Gospel Music

By: Regina Harris Baiocchi

Source:

 Black Women in America, Second Edition

Gospel Music

It has been said that “Gospel compositions come to life at the hands of the performers.” The term “gospel,” meaning a musical genre, was first used in reference to late-nineteenth-century, nondenominational, African American revival songs. The term is derived from the word meaning “the good news of the kingdom of God,” referring to the first four books of the New Testament. The genre evolved as a hybrid of spirituals and blues. Whereas spirituals represent the African American collective, gospel is music of the individual. Whereas spirituals grew from the folk tradition, gospel music is composed.

Even though Thomas A. Dorsey is considered the “father of gospel music” and its chief architect, Charles Albert Tindley's gospel compositions predate Dorsey's. Tindley's New Songs of Paradise (1916) is a collection of thirty-seven songs. Dorsey's first sacred song appeared in the National Baptist Convention's songbook Gospel Pearls in 1921. Dorsey's most famous sacred song, “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” (1932), was the first blues-inspired gospel composition. “Precious Lord” was Dorsey's response to the death of his wife, Nettie Dorsey, who died giving birth to their son; the son died the next day. The success of “Precious Lord,” and his appointment as Pilgrim Baptist Church's minister of music, inspired Dorsey to choose gospel over his blues career.

Early Women Soloists and Composers

Pilgrim Baptist Church is located on Chicago's South Side. Its congregation came from a community that had swelled during the Great Migration, which brought tens of thousands of African Americans from the South. These southern churchgoers demanded a more emotional, gospel- oriented religion than northern African Americans, many of whom had begun to adopt religious customs from the white mainstream. Under Dorsey's direction, Pilgrim's choir became the nation's gospel music laboratory. Pilgrim's singers put gospel on Americans' lips and in their hearts.

Sallie Martin was Thomas Dorsey's collaborator at Pilgrim Baptist. She had a rough, bluesy style of singing that contrasted with Dorsey's smoother, more conventional compositions. There was some conflict between the two over the years, but their musical partnership was extremely successful. Martin collaborated with Dorsey to write and teach stalwart “good news” tunes, and Pilgrim's “ole-time religion” was celebrated with clapping and shouting, foot stomping, and a “sweat-your-hair-back” style of singing. Martin also partnered with Kenneth Morris to open Martin & Morris Music Studio, located on Indiana Avenue at 43rd Street in Chicago. Martin & Morris published the bulk of the nation's gospel music from 1940 to 1990. In 1923, Martin cofounded, with Dorsey and others, the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe was the first gospel singer to record for a major label. She was at home singing blues, jazz, and spirituals, but her heart belonged to gospel music. She recalled singing “Jesus on the Main Line” at age four while playing guitar. Listeners were impressed by her strong sense of pitch, tonality, and innovative improvisation. When Tharpe moved from her native Cotton Plant, Arkansas, to Chicago and later New York, her career ignited. Southern traditionalists criticized Tharpe's use of a boogie-woogie quartet (organ or piano, bass, drums, and guitar) for sacred music. When she appeared with a full orchestra, she was perceived as much too worldly. Still, her secular sound was imitated by (and helped jump-start the careers of) the Davis Sisters, Meditation Singers, Harmonettes, and Dorothy Love Coates. She left her mark in juke joints, churches, and Carnegie Hall. Tharpe recorded with Thomas A. Dorsey, Dizzy Gillespie, and Cab Calloway.

