The Society for the Preservation of Spirituals

Chronology

1922

First meeting of the Society of the Preservation of Spirituals (SPS) at 21 King St, home of Josephine Pinckney.

1923

First public performance by the SPS on East Battery to benefit St. Philips Church

1925

Porgy, novel by SPS member Dubose Heyward is published.

1929

First concert tour in northern cities:  Boston, New York, Wilmington

1931

The Carolina Low Country   Lyrics & music to 49 spirituals collected by SPS is published.

1934

Porgy & Bess composer, George Gershwin, summers in Charleston to work on opera.

1935

SPS performs in White House for President Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 20th.

1936

SPS invests in device for making "electronic transcriptions" (recordings) onto aluminum discs.

1936

Katherine J Hutson is recorded singing solos in her home.

1936

Nationwide NBC broadcast of SPS singing in Academy of Music on April 15, 1936.

1936-39

African-American congregations on Johns Island, on the Santee River and on Cromwell Alley,

 

      

 downtown Charleston, SC, recorded.

1937

John Lomax, Curator of American Folksong Archive meets with SPS President Louis Parker

 

       

and requests donation of aluminum discs to the Library of Congress

1952            

Series I,  LP recording of 4/15/52 concert at Dock St Theatre for American Society 

 

 

of Mammalogists becomes first release of SPS.

1952

Series II, LP recording of concerts between 1952-54 released

1960

Series III, LP released

1980

March 28 Concert, Footlight Players Workshop, not released.

1982

Donation of 45 aluminum discs of spirituals recorded in the Charleston area from 1936-39 to 

 

 

Archive of Folk Song at the Library of Congress

1983

Come En Go Wid Me, March 28 concert, Footlight Players Workshop, released

1987

Sinnuh Wah Yuh Doin' Down Dehe, April 13 concert, Footlight Players Wk, released

1995

Gala concert in the Dock Street Theater on March 23, not released

1999

Negro Spiritual procalimed to be official music of SC by Gov. Hodges
http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/1999/07/19/met_265943.shtml

2004

Spirituals of the Carolina Low Country, music and Gullah lyrics of 49 spirituals published

2004

Spiritual SocietyField Recordings, 1936-39, CD with 19 spirituals performed by African-

 

 

American congregaions and six by the founding generation of the SPS, released.

2004

Spiritual Society Concerts, 1936-95, a double CD with 56 spirituals released.

2007

Gullah Lyrics to Carolina Low Country Spirituals, lyrics to 94 spirituals published.

2009

Five Carolina Low Country Spirituals arranged for SATB by Gary Bachlund, published
http://www.bachlund.org/PDF_Files_2009/Five_Carolina_Low_Country_Spirituals.pdf