FISK JUBILEE SINGERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19269, 5 September 1924, Page 2

FISK JUBILEE SINGERS.

There is no other form of entertainment quite like that given by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, who play a short season in Dunedin, opening on Saturday next. By all the unwritten laws which determine the success of modern entertainments—both artistically and commercially—there should be no place in the modern scheme of things for such an organisation. Rut the Fisk Singers arc different. Age cannot wither nor custom stale the infinite charm which has been associated with their concerts since the original singers toured the dominion over 30 years ago. It was a different company in those days—the sickle of the Grim Reaper has been busy since then, but those whom the mantle of the original stalwarts has fallen are proving worthy successors, maintaining in its fullest splendour the great heritage handed down to them. Some familiar faces will be missed this time, notably that of the genial Professor White, who has been called to his long rest, but there still remains a link with the original company in Miss Belle Gibbons, who, in spite of her age, still sings quite a good song, and maintains an excellent regulation as a lady baritone. The newcomers to the party number some very capable performers among them, and at the conclusion of a really delightful entertainment one comes away with the feeling that no better company could have been gathered together to interpret the wonderful choruses and quaint negro “spirituals” which form the greater part of the programme. The origin of these qaint old melodies is full of interest. They date from the time when the negroes were slaves upon the plantations. Isolated as they were, ignorant and elemental in their ways, they turned to the promises given in the Bible, and used them ns a basis of song expression—folk-song in its purest form. They improvised melodies and words of the most simple character, their method of singing being to quote a line in colloquial language and repeat and develop the fact embodied in it until it had taken up.