In honor of National Poetry Month, here are a few resources to help with the related art of songwriting.  Most of these books (the "MT" books) are available in the Music Collection.  The "PE" books are on the Third Floor of Bracken Library.

Writing Better Lyrics: The Essential Guide to Powerful Songwriting, by Pat Pattison

MT 67 .P383 2009

How to Rap: The Art and Science of the Hip-Hop MC by Paul Edwards

MT 67 .E38 2009

The Billboard Guide to Writing and Producing Songs That Sell: How to Create Hits in Today's Music Industry, by Eric Beall

MT 67 .B43 2009

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Songwriting, by Joel Hirschhorn.

MT 67 .H55 2004

How to Write Songs on Guitar, by Rikky Rooksby
MT 67 .R66 2009

Righting Wrongs in Writing Songs, by Danny Cope
MT 67 .C628 2009

This Business of Songwriting, by Jason Blume.
MT 67 .B67 2006

In order to write a good song
The words should go where they belong
The best songs do rhyme
But not all the time
Sometimes the lyricist just can't figure out the last line

Having trouble coming up with rhymes?  We can help with that too!

Bronner's Rhyming Phrases Dictionary: For Writers, Songwriters, Lyricists, Poets, Speech Writers, and Others Using Rhyme, by Michael A. Bonner

PE 1519 .B76 2000

The Modern Rhyming Dictionary: How to Write Lyrics (including a practical guide to lyric writing for songwriters nad poets)

PE 1519 .L37 2000

Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes (Electronic resource)

Music for Earth Day

Celebrate Earth Day with Music!  Check out these CDs from the Music Collection:

Earth, Wind and Fire

Sacred Theory of the Earth

by Anne LeBaron

Song of Middle Earth by Daniel William McCarthy

Heaven and Earth

by Al Jarreau,

Songs of Earth, Water, Fire and Sky: Music of the American Indian

Honor the Earth Powwow: Songs of the Great Lakes Indians

Missa Gaia (Earth Mass) by Paul Winter.

Earth: Voices of a Planet by Paul Winter

Earth Tribe Rhythms: The Ultimate Drum Experience by Brent Lewis

The Earth Rolls On

This Land is Your Land by Woody Guthrie

Sacred Ground: Tribute to Mother Earth

Lied von der Erde by Gustav Mahler

Earth Moving by Mike Oldfield

Or you can sing some songs for the day yourself from this songbook: Songs for Earthlings: A Green Spirituality Songbook 
M1977.C53 S6 1998

Subject Guide for Jazz

There is now a separate subject guide for jazz on the Ball State University subject guides page:

http://bsu.libguides.com/jazz

The guide includes tips for researchers, performers, and listeners.  I hope you find information you can use.

Music of the Civil War

The Civil War began 150 years ago with the Battle of Fort Sumter in South Carolina.  This war was a definitive war in American history, and the music of the time helped to define American identity as well.  Unlike the years of the American Revolution, music of the time was often published and much of it survived.

 You may be familiar with the soundtrack to the PBS series, "The Civil War," by Ken Burns.  "Ashokan Farewell," the haunting violin melody from the series became associated with the Civil War, but most music of the time was for voice with piano, or piano alone.  A few are still well known, such as the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."  Popular music of the day was spread by traveling minstrel troupes.  Some of Stephen Foster's songs come from this tradition.

Sheet music for many Civil War songs has been preserved by American libraries can be found online in digital format.  Ball State Libraries' Digital Media Repository has some Civil War Songs in the Hague Sheet Music Collection. 

Check out some of these Compact Discs:

• Songs of the Civil War  Compact Disc 9537
• Stephen Foster's America, Compact Disc 8610
• A Lincoln Portrait: The Music of Abraham Lincoln by the Bands and Choruses of the U.S. Military, Compact Disc 16447
• Robert E. Lee Remembered, Compact Disc 8615
• The Civil War: Its Music and Its Sounds, Compact Disc 13226
• Ballads of the Civil War, Compact Disc 9534

Sheet Music of theCivil War

• The Civil War Songbook, M 1637 .C6
• Singing Soldiers: A History of the Civil War in Song, M 1637 .S5748
• Soldier Songs and Home-Front Ballads of the Civil War, M 1637 .S64 1964
• Songs of the Civil War, M 1637 .S6683
• Historic American Sheet Music: 1850-1920, a searchable archive of .pdf versions of over 3,000 pieces of sheet music at Duke University (hosted by the Library of Congress' American Memory site)

Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month. Check out our poetry month displays on the Music Collection Counter.

