly begun to fade. The spread of literacy among blacks, the large migration north in search of economic opportunity, and the advent of gospel’s popularity has mostly relegated lining-out to that of an ancient art. When it’s heard in urban centers or contemporary black churches, it’s often aperiodic commemoration. It still, however, lives on in rural corners of the country where the centuries-old pain of the black American experience hangs in the air and covers the soil."...

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Excerpt #3:
This quote appeared in the Black Music Research Journal Center for Black Music Research, Columbia College, Chicago, Vol. 15 NO. 1, Spring 1995; reposted from http://www.hymnchoir.org/
"This way of singing hymns is called "Dr. Watts" , named after the 18th century composer of English hymns, "Dr Isaac Watts. These songs are also called "long meter", the "Old One Hundreds", and "surge singing."

Here's some more information about this type of soulful singing:
"According to William T. Dargan, Ph.D., Professor of Music at St. Augustine's College in Raleigh, North Carolina, the old style a capella "spirituals and hymns are characterized by two and three part modal harmonies, gradual but drastic quickening of tempos, frequent and strong body movements as well as polyrhythmic clapping and stomping patterns.

Developed by slaves during the camp meeting revivals of the early nineteenth century, spirituals are rhythmic, call-and-response song forms that continue in oral tradition among African-American congregations.

"Lining out" is a method of performing a psalm or hymn in which the leader gives out the words, or the melody, or both, one or two lines at a time, to be followed by the congregation. This practice began in the early seventeenth century by the British Parish Churches as an aid for those who were unable to read."...

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SHOWCASE VIDEO: Father I Stretch My Hands to Thee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D5LrCTmzk8&feature=player_embedded

Embedding is disabled for this video

Hymn Choir Channel, Published on Oct 9, 2008

Recorded by KB in October 2008 at Mt Moriah Baptist Church in Chester, SC
-snip-
Here are selected comments from this video's discussion thread (with numbers added for referencing purposes only):
1. myrbl30, 2011
"Thank you for sharing , Although u don't hear these hyms sung in most black churches today, it is their loss ... I sing them at home and I can feel the presense of the Lord and the Ancestors and it takes me all the way back to the Motherland! These songs and hymns are so rich and potent, it's like medicine to my soul. A million thanks for sharing."

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2. britdlake86, 2011
"This is powerful! I love it. We don't sing like this anymore. I've got to go home to Irmo, SC to get this kind of music. Thanks for sharing."

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3. minorholley1924, 2012
"This is a magnificent hymn and the singing is indeed powerful!! Is this a variant of the "meter hymns" that are often attributed to the Primitive Baptists? Please advise at your convenience. Thank you."

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REPLY
4. anointed1choirmaster, 2012
"Now I have never heard this version of this hymn before. VERY interesting!!!!! Just shows you that the same hymn is sung differently in different regions of the country and sometime even the next county over. lol"

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REPLY
5. Brandiejm, 2012
"@anointed1choirmaster This the black southern version lol Where are u from?"

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6. Martin DelJustice X, 2012
"I know this is known as lined out singing, but is this a different variant of it? What is it called? It sounds a lot different from other southern baptist lined out spirituals I've heard. It's beautiful and always gives me goosebumps when I hear this."

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7. morticin, 2012
"Now this is what I grew up on. My grandfather was Chrm of the Deacon Board. Those old Deacons would sing like this before Pastor took the pulpit. No music, then they sat down,and the beautiful organ would sound at the command of Mr Hamilton the great organist. Where did those days go. The pastor, my grandfather and most of the deacons are gone to heaven and so has Mr Hamilton."

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8. franzitaduz, 2013
"I believe the tradition is called "Lining" hymns. I heard it in my father's church, and thought I would never hear it again. Thank you so much for posting. This is true "Praise Music" ."

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REPLY
9. Hattie Mackey, 2017
"I am so glad to hear all of these old songs. They take me back to my childhood in Lancaster County SC."

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10. Christina Martin, 2013
"My gpa would sing songs like this. Some churches in TN still sing like this....."

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11. Gavin Mallory, 2013
"Deep south, GA, SC, Mississippi, Alabama, Bible Belt Devotion Singing. The Greatest."

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12. PGR777, 2013
"This is an extract of the extraordinary congregational/communal singing evolved from West Africa into the African-American Culture and preserved in the Black Baptist tradition. I remember hearing something similar at my Grandmother's Wake and graveside service in Jamaica, as rendered by her peers. I knew I would probably never hear that kind of singing again, as her generation would soon die out."

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13. Micheal Gardner, 2014
"Having grown up in a National Baptist Church, and being African American 100% I can say that this form of singing is a combination of African culture and european influence. The stomping on the ground, clapping and responding to the leader (the person speaking before the congregation sings) is an African custom known as call an response. The song is european. The practice of the deacon reading the music is known as "lining a hymn", this is done in the black church because our ancestors as slaves did not all know how to read. I must note that the only way to properly carry out this form is to have been brought up in it and be spirit led."

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14. Shakira Gilchrist, 2014
"My great-grandmother's church, St. James Baptist Church , in Johnsonville, SC sang meter hymn style and it would make chills go up and down your spine. I pray that this style of singing is always remembered and practiced by music ministries everywhere, especially in the south."

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REPLY
15. JSARogers, 2014
"My people in Britton's Neck--Red Hill MBC and Bethel AME--used to sing with the old meter hymn style, too. Big ups to J-Ville."
-snip-
"MBC = Missionary Baptist Church

"AME" = African Methodist Episcopal

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16. Albert Allen, 2015
"Sang Church!!!!!!!!!!!"
-snip-
In the context of this comment, "sang" is a present tense African American Vernacular English term meaning "to sing very well, especially to sing soulfully very well"

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17. ear will, 2015
"This is a primitive baptist church right cause the sing hymn like it is"
-snip-
"Primitive Baptist" is a term for a Christian denomination.

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REPLY
18. Evelyn F. Harris-Rayford, 2016
"+ear will Yes Lord! Ours is a little different, but we carry the notes long--wouldn't take nothing for my journey!"

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19. Pg Curtwright, 2016
"lining a hymn. don't here it much anymore. It's so basic a connection to African-American music. Beautiful example."

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20. Marcus ANT Adams, 2016
"This is refreshing havent heard a hymn lined in a LONGGGGG TIME. I agree i am 30 and i remember this is as a kid and ill say modern has nothing on this. i moss and long for this again"

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21. Lammar Clement, 2016
"All the Spiritual Hymn are still and have anyways been sung here in the great state of South Carolina. look at the stop down by the title of the video"

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REPLY
22. Ny Gadson, 2017
"yes sir! Beaufort south Carolina"

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