By contrast, Willie Mae Ford Smith introduced new songs with “sermonettes,” anecdotes or short sermons that set the mood for a song. In addition to premiering new tunes, Smith was one of the founders of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses (NCGC) and later organized the NCGC Soloist's Bureau. She mentored a long list of soloists with her blues-tinged, holiness chops that could wring every drop of emotion from a song. Smith appears in the 1983 film Say Amen, Somebody. She won the 1988 Heritage Award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Mahalia Jackson was a native of New Orleans. She was working as a hairdresser when she emerged as Pilgrim Baptist Church's most mesmerizing contralto. Dorsey's “Peace in the Valley” established Jackson as America's favorite gospel singer. Jackson was endowed with a spirit that “could make dead folk jump up and shout.” Jackson rocked the house with upbeat tunes and long-phrased ballads that indeed moved audiences to shout and cry. Influenced by Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, Jackson preferred a percussive style of gospel. With Duke Ellington's smooth “Come Sunday,” Jackson could convert any session into Sunday morning worship.

Mahalia Jackson popularized “In the Upper Room with My Lord,” by the composer Lucie E. Campbell-Williams, who also wrote “Just to Behold His Face” (1951). These two works established Campbell-Williams as a foremost composer of gospel music. Campbell-Williams was born in Duck Hill, Mississippi, in 1855. In 1915 she published her first song, “Something Within.” At the time of her death in 1963 she had published hundreds of songs and endeared herself to many Christians, who called her the “first lady of music.” Her topics included scriptural lessons and denominational tenets.

Roberta Martin was a Pilgrim choir soloist, pianist, and composer. Until she heard the gospel singer Bertha Wise, Martin intended to become a concert pianist. Instead she formed her own group and used her rich, elastic contralto voice to create a unique sound. Among the singers Martin employed in the 1940s were Deloris Barrett and Bessie Folk. Martin's “He Knows Just How Much We Can Bear” (1939) is now a standard.

Marion Williams was a lyric soprano with impeccable control and upper-register moans that are still imitated by gospel and rhythm and blues singers. Dorothy Love Coates was a foremost gospel improviser. Coates sang in a gritty chest voice reminiscent of some revivalist preaching. Eventually Coates caught the ear of Clara Ward of the Ward Singers, one of the great gospel groups.

Female Ensembles

Many groups sprang up throughout the nation in the early decades of gospel music. In Philadelphia, Gertrude Ward organized her teenage daughters into the Ward Singers. The trio included Gertrude, Clara, and Willarene Ward. Gertrude sang and managed the group. Clara sang, played piano, wrote the music, and provided a visionary outlook. In 1943, the Wards' appearance at the National Baptist Convention led to a year of new engagements. Later, Gertrude added Henrietta Waddy, Marion Williams, Kitty Parham, and Frances Steadman to the roster. Much to the chagrin of traditionalists, the Ward singers shed their choir robes for sequined dresses and outlandish wigs. They made guest appearances in churches, and then played Las Vegas night clubs and Disneyland. Later, Thelma Jackson, Jessie Tucker, and Carrie Williams were also recruited as Ward Singers.

By 1958, the former Ward singers Marion Williams, Henrietta Waddy, Kitty Parham, and Frances Steadman formed the Stars of Faith. The Stars were not as organized as the Ward Singers, but a few hits gave them a degree of success. They performed in the off-Broadway production of Black Nativity and launched a United States tour at Yale University that led to college campuses and jazz festivals worldwide. With her renewed religion, West Indian roots, and dynamic personality, Williams led her group through hits like “Jesus Is All,” “Standing Here Wondering Which Way to Go,” and “We Shall Be Changed.”

The Original Gospel Harmonettes were based in Birmingham, Alabama. They began in the 1940s as the Harmoneers and later became the Lee Harmoneers, named after the soprano Georgia Lee Stafford. Other members were the soloist Dorothy Love Coates, contralto Odessa Edwards, soprano Vera Kalb, alto Willie Mae Newberry Garth, mezzo-soprano Mildred Miller Howard, and pianist Evelyn Starks Hardy. In addition to radio and television exposure, the group gained commercial success with Coates's compositions such as “He's Right on Time,” “You Must Be Born Again,” and “Count Your Blessings.”

In 1952 the Chicago contralto Albertina Walker established an all-female choir called The Caravans. This innovative group had a roster of gospel icons, including Inez Andrews, the evangelist Shirley Caesar, Cassietta George, Bessie Griffin, and Loleatta Holloway. The Caravans offered a wide variety of gospel fare: full-bodied ballads like “Amazing Grace” with Walker singing lead, soul-baring testimonials from Caesar, and the organ-punctuated piece “It's Jesus in Me.” Their organist was the legendary Reverend James Cleveland.

From 1947 to 1960 the Meditation Singers of Detroit featured Earnestine Rundless, Della Reese and her sister Marie Waters, and Lillian Mitchell, who came from New Liberty Baptist Church. Originally an octet, they reinvented themselves as a quartet to make travel easier. One thing that distinguished the Meditation Singers from other quartets was their accompaniment. Like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, they used boogie-woogie blues and jazz accompaniment, rather than performing a cappella. When Della Reese left to pursue her pop career, the Meditation Singers were guests in her Las Vegas act. “One More River to Cross” was one of their few hits.

Ruth Davis formed the Davis Sisters in Philadelphia. When Savoy Records added gospel to its label, the Davis Sisters were among its more influential groups. Their memorable singles include “Twelve Gates to the City” (1955), “He's Mine” (1956), “I Don't Know What I'd Do” (1957), and “If It Wasn't for Jesus” (1963). When the LP and cassettes took the recording industry by storm, the Davis Sisters helped keep Savoy profitable.

Shirley Caesar has been recognized as one of the premier gospel singers in the world.

Courtesy of Shirley Caesar Outreach Ministry

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Lena Johnson McLin was raised on the foot-stomping, soul-infused music of legends like her uncle Thomas A. Dorsey. McLin enjoyed an international reputation as orchestral and vocal composer, pedagogue, organist, pianist, and choral conductor, and as the founder of the McLin Singers. Her TV, radio, and concert hall performances numbered in the thousands. McLin's protégés flourished in popular, classical, and gospel careers.

In 1973 Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon founded Sweet Honey in the Rock. Members included Reagon, Nitanju Bolade Casel, Carol Maillard, Shirley Childress Saxton, Aisha Kahlil, and Ysaye Maria Barnwell. Sweet Honey fuses protest and folk songs, spirituals, and gospel music. The group's purest gospel album, Feel Something Drawing on Me, was released in 1985. It includes gospel standards like “Father, I Stretch My Hand,” “We'll Understand It Better, By and By,” and “In the Upper Room.”

Family Affairs

The Staple Singers began with the rhythm and blues career of their patriarch, Roebuck “Pops” Staples. When Pops converted to gospel, he and his daughter Mavis alternated as soloists; other Staple Singers include Cleotha, Yvonne, and Pervis. At the height of their career, the Chicago-based gospel family crossed over to soul with hits like “I'll Take You There.”

Another Chicago group is the Barrett Sisters: Delois Barrett Campbell, Billie, and Rhodessa. As a teenager, the eldest, Delois, sang with Roberta Martin. The trio developed an international reputation and recorded several hit albums including “What Will You Do with Your Life?” In 1981 the sisters appeared in the film Say Amen, Somebody. One underrated quartet is Perri. The Perry sisters (Lori, Darlene, Carolyn, and Sharon) changed the spelling of their surname in 1985 on their debut album Celebrate. Perri recorded twenty CDs, including two solo albums, and made guest appearances with Andre Crouch, Whitney Houston, Patti Labelle, Pat Metheny, and Brenda Russell. Highlights include their four-part a cappella version of “He Never Sleeps.”

Dr. Mattie Moss Clark established the Memphis-based Clark Sisters as one of the top gospel groups in the United States. She also founded Clark Conservatory of Music in Detroit. Her daughters served as professors. The Clark Sisters are the organist and singer Elbernita “Twinkie” Clark-Farrell, and the singers Jacky, Denise, Dorinda, and Karen. Their 1993 hit “You Brought the Sunshine” topped gospel, soul, and R&B charts. By 1999, the Clark Sisters had been inducted into the Stellar Gospel Hall of Fame.