Why would the Music Collection celebrate poetry month?  Songs are poems set to music, and in some cultures poetry and music are inseparable.  This was true in Ancient Greece, for example.

To see whether the Music Collection has songs set to your favorite poet's works, go to CardCat, and do a subject keyword search on the poet's name AND musical settings.  For example, Goethe and Musical Settings.

April in Song

Count Basie Orchestra cameo in "Blazing Saddles"

April in Paris is a jazz standard that is particularly associated with Count Basie's Orchestra (really a big band).  It is familiar to audiences thanks to a famous cameo appearance by the Count Basie Orchestra in the film, Blazing Saddles.  Among the famous vocal performances of this song are those by Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan.

Another classic song is"April Showers," which has been popular for almost a century.  It was recorded by Al Jolson and popularized in the film, The Jolson Story.  More recently, it was recorded by Sugarland.

For a different take on April, check out "April Skies" by Jesus and Mary Chain.

Women's History Month: Hildegard of Bingen

One of the most remarkable women of the Middle Ages was Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179).  She entered a monastery as a child and became one of the most influential nuns of the era.  Today she is known for her music, art, and writing.

Her play about vices and virtues, called Ordo virtutum, is one of the earliest known plays with music.  It is available on DVD, CD.  This play pits personifications of vices and virtues fighting for possession of a soul, also personified.  The only speaking role (and the only male role) is that of the Devil.

Hildegard eventually became an abbess and preached in the area now part of Germany.  Women of the Middle Ages rarely preached, and it was even more unusual for them to write about theology.  Hildegard wrote several treatises on theology.  Her book, Scivias ("Know the Ways") is a masterpiece of medieval theology, with sections on everything from the nature of the soul to the a chapter on the devil.  Her Liber vitae meritorum (Book of the Rewards of Life) expands on the concepts of sin and virtue.

It is rare for personal writings of anyone from the Middle Ages to survive, but Hildegard's letters have been preserved and translated.  Ball State University Libraries owns the two-volume set, and also makes them available online through ebooks.

Her hand-made books (manuscripts) are also known for their artwork.  Small paintings portrayed the mystic images that she had had since childhood (visions).  Although the actual painting was executed by artists, she is credited with the design.  One famous image, pictured on Anonymous 4's CD, "The Origin of Fire" (below) shows inspiration from Heaven entering into her mind.

Her musical works include long religious songs (sequences) and shorter pieces for use with psalms during monastic worship (antiphons).  They have experienced a revival and many are available on compact disc.

Because of her multi-faceted life, she is a frequent subject in interdisciplinary studies.  Scholars in music, theology, philosophy, art, history, and women's studies have all written about this important woman. To find information about her in multiple subject areas, try Ball State's MultiSearch, which searches many periodical databases (plus CardCat and WorldCat) at once.

Women's History Month: VH-1's Divas Live Concerts

VH-1’s Divas Live Concerts

Along with Lilith Fair (see March 4 post), VH-1’s Divas Live concert series has paid tribute to women in popular music since the late 1990s. Originally founded as a benefit concert for The VH-1 Save the Music Foundation, the concert series has maintained its commitment to helping music education programs in local schools. Additionally, the concerts have been used to honor some of the great female artists of popular music.

The first Divas Live concert on April 14, 1998 featured superstars such as Aretha Franklin, Gloria Estefan, Celine Dion, Shania Twain and Mariah Carey. The next year the concert expanded to include several special guest performers such as Elton John (called an “Honorary Diva”), Mary J. Blige, Chaka Khan, Faith Hill, and LeAnn Rimes along with the headliners, Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, Cher and Brandy.

The Divas 2000 concert was the first to pay tribute to a female pop music legend: Diana Ross. In addition to Ross, performers included Mariah Carey, Donna Summer, Faith Hill, Destiny’s Child, RuPaul and of course, The Supremes. The 2001 concert was another all-star tribute to “The One and Only Aretha Franklin.” Franklin was joined on stage by a host of artists including Mary J. Blige, The Backstreet Boys, Marc Anthony, Celia Cruz, Jill Scott, Nelly Furtado, Kid Rock, Bishop Paul Morton Choir, Herbie Hancock, Clark Terry, Ron Carter, Roy Haynes, James Carter, Russell Malone and Stevie Wonder.

