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Article #143: The Gospel Truth about the Negro Spiritual

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What is the difference between Negro Understand It Better By and By."
spirituals and gospel music? Tindley and his contemporaries
It seemed like a simple question, but it copyrighted and published their music in
was immediately apparent that the answer collections such as Gospel Pearls and New
was far from simple. First, it is Songs of Paradise. They also promoted
complicated by the fact that both exist their works in concerts and events. Some
because of a deep-seated need to express churches allowed, for the first time, the
faith in song. use of instruments such as the piano,
Secondly, one genre has used the other drums and tambourine. Gospel performing
for source material. Also, the history of forces during this period consisted
one genre blends into the other. either of male quartets or female gospel
The times and environment in which the choirs.
spiritual was nurtured were starkly In the early 20th century, many southern
different than that of black gospel African Americans migrated north,
music. Gospel music is clearly rooted in carrying their music with them. Chicago
the spiritual, and Gospel musicians have became the center of gospel music in the
drawn on the spiritual for source 1930's with the arrival of Thomas A.
material. But are gospel songs simply Dorsey, the "Father of Gospel Music."
"jazzed-up" spirituals? What is the Dorsey, who had a very successful career
"gospel truth?" writing and performing with blues diva Ma
The Negro Spiritual: From Cotton Field to Rainey, introduced blues elements to the
Concert Hall sacred music he wrote. He went from
Negro spirituals are songs created by the church door to church door, gradually
Africans who were captured and brought to convincing ministers that this "devil's
the United States to be sold into music" was suitable for their services.
slavery. This stolen race was deprived of With the help of vocalists such as Sallie
their languages, families, and cultures; Martin and Mahalia Jackson, he recorded
yet, their masters could not take away his songs and generated an international
their music. audience for his music. He composed over
Over the years, these slaves and their 400 songs in his career, including his
descendents adopted Christianity, the most famous song, "Precious Lord, Take My
religion of their masters. They re-shaped Hand."
it into a deeply personal way of dealing Many of Dorsey's contemporaries
with the oppression of their enslavement. maintained secular and sacred
Their songs, which were to become known professional lives. For example, Blues
as spirituals, reflected the slaves' need great Blind Lemon Jefferson was also
to express their new faith. known as Deacon L. J. Bates. Singing
The songs were also used for secret preachers recorded gospel "race records,"
communication without the knowledge of and they visited urban congregations
their masters. This was particularly the around America.
case when a slave planned to escape By the 1950's, gospel music had undergone
bondage via the Underground Railroad. more changes. Electric organ or guitars,
Spirituals were created extemporaneously brass and string instruments, and a
and were passed orally from person to variety of percussion instruments
person. They were improvised as suited accompanied choirs that now included male
the singers. There are approximately singers. Male quartets performed with
6,000 spirituals; however, the oral instrumental accompaniment and added one
tradition of the slaves' ancestors-and or two members to their groups to allow
the prohibition against slaves learning four-part harmony under the lead.
to read or write-meant that the actual Keyboardists were expected to
number of songs is unknown. improvisation and to use a much greater
With the end of the American Civil War in range of chordal options to enhance
1865, most former slaves distanced songs. Prominent performers included
themselves from the music of their Clara Ward, the Swan Silvertones, the
captivity. The spiritual seemed destined Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, and Wings
to be relegated to slave narratives or to over Jordan. The Soul Stirrers, led by
a handful of historical accounts by the suave singing style of Sam Cooke,
whites who had tried to notate the songs brought in an entirely new
they heard. audience-teenaged girls--to the world of
The performance of spirituals was reborn gospel music.
when a group of students from newly Gospel performers recorded steadily to
founded Fisk University of Nashville, meet the growing demand for their music
Tennessee, began to tour to raise money over the radio. Unfortunately, as was the
for the financially strapped school. The case for African Americans in popular
Fisk Jubilee Singers carried spirituals music, they were rarely fairly
to parts of the U.S. that had never heard compensated.
