A New Genre Emerges

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A New Genre Emerges

• A survey of gospel music, its roots history and
  impact

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Why I choose this topic

• I have been singing gospel music for many years,
  how I started singing
  
• Was uninformed concerning specific aspects of the
  musics roots and history
  
• Subject is not offered in school nor is it
  discussed in detail (served a great opportunity
  for me to become self educated on the topic)

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Sources

• Websites Great For Pictures and Sound Clips
• Thomas Dorsey
• http//www.palletmastersworkshop.com/birth.html
• Gospel Photos- Chicago
• http//www.chipublib.org/008subject/001artmusic/go
  spel/jsphotogallery.html
  
• Dorsey Mahalia
• http//news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/199
  907/22_olsond_dorsey/
  
• Dorsey Music
• http//www.hierographics.org/yourhistoryonline/you
  rhistoryonlineVIII.htm
  
• Tindley-
• http//library.thinkquest.org/3337/ctindley.html
• Richard Allen
• http//home.iag.net/greaterfaith/
• Colored Infantry Band- Arlington, Virginia Band
  of 107th U.S. Colored Infantry at Fort Corcoran
  
• http//americancivilwar.com/colored/colored_troops
  .html
  
• Fisk Jubilee singers
• http//www.fiskjubileesingers.org/about.html
• http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/singers/

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Proposal (Goals and Objectives)

• The main objective of this project is to show the
  evolution of gospel music as it descends from
  African American folk tradition and emerges as
  modern genre.
• This process of evolution is revealed through
  examination of
  
• Gospel Music Tradition
• Musical Components
• Mass Appeal

• Definition of Gospel Music
• Bound in the development of fundamentalist
  religion within rural and southern American
  Communities in America after the Civil War
  
• Sung by both Afro-American and white soloist,
  groups and congregations, has found its richest
  expression in the black church
  
• The New Grove Gospel Blues and Jazz

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1784The First black men granted licenses to
preach

• The black church is the first and greatest
  institution where Black Americans possess power
  and leadership.

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Rev Richard Allen (1760-1831)

• Granted a license to preach through the Methodist
  church
  
• Black Methodist churches emerged in New York
  Philadelphia
  
• Founded the African Methodist Episcopal (AME)
  Church in 1794- by 1880 it had 400,000 members a
  number double that of its rivals
  
• Published an AME hymnal which included a
  collection hymns of that appealed to his African
  American congregation.

A former slave, Richard Allen founded the AME
church as a result of segregationist practices
enacted by white Methodist churches.
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1863Emancipation ProclamationA Result of the
Norths Victory in the Civil War

• Black Men served in the military during the civil
  war. They became part of military bands, it was
  this experience that added new instrumentation to
  African American music traditions.

Arlington, Virginia Band of 107th U.S. Colored
Infantry at Fort Corcoran
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Early Influences on Gospel Music

• Protestant Hymns
• Spirituals
• Jubilee Songs
• Gospel Hymns
• Folk churches performed these types of songs in a
  highly unorthodox way

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1871 First Tour of Fisk Jubilee Singers

• Jubilee Singers performed concert arrangements of
  black spirituals. The publication of these
  spirituals in the 1860s and their international
  tour sparked a new and increasing interest in
  black spirituals and helped to preserve portions
  of this pre-war history.
• Songs they performed were a capella, used
  conventional harmonies, diatonic scales, pure
  vocal tones and modified responses

The picture above hangs in the Fisk University
Collections in Nashville, Tennessee. It was
painted by the British artist Edmund Havel
(1835-1908) in 1873 and is entitled, "The Jubilee
Singers." (Used here by permission of Fisk
University)
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1900Fist compositions of a black gospel
songwriter appear

• Albert Tindley (1851?-1933)
• Methodist preacher from Maryland
• Founded the East Calvary Methodist Episcopal
  Church in Philadelphia in 1870
  
• Became well known for its exiting music, some
  songs written by Tindley
  
• Many of his songs were intended for Sunday school
  and social gatherings (informal settings)
  

Albert Tindley (1851?-1933)
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Thomas Dorsey (1899-1993) The Father of Gospel
Music

• Born in Rural Georgia
• Settled in Chicago in 1916- during great
  migration
  
• Known for coining the term gospel music during
  the 1930s
  

Precious Lord Take My Hand, When Ive Done My
Best, Thy Bossom, and Search Me, Lord

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Secular vs. Sacred

• Dorsey was not allowed to play his music during
  church services
  
• Began as a blues musician
• Nicknamed Barrelhouse Tom
• Experienced dance pianist and toured w/ famous
  blues artist such a Ma Rainey
  
