The Roots of Gospel Music

The Historical development of Gospel Music

The music known today as Gospel Music is a music form deeply rooted in the musical tradition of the African-American slaves as well as in the African music  tradition in general. Its foundations was created out of an enormous culture shock which in a tragic but creative way came to blend African culture with European Anglo-Saxon traditions. The primary purpose of this article is to examine the origin and the roots of Gospel Music, from early Africa, to the beginning of the slave trade onward to the emancipation and the early days of the Great Migration.

Introduction to the slave trade

  The slave trade started in the early 1500s and lasted till 1864. The Europeans first brought relatively small numbers of slaves to the new continent but soon expanded the import into shiploads. Historians cannot agree on the exact number of slaves that were brought to America, but somewhere between 10 million up to 15 million are probably an accurate number. When arriving to the new country the slaves not only brought with them their labor. They also brought a totally new and rich music culture, which significantly came to shape the future American society and history, resulting in the creation of several music forms as jazz, blues and gospel music.

The slaves came for the most parts from three areas in Africa. The first area is the west coast of Africa, also called the Ivory Coast, from countries today occupied by Senegal, Guinea etc. This was an area strongly influenced by the Islamic religion. Musically long melodic lines, ornamental singing and string instruments characterize this area The second one is the rainforest area; today occupied by countries like Ghana and Nigeria. Very complex rhythms and big percussion and drum ensembles characterized this area musically. The third and last area is the Congo – Angola area, which is an area dominated by polyphonic vocal music, divided into many parts. It is also an area characterized by call and response between the soloist and the vocal group.

The African origin: The Use of the Drum

Africa was during the time of slavery a continent with an utterly rich and highly developed cultural and musical life. Music, singing, drama and dancing were a natural and integrated part of the African culture, from the cradle to the grave. For almost every activity in the life of the individual or the community, there was an appropriate music. The use of the drum was very essential to most forms of African music during this time, and still is. The drum was an important part of the society and was also used in order to communicate between different villages. Often large drum and percussion ensembles were gathered in the villages when it was time for dancing and musical performances, or different kinds of celebration. The music was often characterized by complex polyrhythms, performed with a steady beat. It was not divided into beat division as in western music, instead it was played after another system, were the rhythms often were improvised. When the slaves later on created Spirituals and Gospels, they effectively implemented the use of distinctive rhythms and syncopation's into their music. Today’s contemporary Gospel music is filled with complex rhythm fills, which originally has its origin in the African music tradition.  

The Importance of Dance

Just as music, dancing was an integrated part of the African society. When ever  there was music, there where dancing. Dance was a form of communication as well as a creative expression and recreation. There were dances celebrating all kinds of events and happenings, from birthdays to funerals. Most dances occurred during the night, which seemed very exotic to visiting Europeans. Usually the whole village was involved in different forms of dancing and normally it continued all night until the drummers became tired. Often, poetry and drama was mixed into the music and the dances, creating some kind of early theater or musical. When the slaves created music in the new world, they felt it natural to implement the African traditions of dancing into the music the created. Based upon knowledge from Europeans visiting Africa in the 17^th and 18^th century, we know that the African music in most cases probably was based upon the modal and the pentatonic scales. Melodic improvisation as well as text improvisation was also very common. The vocalist improvised based upon the music and the occasion. Often there were a kind of musical dialogue or shift singing between the soloist and the group of vocalist. The soloist sang a phrase, which was repeated or answered by the vocal group. Often, the group was backed up by loud comments from the congregation or the audience. Eventually this was named call and response and came to constitute a vital part of the development of Spirituals and Gospel music. It is a great example showing the African heritage in Spirituals and Gospel music.

Spirituals: The Slave Contribution to Gospel Music

When the slaves arrived from Africa to the new country, they brought nothing, except for memories and their musical heritage. In America the slave owners deliberately separated most slaves from their families and their tribe members, in order to break them down and assimilate them to the new culture. Culture shock and language barriers also helped to increase the general confusion among the slaves. The only thing the slaves had in common was their music. Even though the slaves came from different parts of Africa, most African music was similar in its bases. At first the slaves were forbidden to practice their African music and to use the drum, which constituted a central part of the African society. Therefore, the slaves did in many times practice their music in secret, at night, after work, or out on the plantation fields out of reach from the ears of their owners. However, the plantation owners soon discovered that the slaves tended to work more efficiently if they were allowed to sing while working on the fields, and eventually most slave owners allowed their slaves to sing during work.

One of the major concerns of colonial clergymen was the matter of converting the so-called heathens of the New World, the blacks and the Indians, to Christianity. Most whites put effort into civilizing and converting the slaves, and since most slaves felt emotionally divided out of the extreme culture shock, they easily absorbed the new message of the Christian religion. Many slaves recognized themselves when they were told stories out of the Bible. Stories like Moses and the people of Israel, who lived in oppression, but were told and promised by God that they one day should be liberated, were absorbed by the Negroes. The Christian message strongly affected the slaves and their ability to endure the hardships and trials they often were confronted with while working out on the plantation fields.

As the time passed by and the slaves got more and more integrated into the new world, they started blending their African musical heritage with their influences from the new world. Out of the hardships and trials of slavery  a rich musical culture evolved, which forever came to change the world’s music scene. Mixing their musical heritage from Africa with the Christian religion, the English language, and the musical tradition from the Anglo-Saxon church, the slaves came to create a totally new music form as they at the same time laid the foundations for another one.