Negro folksongs, and they performed Gospel grew in prominence in other
before royalty during tours of Europe in cities, especially Philadelphia, Detroit,
the 1870's. Their success encouraged St. Louis, Memphis, Birmingham, and New
other Black colleges and professional York. Performers took their music into
singers to form touring groups. locations outside the usual church
Collections of plantation songs were venues. Mahalia Jackson sang at Carnegie
published to meet the public demand. Hall (1950), on the Ed Sullivan Show, and
While studying at the National at the Newport Jazz Festival in
Conservatory of Music, singer and 1958-Clara Ward and the Ward Singers had
composer Harry T. Burleigh came under the performed there the year before; the
influence of the Czech composer Antonín Caravans and the Dixie Hummingbirds
Dvořák. Dvořák visited the appeared at the Apollo.
United States in 1892 to serve as the By the 1960's, gospel was performed in
conservatory's new director and to nightclubs, and gospel plays had come to
encourage Americans to develop their own Broadway. Singers like James Cleveland,
national music. Dvořák learned of Shirley Caesar, Aretha Franklin, the
the spiritual from Burleigh and later Mighty Clouds of Joy, and the Staples
recommended that American composers draw Singers reached prominence.
upon the spiritual for their inspiration. However, there was also a shift towards
In 1916, Burleigh wrote "Deep River," for the popular music of the time that made
voice and piano. His setting is gospel purists uncomfortable. Edwin
considered to be the first work of its Hawkins closed out the decade with his
kind to be written specifically for release of "Oh Happy Day," which combined
performance by a trained singer. the elements of gospel with those of
"Deep River" and other spiritual settings Rhythm and Blues. Along with others in
became very popular with concert this new generation, such as Andrea
performers and recording artists, both Crouch and Richard Smallwood, he brought
black and white. It was soon common for a new generation of listeners to gospel
recitals to end with a group of music.
spirituals. Composers published numerous Contemporary gospel has made further
settings of Negro spirituals specifically shifts over the years. The dominant
for performance on the concert stage, and gospel groups are made up of large choirs
solo and choral singers successfully with soloists using amplified sound
recorded them for commercial release. equipment designed for popular music
Additionally, the spiritual has given venues. On college campuses across the
birth to a number of other American music country, students have created their own
genres, including Blues, Jazz and gospel. gospel groups. Churches that had resisted
Spirituals played a major role of buoying gospel music for decades finally have
the spirits of protesters during the acquiesced and started gospel choirs.
Civil Rights Era of the 1950's and Choirs, such as Kirk Franklin's, have
1960's. integrated Hip Hop into their sound.
The Music The popularity of gospel music is showing
Spirituals fall into three basic no signs of waning in the foreseeable
categories: future.
Call and response - A "leader" begins a The Music
line, which is then followed by a choral Early gospel hymns used the
response; often sung to a fast, rhythmic call-and-response of the spiritual, as
tempo ("Ain't That Good News," "Swing well as syncopation and improvisation.
Low, Sweet Chariot") The songs tended to be in 2/4 or 4/4
Slow and melodic - Songs with sustained, meter and use diatonic harmony.
expressive phrasing, generally slower By the 1930's, performers were far less
tempo ("Balm in Gilead," "Calvary") restrained in their use of harmony, and
Fast and rhythmic - Songs that often tell vocalists and instrumentalists used more
a story in a faster, syncopated rhythm improvisation. The lead singer took a
("Ev'ry Time I Feel the Spirit," "Joshua much more active role, singing whole
Fit the Battle of Jericho") verses while the other members of the
The lyrics dealt with characters from the ensemble repeated words or phrases behind
Old Testament (Daniel, Moses, David) who the leader in harmony.
had to overcome great tribulations and Bass singers, a staple in the 1920's,
with whom the slaves could easily were replaced by the instrumental bass
identify. From the New Testament, the line by the 1950's. Mixed choirs
slaves most closely identified with Jesus consisted of soprano, alto and tenor or
Christ, who they knew would help them. baritone.