From 2002 through 2004, the Divas Live concerts moved from New York to the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. Of course, the shows played up the Vegas connection by including such Vegas legends as Wayne Newton and Tom Jones. Headliners from this era included Celine Dion, Cher, Dixie Chicks, Shakira, Mary J. Blige, Beyonce, Lisa Marie Presley, Chaka Khan, Jewel, Ashanti, Whitney Houston, Patti LaBelle, Jessica Simpson, Joss Stone, Cyndi Lauper, Debbie Harry, Gladys Knight, and Eve.

In 2009, VH-1 not only restarted but reinvented the Divas concerts. Instead of paying tribute to long-established greats of the music industry, the new Divas concerts look to celebrate the up-and-coming artists who may one day be the next generation of Divas. The artists in 2009 included American Idol winners Kelly Clarkson and Jordin Sparks, Leona Lewis, Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson (for her role in Dreamgirls), Adele, and Miley Cyrus and in 2010 Nicki Minaj, Sugarland, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Keri Hilson, Paramore, and Katy Perry. The 2010 show was dedicated to the US troops serving overseas and was performed at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, CA and Army Camp Arifjan in Kuwait.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Are you wearing green today?  The "Wearing of the Green"  is a song about showing cultural pride but also signfies the hardships of the Irish at home and abroad.

Inspired by the American Revolution, Irish Catholics fed up with Protestant rule attempted a revolution in 1798.  Wearing green may have been a sign of opposition against the "Orange Order," a protestant group that was loyal to England.  Green is the opposite of orange on the color wheel, but also the color of the shamrock, associated with St. Patrick.

In 1798 wearing green would have been an act of defiance, and wearing it on St. Patrick's Day would have been an especially nationalistic act.  For immigrants to the U.S. in the late Nineteenth Century, celebrating St. Patrick's Day and wearing green became symbolic of ethnic pride for a downtrodden group.

Soon the ethnic pride of the Irish made everyone without their own ethnic holiday (i.e., everyone!) honorary Irish.  Check out Judy Garland singing "Wearing o' the green."

For the famous "Danny Boy," follow this link to the Historic American Sheet Music Collection at Duke University.  The tune may have been Irish but the words to this 1913 version were written by an Englishman and popularized in the United States.

Women's History Month: Lilith Fair

Women Rock On!

The summer of 2010 saw the return of one of the highest-earning touring festivals of the 1990s. From 1997 through 1999, Lilith Fair entertained 1.5 million fans and raised over $10 million for national and local charities. Ironically, the inspiration for this successful tour was the recording industry’s erroneous belief that a women's music tour could not be a financial success.

In 1996, Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan became frustrated with the concert promoters who would not feature two female musicians on the same bill and radio stations which would not play their music back to back.  Her frustration led her to decide to prove a point. McLachlan self-booked a tour for herself and fellow singer/songwriter Paula Cole, and it became one of the more successful tours of the year.  The tour date in Halifax, Nova Scotia (McLachlan’s home town) featuring McLachlan and Cole with guests Lisa Loeb and Michelle McAdorey was the first show to be called “Lilith Fair.” The name came from the mythological Lilith, the first wife of Adam, who was cast out of Eden because she would not do as she was told—a fitting image for women who were bucking the male-dominated music industry’s rules.

The next year, McLachlan founded the Lilith Fair tour. A total of 61 acts played in various line-ups in 36 concerts across the United States and Canada, including the Deer Creek Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana, now known as the Verison Wireless Music Center.  The following two years saw an expansion in the number of artists and concerts on the tour, making Lilith Fair one of the largest tours of the 90s.

Ticket sales for the 2010 revival of Lilith Fair were plagued by the current state of the economy. Light sales  forced the cancellation of several dates. Nevertheless, reviews were strong and the organizers have promised that Lilith Fair will return in 2011 and 2012.

The Music Collection has CDs by several of the women featured on the 2010 tour including:

Cat Power Colbie Caillat Emmylou Harris Erykah Badu Heart Indigo Girls Loretta Lynn

Martina McBride Mary J. Blige Sarah McLachlan Sheryl Crow Suzanne Vega The Bangles

Disability Awareness Month

March is Disability Awareness Month, and music is one of the few fields where people with disabilities have become famous, while their disabilities all but disappear.  Consequently, there have been many famous musicians with disabilities.  Blindness is the most common affliction, but there have also been musicians with physical disabilities who attained fame. 

