Call and Response

Call-and-response form is a structure imported to the Americas by enslaved African people in the seventeenth century.

A brief history:

A prison work song:

(“Hammer, Ring,” Jesse Bradley and group, State Penitentiary, Huntsville, Texas, 1930s)

A spiritual:

“Talking ‘Bout a Good Time” (Moving Star Hall Singers, 1967)

A sharecroppers’ work song:

(“Arwhoolie,” Thomas J. Marshall, Edwards, Mississippi, c. 1930s).

Some children’s songs:

(“Who Are the Greatest?” John’s Island children, South Carolina, 1973)

(“Miss Mary Mack,” John’s Island children)

(“May-Ree Mack,” Ella Jenkins and children, c. 1970s)

“John the Rabbit,” which probably dates from the nineteenth century, is so widespread across the English-speaking world as a children’s song that its origins in Black American folklore are largely forgotten. John, who turns the tables on the farmer by making off with his vegetables, may be an example of Br’er Rabbit, who is, in turn, a mutation of the classic mythological figure of the Trickster.

This version uses only voices and drums.

This one makes a nod to African-American traditions by using gospel-stye piano accompaniment:

And here is a veddy veddy English version: