Religious Music: Gospel

One of the earliest Gospel singers were Mahalia Jackson. Listen to her perform “Be Still, My Soul.” Listen to the orchestration; also note the timbre of her voice and the style in which she sings. Mahalia Jackson seems to blend the typical hymn-style with the spiritual-style.



Out of the spirituals evolved Gospel music: “African-American singing enthusiastically affirmative of the singer’s religious faith” (Crossroads in Music, p. 88). Gospel music is often characterized by the leader-chorus format, where the lead singer entices the choir (or audience) to respond. This is known as the “call and response pattern.” Orchestration often include a choir, piano, Hammond organ, and sometimes percussion instruments, as well as the bass guitar and electric guitar.

Below are four YouTube-videos showing clippings from a BBC-documentary entitled “The History Of Gospel Music”:









After having watched the snippets from the BBC-documentary, what would you say are the most influential socio-economic or cultural events or trends that contributed to the development of Gospel music?

The YouTube-video below tells a short history of the Davis-Sisters, a once famous Gospel ensemble that came to a sad end.



Listen to the Davis Sisters perform "By and By". As the song progress try to describe it using all the music-terminology you have learned so far.