Son, if the mountain was smooth, you couldn’t climb it.
How many of you like Negro spirituals? An old black lady down south showed me something about the Negro spirituals, and I want to share it with you. You know, the black folk down south have more sense by accident than some of us have on purpose, you know what I mean? You didn’t hear what I said. I heard an old black lady say, “Son, if the mountain was smooth, you couldn’t climb it.”
Uh huh. Think about that.
Just about all Negro spirituals are written on the black notes
But did you know, she said to me, did you know just about all Negro spirituals are written on the black notes of the piano? This is absolutely true. You can go home tonight and play almost any Negro spiritual — just play the black notes on the piano.
You look skeptical. Now, you can’t see it out there, but I want you to watch. Watch. There are five black notes on the piano. And those same five black notes just keep recurring. And you can go home tonight and play almost any Negro spiritual — just play the black notes. Watch.
You know that? “Every Time I Feel the Spirit” — just black notes.
They built the power and pathos on five notes
That’s because the slaves didn’t come to America with do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do. That’s somebody else’s scale, okay? All they had in their musical scale were those five black notes. We know it in music as the pentatonic scale, and they built the power and pathos of the Negro spiritual on five notes.
When you study music, you also come across what I’m talking about: the white spirituals. Did you know that? And there are white composers who worked with that scale. In early America, they used to call this the slave scale. I’m going to play for you what some musicologists think is the most famous white spiritual built on the slave scale, or just the black notes.
He was the captain of a slave ship
Anybody tonight know who wrote that song? I heard it — a man by the name of John Newton. But do you know what John Newton did before he became a Christian? He was the captain of a slave ship, and many believe heard this melody that sounds very much like a West African sorrow chant, and wrote the words “Amazing Grace,” and set his words to a slave melody.
I looked up that song. I believe God wanted that song written just the way it was written, just so that we would be reminded that as Christians, whether black or white, free or bond, in his eyes, we’re all connected. We are connected, and we are connected by God’s amazing grace. Hallelujah! We are connected by God’s amazing grace.
Words, John Newton. Melody, unknown.
I looked up that song in the Library of Congress. I went to the Library of Congress. I looked up that song, and wherever you see it authentically printed, you know what it says? Words, John Newton. Melody, unknown.
I tell the Lord when I get to heaven, I want to meet Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. But boy, I want to meet that slave called unknown.
The way John Newton probably first heard it
And I recorded that song the way I hear it when I sing it. I still hear the sounds of the slave ships in the water. I want to sing it for you the way John Newton probably first heard it, coming up out of the belly of the ship. Listen.
How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found. I once was lost, but now I’m found. Was blind, but now I see. And when we’ve 10,000 years bright shining as the sun, we escape to see God’s grace be upon us.