The Brown Sisters come from Portland, Oregon. They are known as Joanna Williams, Leah Harrison, Dorcas Smith, and Rachel Brown. The Browns began singing as preschoolers with the help of their mentor, Edwina Wills. Their engagements included a Christmas concert with the Oregon Symphony Orchestra.

In Duncanville, Alabama, the Anointed Brown Sisters made their debut in 2000 at an Easter program. Public reaction to this ad hoc group was so great that they decided to stay together. In 2002, they released their acclaimed CD Philippians 4:13. They are known individually as Ora Brown, Abigail Brown, Crishon Smith, and Mesha Brown.

Performance Techniques

As a rule, vocal expression is more important in gospel than tonal purity. Like blues and jazz singers, gospel artists use an array of growls, dips, chromatic slides, blues notes (flatted 3rd, 5th, and 7th degrees of the scale or key), moans, falsetto, and other special effects. Many composers and artists favor the major flat keys (tonal centers with flat key signatures: B-flat, E-flat, A-flat, D-flat, for example). Gospel meters tend to be straight-ahead duple (4/4) or triple (6/8, 12/8). As in jazz, eighth-notes in gospel music tend to be written straight and performed as triplets. When moved by the spirit, performers use hand clapping and foot stomping to accompany themselves. This accompaniment usually falls on the strong beat or downbeat, such as beats 1 and 3 in 4/4 time or beats 1 and 7 in 12/8 time. Syncopated double clapping (clapping ahead of or behind the beat) with intricate subdivided rhythms is also a commonly used accompaniment. These techniques have been widely adopted by popular singers and have, in turn, been enriched by influences from the popular music of the day.

Instrumentally, the most characteristic gospel technique is “comping,” the art of accompanying a soloist or speaker by outlining the harmonic framework of a composition. Accompanists (usually organists) vamp on chords to punctuate or illuminate preachers' messages. Vamping involves repeating a chord progression over and over again, as punctuation, while a prayer or improvised solo is developed. Organists comp beneath solo singers to keep the integrity of a composition's form. This “frees” the soloist to express herself. Gospel organ comps generally involve a rapid walking bass in the foot pedals, high-note tremolos and trills, and call and response. The preacher or soloist is the caller; the organist is the respondent.

The Allen School of Music was the Midwest center for gospel music training. It was founded by Professors Loraine and Ernie Allen Sr. When Ernie Jr. reached musical maturity, he joined his parents, teaching the Allen method. This comprises gospel harmony, playing solemn hymns, accompanying singers in all keys, and comping Pentecostal or other denominational preaching. Delores Chandler taught keyboard skills at the Allen School of Music in downtown Chicago. Chandler often ran the Allen School when the proprietors were ministering on the road. Like most gospel artists, Chandler held more than one post. She was principal pianist and organist for the renowned “Thommies” (Reverend Milton T. Brunson's Thompson Community Singers) on Chicago's west side.

Elsa Harris studied these and other methods with Delores Chandler before founding the Harris House of Music, another training ground for gospel musicians. Harris was a natural pianist and organist. She began her music career with the Thommies, sang background with Minnie Riperton, and served as the house organist for Chess Records, a Blues label in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood. As a teenager Harris appeared on ABC-TV's Jubilee Showcase. She developed local renown as a singer, pianist, and composer, and the founder of Harris House of Music. Harris traveled with the Reverend Jessie Dixon Singers, performing various gospel subgenres at international venues in Africa, Europe, and Asia.

Subgenres

Gospel is divided into several subgenres: traditional, praise and worship, contemporary, and popular. Traditional gospel music includes spirituals, hymns, and other compositions by contemporaries of Doris Akers, Roberta Martin, and Lucie E. Campbell-Williams. As the term implies, praise and worship music is an aural adoration of God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. These songs are popular at regular worship services, conferences, and retreats. Women in Worship published a series of worship hymnals that include “Until I Found the Lord” and “How I Got Over” by Clara Ward, and “Give Me a Clean Heart” by Margaret Douroux. Other titles include “Magnify the Lord” and “Glorify His Name.”