Since the rhythm-once established-was key From the 1970's onward, soloists began
to their songs, the singers would add or the song in the middle range of their
delete syllables in words to make them voices and progressed to the farther ends
fit the song. Pioneers of spiritual art of their ranges for dramatic effect. With
songs often chose to use dialect, the the advent of rap gospel, the lead singer
manner slaves pronounced words, in their either speaks the text with choral and
settings. instrumental accompaniment or alternates
Early vocal settings reflected the goals between sung and spoken text.
of pioneering composers to retain as much So, What Is the Gospel Truth?
of the "feel" of the original spiritual Spirituals often told stories about
as was possible. Choral settings were biblical characters and events. These
ideally performed a cappella, and solo folk songs were born in the rural regions
vocal pieces allowed the use piano of the American South, and their
accompaniment for support of the singer. anonymous creators were inspired by the
They mainly composed in a steady 2/4 or 4 hardships of slavery. These songs were
4 meter. usually created at the moment using
Over the years, however, settings have call-and-response between a leader and
become more tonally and rhythmically the group. They were accompanied only by
complex in the vocal line and the slaves' clapping hands or stamping
accompaniment. This approach presents feet. The steady, usually duple, rhythm
more technical challenges to the was the driving force in the song, so
performers, and it places greater words were often modified to fit the
responsibility upon the performers to be beat. Additionally, spirituals had to be
sensitive to the original intent of the passed orally from person to person.
music. In contrast, gospel music rose primarily
Gospel Music: "Good News" in the City from cities of the North. The songs were
The gospel music of the African American accompanied first by keyboard
had its beginnings during the years instruments, then by percussion and later
following the Civil War. Many newly freed electric and electronic instruments. The
slaves began seeking a new life away from words tend to focus on spreading the
the rural setting of the Southern "Good News" of salvation. Gospel songs
plantation. They sought opportunities for provided solace to those who faced
better education and employment to the low-paying jobs, poor housing, inadequate
north and west. education, and ill-treatment. Both singer
From a religious standpoint, the freedmen and instrumentalist were expected to
took two very distinct paths. Some formed improvise within the song.
churches affiliated with established Gospel music composers, even in the
white denominations and used the same infancy of the genre, published and
formal, structured liturgies. They recorded their songs. However, like
rejected the spiritual in its original spirituals, most groups learned new
form because the songs not only reminded gospel songs by rote. The progenitors of
them of their former conditions, but the the spiritual had no means of marketing
songs did not fit well into the service. or selling their music; in the case of
They chose to sing hymns by Dr. Isaac gospel music, Tindley, Dorsey and their
Watt, John Wesley and Richard Allen, successors made a concerted-and highly
though they sang them with a favor that successful-effort to spread their musical
hinted at their African roots. message through commercial means.
Predominately in the South, the second Spirituals flourished in the vacuum of
path led poorer, less well-educated the plantation, where the influence of
African Americans to form their own other music styles was limited. Gospel
Pentecostal churches. From around 1870 music has regularly adapted elements of
until the turn of the century, hymns the secular popular music: Blues, Jazz,
began to appear that combined the R&B, and most recently, Rap.
syncopation, call-and-response, and Despite these considerable differences,
improvisation of Black music with the however, the most significant similarity
formal structure of the white hymn. These persists. Both spirituals and gospel
"gospel hymns" addressed the desires of music address the need of a people to
African Americans who wanted songs that express their faith in a dynamic, musical
more profoundly expressed their belief in way. Simply put, the "gospel truth" is
the "Good News" found in the four Gospels that whether one wanted to "Steal Away to
of the New Testament. Best known of these Jesus" or to ask, "Precious Lord, Take My
composers was Charles A. Tindley, a Hand," a tormented soul found relief in a
Methodist minister who wrote such hymns risen Savior.
as "I'll Overcome Someday" and "We'll






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