The Music Collection has books about music and disabilities, including books aimed at music teachers encountering students with disabilities, and biographies of some of the more famous musicians with disabilities..

Famous Blind Musicians:

Francesco Landini, 14th-Century organist blinded by smallpox

Blind Tom, one of the first famous blind musicians of the United States

Blind Lemon Jefferson, early Delta Blues singer

Blind Willie Johnson, early Delta Blues singer

Ray Charles, famous R&B singer/pianist

Stevie Wonder, famous R&B singer/pianist

Andrea Bocelli, popular classical crossover singer

Art Tatum, jazz pianist

George Shearing, jazz pianist

Tommy, by The Who, a rock opera about a blind and deaf pinball player

Musicians With Other Disabilities:

Itzhak Perlman, one of the top violinists of our time.  A native of Israel, because of a childhood case of polio, he needs crutches to get around.

Paul Wittgenstein was a famous pianist who lost his right hand in World War I.  Wittgenstein inspired, arranged or collaborated on piano music for one hand. Later injured pianists, such as Leon Fleisher, have been able to continue performing thanks to that repertoire.

Read The Songs of Blind Folk: African-American Musicians and the Cultures of Blindness, ML3556 .R68 2009

Music, Disability, and Society by Alex Lubet ML 3820 .L823 2011

Fisk Jubilee Singers: The legacy

In 1875 the singers went on tour again, repeating the schedule of starting in the Northern United States and then traveling to the British Isles.  This was also the ten-year anniversary of the university, and the year of its first graduating class.  Unlike traditional universities, Fisk students sometimes entered without any education at all.  The first graduating class therefore included students who had been prevented by law from learning to read as children, and had to start from the very beginning.

The singers' previous trip was successful in raising donations for the school, but also in uplifting the race.  These descendents of people who had crossed the Atlantic in shackles now traveled to Europe aboard a luxury steamer, with a discounted rate due to their reputation.

Again, they performed at religious services and concerts in London, attracting audiences as large as 10,000.  On a smaller scale, they also reached out to Sunday School children.  Another trip to Scotland was equally sucessful, with over 5,000 at one event.  By now their repertoire was more well known, and they received requests for specific songs, such as Steal Away and I've been Redeemed (below).  They returned from their second trip with £10,000 in donations for Fisk.

Their success inspired other Reconstruction era colleges for freed slaves to follow suit, and many colleges continue the tradition of an annual tour, including the Fisk Jubilee Singers.

For more on the history and impact of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, read Tell Them We Are Singing for Jesus: The Original Fisk Jubilee Singers and Christian Reconstruction, 1871 - 1878.

Scotland, then home

After a successful concert tour in England, theh Jubilee singers spent their winter concertizing in Scotland.  As in England, they were welcomed warmly and performed almost daily.

They returned to Nashville at the end of the school year, exhausted but having been successful in securing cash donations and a donation of books for the library.

Maggie Porter, one of the group's best singers, had a personal mission while in England: to find her father.  After the war her father had left with other freedmen for Liberia to find work.  Liberia had been founded as a refuge for freed slaves before the war and continued to be a destination afterward.  Unfortunately for Maggie Porter, her father seems to have disappeared after signing on with a company of freedmen.  She attempted to find him through contacts she made while traveling in England.  Sadly, no word ever came from or about him.

After her second year at Fisk, Maggie took a position as a school teacher at a small town school for black children.  During Christmas break the school was burned, probably by local whites who disapproved of education for blacks.

Back at Fisk, Maggie was able to assume the role of Queen, as Esther in the Handel Oratorio, Esther.  Audiences in England who read Maggie's story in the commemorative songbooks probably wondered at the quickly changing fortunes of freed slaves who were treated like royalty in England and at Fisk and yet continued to face racism in daily life.

Fisk Jubilee Singers: First Trip to London

In May of 1872, the Fisk Jubilee Singers set sail for England, after suitable groundwork had been laid by an advance party.

On their second engagement, they sang a private performance of three songs for Queen Victoria: "Steal Away," The Lord's Prayer," and "Go Down, Moses."  Later, they would perform "The Lord's Prayer" at a luncheon attended by the Prince and Princess of Wales (the future Edward VII) who requested "No More Auction Block For Me." Their other engagements included members of the nobility, especially abolitionists and those who worked with the poor.

They had fewer choices of venue in England due to the differences in religious worship practices there, but at one event they sang to a congregation of over 5,000 people.