Work Songs and Spirituals

From the beginning the slaves sang and created so-called work songs while they were laboring out on the fields. The main purpose of those songs was originally to make the work on the fields easier to endure under the hot sun. The songs also dealt with the hardships of their labor and about the oppression, which they experienced, from the slave owners and the society, in which they lived in. As the slaves got more and more Christianized, so did their music. Out of the work songs emerged the Spirituals, which dealt with the same aspects of life as the work songs, but with a more biblical content. The traditional Spiritual, Deep River, is an great example describing how the slaves struggled with the hardships of life and as they were dreaming of a better life over Jordan…

"Deep river, my home is over Jordan,

O don’t you want to go to that Promised Land where all is peace?"

Some Spirituals were created during work, while many were created during slave services, so called camp meetings, held at night on the plantations after the end of a hard days labor. Often, several hundred slaves could gather at night, during camp meetings to hear the gospel being preached. Sometimes a traveling black preacher came by to spread the word among the slaves. These services were very different in comparison to the traditional white services during this time. The congregation was very loud and active, and was all the time backing up the preacher with loud comments as "Amen, Yes, It’s right, But surely, Preach it, Yes Lord" etc. The preacher delivered the sermon in a very rhythmic and dedicating spirit, often getting more and more inspired and devoted as the loud contributions from the congregation increased. Eventually the preacher, or a congregational member started to sing a few words from the sermon or from a Bible verse. Instantly other congregational members joined in, and soon the entire congregation was involved in singing and dancing. If there were any instruments at hand, these were quickly implemented into the music. A Spiritual is born. Some songs were already forgotten at the end of the camp meeting, while others were carried on orally from generation to generation. Examples of Spirituals are Go Down Moses, Down by the Riverside, Go Tell it on the Mountain, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho etc.

One of the most discernable African musical heritages in Spirituals is the call and response technique between the soloist and the congregation or the workers. This is a direct musical heritage from Africa, which was implemented, in the new musical culture created by the slaves. Out on the fields, one of the workers usually led the Spiritual singing ahead of the rest of the workers. During the camp meetings the preacher usually handled this. Often, the soloist improvised with the text as well as with the melodic context of the Spiritual.

Musically, the Spirituals were a mix of western hymns and the musical roots from Africa. These influences were turned into a rich musical melting pot. Basically, the slaves improvised around the old hymns changing the songs in order to fit there needs and taste. This generated in new songs and totally new arrangements of the old classic hymns.

The Musical Context of the Spiritual

By examining the musical context of the Spiritual, one is able to estimate the age of the song. The earliest ones are mostly based upon the pentatonic scale, which was a very common scale in African music. The pentatonic scale is a five-tone scale, such as that produced by the five black keys of the piano in succession e.g. F#-G#-A#-C#-D#. More contemporary Spirituals are mostly based upon the blues scale, which not only characterizes Spirituals but all African-American music as well. The blues scale lowers the 3^rd and slightly the 7^th, which gives the music a peculiar minor sound. That makes the notation of the music really difficult since you cannot write down the notes exactly as they are sung. You must therefore have the right expression and the right musical feeling in order to sing the songs as correctly as possible.

Spirituals were for a long period of time considered to be worthless Negro songs by the white population, and very little attention was given to the music culture of the slaves. It was not until after the end of the American Civil War that people started to realize the importance of Spirituals, and slowly the music form started to gain recognition among people outside the slave community.

The abolishment of slavery in 1865 meant several things to the music culture of blacks. It became easier for the slaves to practice their religion and by that, also their music. Also, the number of black churches in the south grew rapidly during the Reconstruction Era. As the number of churches grew, the slaves brought with them their music and their Spirituals into their churches, and filled their services with inspiring and uplifting congregational songs. The black church became a school of music, which came to produce several talented musicians, as well as taking the development of music even further. With the development of Spirituals and the evolvement of the black church, the first musical foundations were now laid, for what eventually came to generate into what we today know as Gospel Music. During the decades after the end of the Civil War, the black holiness and pentacostal churches of the south brought about a slow but firm transformation of the music form. With the advent of the Great Migration to northern cities as Chicago and New York in the aftermath of WW I, the final step towards the creation of Gospel music was taken.

Conclusion

It is easy to discern the close ties and the connections between the African music tradition and the development of Spirituals and Gospel music. There are most notably three African heritages, which was adopted and implemented into the music created by the slaves; the use of polyrhythmic’s, call and response, and different dances and improvisation. These elements were mixed with the impressions from the new culture, as the Christian religion, western hymns, the English language etc, and generated in a diverse musical melting pot. Later on these different elements evolved into several different musical genres, e.g. Gospel Music, and came to play a significant and important role in the further development of music in America, as well as in the rest of the world.

It is also wothr to be mentioned how truly remarkable and impressing it is, to see how a people that was torn away from their homeland and stripped of their basic human rights, were able to survive and actually develop as a much stronger race. Amazingly, they adopted their oppressor’s religion, and welcomed its message of love and forgiveness, despite the fact that they seldom saw the message being lived out by the people claiming to believe in it. They turned the religion into an important vehicle, and created something good and positive in the midst of the most shameful treatment. Out of the oppression came rich and powerful songs, which helped the slaves to overcome their feelings and their hardships, whether it was anger or happiness. Their strength to carry on and the hope given to them through the religion increasingly helped them to survive years of shameful treatment.

Bibliography  

Epstein, Dena J "Sinful tunes & Spirituals"

(Chicago, University of Illinois Press 1977)

Heilbut, Anthony "The Gospel Sound; Good New & Bad Times"

(New York, Limelight Editions 1997)

Lomax, Alan "The Land Were The Blues Began"

(New York, Delta Publications 1995)

Southern, Eileen "The Music of Black Americans; A History"

(New York, W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 1983)

Warren Sims, Gwendolin "Ev’ry time I feel the Spirit"

(New York, Henry Holt Company 1997)

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