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.
Showing posts with label Mahalia Jackson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mahalia Jackson. Show all posts
Religious Music: Spirituals
You can read more about the history of negro spirituals at NegroSpirtuals.Com.
Listen to the short documentary in the video clip below, then describe what you think are the “spirituals”.
Negro spirituals can readily be identified as a type of folk music – “the music of the people”. Crossroads in Music (p. 63) explains that “folk music communicates on a direct personal level and is readily accepted by a large percentage of the population. An important defining feature of folk music is the anonymity of its creators. In addition, it is usually performed by amateurs and – at least in recent years – has been most often transmitted by oral tradition…”
“The spiritual is the first combining of African and European elements” (Crossroads in Music, p. 104). Negro spiritual are the songs that were originally sung by African-American slaves and were one of the main influences from which Gospel music, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, country and rock ‘n roll would eventually evolve.
There are basically two types of spiritual: the leader-chorus and the verse-and-refrain. “The leader-chorus type closely resembles the call and response type so characteristic of African singing: in both, lines of text sung by a soloist alternate with a sung group response. Songs that tell a story are often in verse and refrain, the action is told in a series of verses, and each verse is followed by a refrain . . . Spirituals often combined the two types. Singers would raise and lower notes, slide from note to note, and add melodic embellishments to emphasize the emotional content of the words. These traits closely resembled the traditional elements of African singing” (Crossroads in Music, p. 104).
Water is a common theme in spirituals because it had both a spiritual meaning as well as a practical value. Spiritually water refers to baptism and the washing away of sins. Jesus also identified Himself as the source of Living Water, the source of Everlasting Life. On a practical level slaves fleeing from the slave masters were admonished to “Wade in the Water,” so that they could not easily be tracked. The word “wade” means to walk through shallow water.
Listen to Yolanda Rhodes singing “Wade in the Water”:
Another famous water-themed spiritual is “Take me to the Water (to Be Baptised)”, sung here by Nina Simone.
Listen to Alison Krauss singing “As I went down to the river to pray”
To be free from slavery was about both freedom from their physical slave masters, but also free from their spiritual slave master – namely Satan and sin. The song “Steal Away” is an example of a song that reflects this double meaning. Listen to “Steal Away” as sung by Mahalia Jackson and Nat King Cole.
Apart from “Amazing Grace”, one of the most famous spirituals is “Swing Low Sweet Chariot.” Listen to it in the YouTube-video below. This version by Etta James starts to sound more like Gospel Music – which we will take a look at in the next post. You can also listen to a Gospel rendition of "Amazing Grace" by Aretha Franklin below that.
How do you think spiritual music differ from Gospel music?
Listen to the short documentary in the video clip below, then describe what you think are the “spirituals”.
Negro spirituals can readily be identified as a type of folk music – “the music of the people”. Crossroads in Music (p. 63) explains that “folk music communicates on a direct personal level and is readily accepted by a large percentage of the population. An important defining feature of folk music is the anonymity of its creators. In addition, it is usually performed by amateurs and – at least in recent years – has been most often transmitted by oral tradition…”
“The spiritual is the first combining of African and European elements” (Crossroads in Music, p. 104). Negro spiritual are the songs that were originally sung by African-American slaves and were one of the main influences from which Gospel music, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, country and rock ‘n roll would eventually evolve.
There are basically two types of spiritual: the leader-chorus and the verse-and-refrain. “The leader-chorus type closely resembles the call and response type so characteristic of African singing: in both, lines of text sung by a soloist alternate with a sung group response. Songs that tell a story are often in verse and refrain, the action is told in a series of verses, and each verse is followed by a refrain . . . Spirituals often combined the two types. Singers would raise and lower notes, slide from note to note, and add melodic embellishments to emphasize the emotional content of the words. These traits closely resembled the traditional elements of African singing” (Crossroads in Music, p. 104).
Water is a common theme in spirituals because it had both a spiritual meaning as well as a practical value. Spiritually water refers to baptism and the washing away of sins. Jesus also identified Himself as the source of Living Water, the source of Everlasting Life. On a practical level slaves fleeing from the slave masters were admonished to “Wade in the Water,” so that they could not easily be tracked. The word “wade” means to walk through shallow water.
Listen to Yolanda Rhodes singing “Wade in the Water”:
Another famous water-themed spiritual is “Take me to the Water (to Be Baptised)”, sung here by Nina Simone.
Listen to Alison Krauss singing “As I went down to the river to pray”
To be free from slavery was about both freedom from their physical slave masters, but also free from their spiritual slave master – namely Satan and sin. The song “Steal Away” is an example of a song that reflects this double meaning. Listen to “Steal Away” as sung by Mahalia Jackson and Nat King Cole.
Apart from “Amazing Grace”, one of the most famous spirituals is “Swing Low Sweet Chariot.” Listen to it in the YouTube-video below. This version by Etta James starts to sound more like Gospel Music – which we will take a look at in the next post. You can also listen to a Gospel rendition of "Amazing Grace" by Aretha Franklin below that.
How do you think spiritual music differ from Gospel music?
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