Singin' in the Spirit: Choral Book & Listening CD

Shaw and Parker's five arrangements give you flexibility most collections don't offer. You can program each spiritual individually across a season, build them into a complete concert suite, or extract specific pieces for festival contests, and the listening CD lets singers hear the full voicing before they ever open their own part books.

These arrangements balance reverence with vitality. You'll find moments of quiet vulnerability in pieces like "Deep River" and "Steal Away" alongside the forward momentum and joy in "I'm Goin' to Sing" and "I Got Shoes." The spirituals themselves carry deep emotional and historical weight, and Shaw's writing never undermines that.

Choirs at the intermediate to advanced level who want substantive, singable arrangements of spirituals for concert and festival programming. Directors looking for spirituals that honor the tradition while offering rewarding harmonic content for multiple voice parts will find these indispensable.

• Hear the full arrangement first by playing the CD section that corresponds to each piece. This gives singers an immediate sense of how their part fits into the harmonic texture.
• Because these are a cappella settings, lock in unison sections (particularly opening phrases) before layering in harmony parts. Shaw's voicings depend on rhythmic precision from the start.
• Pay attention to the text of each spiritual as the primary guide to phrasing and dynamics. Shaw's arranging follows the meaning of the words, not just the melodic line.

Program the suite as a unified concert experience if your choir has the rehearsal time to build it as one continuous arc. Alternatively, use individual pieces as standalone offerings on worship services, festival programs, or pops concerts where the emotional authenticity of these spirituals speaks across any context.

• Balancing independent part lines while maintaining textural cohesion in a cappella voicing
• Historical and cultural sensitivity when interpreting spirituals
• Shaping phrases based on text meaning rather than purely melodic contour
• Reading and performing Shaw's characteristic harmonic language and voice leading