What makes gospel music original

For some, this was little more than a way to feel closer to God during hardship. For others, the communal songs and harmonies would create bonds between workers. There was also the use of song as a means of covert communication.

African American composers continued using biblical themes and stories of black history in the time of emancipation and beyond. The development of gospel music was an evolution of this style as African American communities moved into cities and more urban societies at the beginning of the 20th century.

This was a continuation of their connection between music and faith. The gospel songs carried on into the new churches of these northern cities. There were four distinct styles of gospel music that developed in the golden age of gospel from the s.

Traditional gospel took the songs and hymns and gave them to a larger choir. It followed the more minimalist approach that was expected when the community came together in song. Contemporary gospel changed this and allowed solo artists to come forward and tell their stories on their own. Quartet styles saw groups of vocalists sing these songs in tighter harmonies, something that would later emerge in other musical styles.

Then there was the praise and worship style. This is the one that many outsiders immediately think of when they imagine gospel choirs. This blend of styles brings together the choir, soloist and the responses of the congregation. There is no musical link here. However, there is that same sense of a need to vividly express a connection to God during a time of worship.

The sound of black gospel music may have evolved greatly over this period but the fundamentals remained the same. A Philadelphia minister named Charles Albert Tindley was instrumental in this evolution in the early part of the 20th century. He composed hymns that would offer the same message and spiritual connection with a new style of musical accompaniment.

These songs came from hymns, spirituals, and stories from times of inequality, hardship, and suffering in southern plantations and communities. All those decades later in the north, urban emancipated communities still faced inequality, hardship, and suffering in the fight for civil rights. In many ways, gospel music was a way of reconnecting with the past and strengthening their faith. It helped reinforce that feeling that God was with them through the best of times and the worst of times.

Thomas A. Dorsey was a blues and jazz composer and son of a Georgia Baptist preacher. He also helped to develop the voice of the African American community in modern music. His work took the ethos of classic gospel and church music and took it away from places of worship. Gospel went out to the streets and caught the ear of the everyday man living in these major cities.

There was a feeling that black religious music needed to be heard more broadly; to not be confined. They would perform on street corners in Chicago and bring the sound to the people in a whole new way. Jackson became one of the most recognizable and passionate voices in gospel music of the era.

She is often referred to as the Queen of Gospel because of her role in its early development, her influence on others and her talent. Listeners and peers would marvel at her energy and tone.

Her work would soon inspire many others to take the genre further. At one point, she was also heralded as the most important black woman in America because of her work and her civil rights activism. A shift occurred from the traditional to the contemporary.

To begin with, the sound of gospel music focused on the voices of the choir or soloist. It was quite a while before I could get myself together.

When he did, Dorsey cast aside the blues life and poured his musical gifts into writing songs of faith. He had dabbled in religious music before, but now it became his passion, prompting him to write a new type of religious song.

By introducing syncopated rhythms, lamenting vocal lines and other blues elements to religious music, Dorsey invented the gospel song--a music neither totally sacred nor wholly secular. Just a month after his personal disaster, Dorsey penned "Take My Hand, Precious Lord," which would become one of the most popular of all gospel songs. Some churchgoers balked at Dorsey's steeped-in-blues, Jazz Age church songs, but the music eventually caught on in churches across the South Side.

You may wish to address the following:. As they listen, ask students to: Listen closely to the lyrics and identify the central message of the song. Have students identify the key figure mentioned in the lyrics i. Think about whether the song reminds them of any music they have heard previously. As with the first song, ask students to: Listen closely to the lyrics and identify the central message of the song.

As with the first two songs, ask students to: Listen closely to the lyrics and identify the central message of the song. Discuss: How similar are the three songs, musically speaking?

What is similar, and what changes? How has the central figure in the song changed through the three versions? What has happened to the overall meaning of the song and the emotions it portrays through the three versions? Who is Kanye West? What kind of music is he known for? With religion in general? With love?

What do these three clips suggest about how Gospel music has influenced and continues to influence popular American music? About how musicians have taken elements of Gospel and transformed them into something new? Divide students into groups of