French Religious Music

From the early days of the colony, African Americans were exposed to the music of the Catholic Church. By 1754, the Ursuline owned a manuscript of spiritual or moral songs, Nouvelles Poésies Spirituelles et Morales , sung in French at a time when many characteristics of French vocal technique, such as the Notes Inégales , were very similar to African American music. Founded in the 1830s by three Free Women of Color Les Soeur de la Sainte-Famille —The Sisters of the Holy Family—also used music as an important part of their educational and evangelizing efforts. Singing cantiques both at church and at home, Creole Catholics eventually appropriated them by preserving only the most dramatic elements of the lyrics which they performed with a syncopated but flowing rhythm, making them the French counterpart of the Negro Spirituals, along which they stand as one of the precursors of jazz.