The Emotion Behind Music

 Narrations of slavery have reigned literature since the old historical novels, that have illustrated its horrors for centuries, to the more contemporary examples in hollywood such as Amistad and Django Unchained. We see it as a clear representation of what we were once capable of but no longer do. A story of human victory that is told again and again.
   
    In Frederick Douglass's, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, we follow the life of a boy living in a plantation and the experiences he encounters within. Violence reigns the scene as he is witness to horrible crimes committed against other slaves in the plantation. The whipping of a female slave, the continuous intimidation set forth by the master towards blacks, and the psychological warfare waged against what was thought to be the inferior mind of black slaves. One of the things that really caught my eye was the intense description of music and what it meant for them. When referring to the songs slaves chanted as running to the big house Douglass says:
       
        "They told a tale of woe which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension;
          they were tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls
          boiling over with the bitterest anguish"(27)

    Although the songs spoke of joy and high spirits to Douglass it was clear that the feeling behind was of desperation. The meaning behind those simple words was the pure substance of what slavery was. People chanting over for they would be able to get out and see the big house. They were still captive in this haunting world but even the slightest freedoms inspired the most profound emotions.

    In music I find that similar escape. Emotion is flushed out as you relate to a songs lyrics, as the exquisite intervals mix in with an intense rhythm that is the perfect illustration of your emotions. As I've learnt while playing the guitar specific sounds are able to set an atmosphere of peace, love, melancholy, and all others. Its a medium of expression that has been around us since the paleolithic times and slavery didn't miss out in any of it. African music mixed alongside American folk songs and the stage was set for the development of new musical genres. What Douglass witnessed was the continuation of a musical ancestry that resides all over the world. That is then, how music conveys emotion. How the blues got its name and how Douglass sees the weeping souls of slavery through the lyrics of an old African American folk song.

"I am going away to the Great House Farm!
O, yea! O, yea! O!"