Contemporary gospel themes comprise all music written in the last ten to twenty years. This music includes, but is not limited to, newly arranged spirituals, inspirational, and smooth gospel. Performers include CeCe Winans, Yolanda Adams, Sounds of Blackness, Take 6, and VIP Mass Choir. This fare is what is usually heard at “gospel brunches” in restaurants.

Popular gospel includes hip hop and gospel rap, featuring artists like Lisa McClendon, Virtuosity, Mary-Mary, and Dorinda Clark-Cole. Shakena Bagley is fondly known among rhyme fans as “Kina the Prophet Poet”; an early twenty-first-century CD is Only One of Me. Michelle Williams's “Heard a Word” is more inspirational, with a filtered, watered-down hip hop beat. Dottie Peoples brings her “Closet Religion” out to the young generation with a smooth blend of spoken word, mass choir, and tradition.

Gospel Influences in Popular Music

The gospel origins of rock and roll and soul have been attested to by most rock commentators. Sometimes the influence came through rhythm and blues, and sometimes it was much more direct. One of the most important and apparent ways gospel affected modern popular music was through the stars who began their careers within the fold. Among these were some of the great black women of rock and soul.

Before she became the jazz great Dinah Washington, Ruth Jones was playing piano and conducting her church choir. Winning a contest at the Regal Theater in Chicago transplanted her from gospel to jazz. Wynona Carr was a singer and composer who helped shape the golden age of gospel music. Her innovative lyrics and mystical storytelling proved too intense for gospel audiences in the 1940s and 1950s. Following a night club stint with Rosetta Tharpe and Marie Knight in 1957, Carr devoted the remaining twenty years of her career to R&B.

Even though Aretha Franklin came of age, musically, in her father's church in Detroit, her first recording sessions included jazz and popular tunes. This Motown superstar growled and crooned her way into American hearts to become the “queen of soul.” A soulful pianist, composer, and arranger, Franklin commands respect performing gospel (“Amazing Grace” and “Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep”), soul (“Natural Woman”), jazz (“All Night Long”) and R&B (“Dr. Feel Good”).

Like Franklin, Toni Braxton is a minister's daughter; she began singing with her sisters. While studying education, Braxton accepted an offer to pursue a popular music career. Despite the ups and downs of her pop career, Braxton has enjoyed commercial success as a pop icon. Whitney Houston began her public career as a print model who was still singing in her New Jersey church home. Her bell-tone vocals have filled big-screen soundtracks, churches, dance halls, and virtually every home in America. Yet like CeCe Winans's, Houston's style of sacred music is often viewed by purists as crossover pop. Oleta Adams discovered her voice in Seattle's Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, where her father was pastor. By age eleven, she was directing several choirs and setting the piano afire. Though this classically trained artist is considered an inspirational-pop musician, she has constantly reminded the world of her Christ-centered life.

Other Joyful Noises

As gospel music has evolved, many other performers have contributed their joyful noises. They include Gloria Burchetti, Sara McLawles, Annette “Queenie” Lenox, Christine Whack, the Shirley Wahls Singers, Valerie Little Moseley, Judith Baity, Nkeiru Okoye, Valencia Scott Bey, Kim Stratton, Kim McFarland, Angela Spivey, Brenda Nicholas, Lillie Mae Thomas, Roberta Thomas, and Felicia Coleman-Evans. Whether these women in gospel minister with their biological, acoustic, or electrical instruments, one thing is certain—“She who sings prays twice.”

See also Caesar, Shirley Ann; Jackson, Mahalia; Martin, Roberta Evelyn; Reagon, Bernice Johnson; Tharpe, Sister Rosetta; and Ward, Clara, and The Ward Singers.

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