One of the most frequently requested songs in England was "John Brown's Body."  This used new words added to the melody of the Battle Hymn of the Republic.  John Brown was an abolitionist who believed in violent resistance against slavery rather than the peaceful means advocated by other abolitionists.  He was executed after organizing a raid on a federal armory with the intention to seize munitions to give to slaves for slave uprisings.  The song, "John Brown's Body," was sung by Union soldiers, and his execution was seen as an act of sacrifice on behalf of the slaves.  Stanza 3 begins with "John Brown died that the slave might be free," and Stanza 4 refers to the Jubilee.  For slaves and abolitionists alike, this song represented sacrifice and victory.

Fisk Jubilee Singers: New England

New England in the late nineteenth century was a busy hub of industry and commerce, and it was also home to some of the most active abolitionists of the pre-war era.  Wealth and empathy combined meant the group would finally be able to send finds and goods back home to Fisk University.  It was during this part of their tour that the first commemorative book of spirituals was published and sold at concerts "by the hundreds."

Manufacturers sympathetic to the university's mission contributed everything from clocks to silverware to a pipe organ to help the start-up university.  In New Haven, esteemed citizens took the singers into their homes when hotels turned them away on account of their skin color.   They never knew whether their first greeting would be positive or negative, but they always had friends ready to defend their rights.   In Bridgeport, Connecticut they stayed in the best rooms of a first-class hotel, but in Newark, New Jersey, they were thrown out onto the street when the proprietor of a tavern discovered their authentic dark skin, not cork-darkened skin of other traveling "minstrels."  This caused his other customers to leave, and the city of Newark's outrage over the event inspired a law granting black children access to public schools.

Concerts throughout Massachussetts and the rest of New England netted them more money and gifts for the university.  They returned to Fisk after six months on the road, bringing with them $20,000 in donations and promises of goods for the new building.  They rode in a first-class railway car as they headed home.

The also made a trip to Washington, D.C., where they sang "Go down, Moses" for the president and vice president.  Note that two of the later stanzas (18 and 22) reference the chains of slavery.

This post is part of a series dedicated to sharing the story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers as told in The story of the Jubilee Singers; with their songs by J.B. Marsh, from the Ball State Library Music Collection.

Fisk Jubilee Singers: America Robinson

In the famous photo of the singers that opens The Story of the Jubilee Singers, only one of the singers is shown in profile.  She was America Robinson, a dedicated student who was part of the opening day student body at Fisk in 1866. 

Both of America's parents were part-white slaves in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.  Her mother served a hard-hearted mistress who beat the child, leaving a gash across the face.  This may have been the reason for sitting in profile, though a later photo shows no scarring.

When Union troops evacuated Murfreesboro, they helped the entire family escape, concealed in an army wagon.

Her father was a rare slave who had been taught to read, so America had learned well enough from him to be able to make a living between school years as a teacher.

Number 53 in their songbook is "I'm Troubled in Mind," a song given to the singers by a former slave who remembered her father singing it to soothe himself after beatings.  Many spirituals functioned as a kind of musical salve to slaves who experienced beatings, separation from family, and other indignities.  By using imagery and references to Christianity, they created a genre that could soothe in any circumstance and reach the heart of the freeborn white audiences of the North.  The audiences probably wondered what horrors the former slaves had experienced as they listened to the song.   And for some singers, like America Robinson, it may have held special meaning.

Serenade your Sweetie: Music for Valentine's Day

The Music Collection has songbooks with background CDs with lots of love songs for you to serenade your sweetie.  These are just some of the Songbook/CD selections for your romantic date:

For Men: Great Standards Collection	For Women: Easygoing R&B
Motown	Taylor Swift
Frank Sinatra Standards	Patsy Cline

Fisk Jubilee Singers: Climbing the Hills of Zion

After touring Ohio, the group crossed into the hilly terrain of Pennsylvania en route to the East Coast.  They continued singing at church services, praise meetings, and concerts, raising money to reach New York City.

Their praise meeting in Elmira, New York, was held at the church presided over by the Rev. T.K. Beecher, brother of famous abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher and novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe.  He sent word ahead to his brother, who would be one of their greatest supporters.

The group spent six weeks in New York, supported in their efforts by Henry Ward Beecher.  He helped them secure venues and wrote glowingly of their artistry in advance of their trip to Boston:  "They will charm any audience, sure; they make their mark by giving the 'spirituals' and plantation hymns as only they can sing them who know how to keep time to a master's whip.  Our people have been delighted."

