African-American women work songs
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A work song is a song that is sung while doing labour or any kind of work. Usually, the song helps with keeping rhythm or is used as a distraction. Work songs can include content focused around the surrounding environment, resistance, or protest. Many different groups throughout history have sung work songs. Enslaved African-American women had a unique history associated with work songs.[1] Their work songs portrayed their specific standpoint and experiences during the slavery period in the United States.[1]
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Work songs were often derived from traditional African songs. Many work songs were in the format of a call and response, which fostered dialogue. The importance of dialogue is illuminated in many African-American traditions and continues to the present day.[2] Particular to the African call and response tradition is the overlapping of the call and response.[3] The leader's part might overlap with the response, thus creating a unique collaborative sound.
Similarly, African-American folk and traditional music focuses on polyphony, rather than a melody with a harmony.[3] Oftentimes, there will be multiple rhythmic patterns used in the same song "resulting in a counterpoint of rhythms."[3] The focus on polyphony also allows for improvisation, a component that is crucial to African-American work songs.[3] As scholar Tilford Brooks writes, "improvisation is utilized extensively in Black folk songs, and it is an essential element especially in songs that employ the call-and-response pattern."[3] Brooks also notes that oftentimes in a work song, "the leader has license to improvise on the melody in [their] call, while the response usually repeats its basic melody line without change."[3]