• Influenced by Albert Tindleys gospel songs which
  he reworked in a different style
  
• Was also impacted by evangelist Homer A.
  Rodeheaver which he saw in 1911 at a camp
  meeting
  
• Was writing gospel songs at the same time he was
  working on blues songs
  

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Secular Influences on Gospel Music

• By 1920 gospel was established as a distinctive
  genre
  
• Blues- spirituals
• Antecedents of the blues
• Personal reflection
• 12 bar form chords I-IV-V
• Satirical/ Sarcastic reflections of hard times or
  personal misery
  

By the 1920s it had developed into a distinctive
genre, displaying features of both the historic
sacred black music and the secular. Observers
perceived that this expressive church music was
essentially the sacred counterpart of the blues,
frequently the sacred text being the only
distinguishing element. -Eilleen Southern. The
Music of Black Americans A history.
The first recordings by the Father of the Blues,
with his own hand-picked orchestra.These
recordings were made between 1917 and 1923, Mr.
Handy presiding and playing cornet. His orchestra
featured trombone, clarinet, alto sax, violins,
piano, tuba, string bass, drums and xylophone!
Produced and with liner notes by Richard Hite.
(Memphis Archives)
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1921Gospel Pearls- a collection of 165 songs
produced by Sunday School Publishing Board of the
National Baptist Convention

• Poems center around a single theme stressed
  through repetition of phrases
  
• Instrumental accompaniment
• Marked syncopation
• Percussive instrumental rhythms
• Strophic forms- Verse refrain
• Melody uses flatted thirds and sevenths- related
  to the blues
  

• Group oriented, tell stories about biblical
  events, old testament stories
  
• Sung a capella
• Form consists of one repeated strain (ie aaa)
• Uses bent tones rarely

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1930National Baptist Convention publicly
endorses gospel music at the Jubilee annual
meeting of the National Baptist Convention, USA
at Chicago

• Thomas Dorsey
• Popularized the term gospel music in the 1930s
• 1932- Founded the National Convention of Gospel
  Choirs and choruses
  
• Gospel Music competitions
• Paid gospel concerts sell out and establish
  gospel music as a profitable business
  
• Prior to religious music concerts were open to
  whoever wanted to listen
  
• Caused the emergence of professional Gospel
  artist
  

• Dorseys Musical Contributions
• The addition of female singers
• Large choirs with accompaniment
• Musical density and improvisation

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Gospel Music Becomes Popular

• Mahalia Jackson (1912-1972) born in New Orleans
  Lousianna
  
• Settled in Chicago in 1927, became associated
  with Dorsey in 1929
  
• Recorded regularly starting in 1946
• Took Gospel music international in 1952 as she
  toured Europe

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Gospel Quartets
5 blind boys at the Apollo Theatre
Mighty Clouds of Joy
The Sensational Nightingales
The Spirit of Memphis
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1957Ward Singers become the first gospel group
to perform at Newport Jazz Festival

• Gospel music is taken into secular venues
• The Ward singers, a professional group
• The first gospel artist to perform at the Newport
  Jazz Festival
  
• The first to sing gospel music in Nightclubs
• The first to sing at radio city music hall in New
  York City
  
• Among the first to appear in films and gospel
  musicals

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Gospel Music in the Mainstream

• 1961 Mahalia Jackson invited to sing at the
  inaguration party for president John F. Kennedy
  
• 1963 TV Gospel Time was broadcast every Sunday
  morning in 60 major US cities

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Gospel Music Internationally

• Gospel music tradition reaches various parts of
  the globe
  
• Choirs in South Africa
• Norway
• Germany
• Europe
• Australia

Vegårshei Gospel Choir from Norway, Sun. October
5   http//www.mindekirken.org/LEIF/Leif_2003/veg
arshei.htm
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Gospel Vocal Techniques Remain

• High shrill sopranos
• Melismatic singing
• Moans Growls

• Subcategories of Gospel Music
• Contemporary Soul Gospel- Karen Clark Sheard
• Gospel Jazz- Kim Burrell
• Sophisticated Mainstream- Donnie McClurkin,
  Yolanda Adams
  
• Gospel Funk/ Hip Hop
• Gospel Rap
• High shrill sopranos
• Melismatic singing
• Moans Growls

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Contemporary Gospel Music

• Combines biblical/ religious texts with other
  types of musical forms both secular and sacred
  
• Gospel music played on secular radio stations
• Becomes difficult to tell what is actual gospel
  music by the sound of the music alone
  
• More Cohesion between black and white church
  music Contemporary Christian
  
• Gospel music videos emerge

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