"Climbing the Hills of Zion" might have taken on significance for the singers as they viewed the Adirondack Mountains on their way to New York City and Brooklyn. 

Jennie Jackson, the soloist for this song, was free-born due to her grandfather's owner (General Andrew Jackson) setting him free in his will, and her mother likewise benefitting from the President Jackson's wife's will.  Jennie helped her family by working as a laundress and nurse during the mornings, and her schooling was limited to a few hours per day at a freedmen's school.  Her years at Fisk were punctuated by periods when she had tro work to help her family and save for her tuition.  Jennie sang a solo at the group's first concert and remained with them for many years.

Fisk Jubilee Singers: Touring the U.S. (Ohio)

The select group of talented singers from Fisk University started touring in the Fall of 1871.  Their venues consisted of churches where they sang "praise meetings," rented music venues, and university concert halls.  The group toured at first without a real name, sometimes being advertised as "a band of negro minstrels who call themselves Coloured Christian Singers." Money coming in barely paid the group's expenses, so Mr. White decided on the name "The Jubilee Singers" in reference to the "year of jubilee" which slaves looked forward to as their time for emancipation.

"Way Over Jordan" is one of the "signal songs" that could be understood two ways. The literal meaning references the Israelites' travels under the leadership of Moses in the book of Exodus.  For the Israelites, crossing the Jordan represented the end of their travels back toward Israel and freedom.  Likewise, for escaping slaves, the Ohio River was the boundary between slavery and freedom and the end of a long journey for many.  Songs signaled to escapees in hiding when it was safe to cross or when "Satan" was on the loose.  A slave in hiding who heard this song would know that it was safe to cross the Ohio River to safety.

So it's fitting that their first tour began with several dates in Ohio.

But although people of the northern United States included dedicated abolitionists, Union soldiers, and people who risked their lives hiding escaped slaves in the Underground Railroad, not everyone in the North was so welcoming. In Chillicothe, Ohio, the singers realized that the trip would not be just a fund-raiser for their newly-founded school, but also a mission to break down prejudice.

Here at Chillicothe they met with an indignity which was often repeated in the next year's experience.  Applying at one of the principal hotels for entertainment, they were refused admittance because of their colour.  Treated in the same way at a second, they only secured shelter at a third by the landlord's giving up his own bedroom to them to use as a parlour, and furnishing them their meals before the usual hour, that his other guests might not leave the house.

  Within a few years, their reception had changed: 

People who would not sit in the same church-pew as a negro, under the magic of their song were able to get new light on questions of social equality.

After singing in Cincinnati, Chillicothe, Columbus, Akron, Oberlin, Cleveland, and Zanesville, they moved Eastward to continue their mission.


This post is part of a series dedicated to sharing the story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers as told in The story of the Jubilee Singers; with their songs by J.B. Marsh, from the Ball State Library Music Collection.

Fisk Jubilee Singers: Origins of a Tradition

Education was the key to success for blacks in post-slavery America, but having been denied an education for their whole lives, former slaves needed schools that could take adults from complete illiteracy to college graduation.  Fisk University was one of the first seven universities established toward this goal.  Students were enthusiastic learners:

All their lives, the lash or the auction-block had been the swift penalty for slaves who were caught learning to read. Now that the fetters had fallen from mind as well as body there came an eagerness to learn that was like a consuming fire. The world never saw such a sight before as these schools presented. Families pinched with hunger asked more eagerly for schools than for bread.(p. 6)

Although Northern charities funded these universities, money was needed for building and development.  George L. White, a teacher from New York and Union Army veteran, selected the best singers for additional training and formed a group from these voices.  In 1871 they began touring the U.S. and Europe.

They were at times without the money to buy needed clothing. Yet in less than three years they returned, bringing back with them nearly one hundred thousand dollars. They had been turned away from hotels, and driven out of railway waiting-rooms, because of their colour. But they had been received with honour by the President of the United States, they had sung their slave-songs before the Queen of Great Britain, and they had gathered as invited guests about the breakfast-table of her Prime Minister."

The song on this page was given to the group by Frederick Douglass.  Like many spirituals, songs of freedom, hope, and despair that drew on themes from the Bible that resonated with the experiences of slavery.  Some songs carried additional meaning for people escaping slavery via the underground railroad.  "Signal" songs told escapees when it was safe to travel, which way to go, or what dangers lay ahead.  "Run to Jesus" may have been one of these songs.