Black Gospel
Black Gospel is from the genre Spiritual (now Black Spiritual) emerged .
The Spirituals were before 1865, the music of the African-American communities of the United States than most African slaves in the southern were US states. They were sung like folk songs and hymns . The Fisk Jubilee Singers alone developed an artistic way of performing these songs as early as 1870 and made them known on tours.
The gospel songs were written and marketed by composers from around 1900 , i. H. copyrights have been asserted for this new type of spiritual , in line with the growing self-confidence of African-Americans as US citizens.
The first important composer was Charles Albert Tindley (1851 / 1856–1933). In his childhood he had to work as a freelance field worker alongside slaves. After the Civil War , he married and moved to Philadelphia . He trained as a Methodist pastor partly through correspondence courses. When he took over the church 20 years later, he increased the church from 130 to 10,000 members. He wrote songs like "Nothing Between My Soul and the Savior" and "We'll Understand it By and By". In 1901 8 of his songs appeared in Austin Miles's "New Songs of the Gospel". His most popular song to date is "Stand By Me".
Thomas A. Dorsey is another important composer. From him u. a. the gospel song known as "Precious Lord".
Black Gospel music not only inspired the church choirs of the Afro-American congregations, many professional gospel ensembles were also founded. In concerts and worship services , Black Gospel is primarily characterized by creating an atmosphere of sacred ecstasy, often with calls from the moving audience.
To understand the genesis and musical characteristics of gospel music, one must consider the history of African American people in the slave era and in the development of their churches.
History and Development
Portuguese and Spanish conquerors brought serfs who came from their African colonies with them to the "New World". The first ship with 20 African slaves reached North America in 1619 . Since then, countless Africans have been abducted and forced to serve as slaves by force of arms. The essential part of their culture was musicality. Some of the Africans could not even communicate with each other because they were deliberately separated and came from different tribes with different languages. There are many reports in which it was said that the "niggas" sang songs on the ships: sad, wistful songs but also encouraging melodies. The number of Africans brought to America can only be estimated. Shortly before the civil war in 1861, the history books name seven million black slaves across the American continent.
The emotional singing and dancing of the slaves at work and at gatherings was, as in African rites, a vital expression of their identity . An essential feature of this singing was the "shout", an expressive, to a certain extent screamed style of singing. Also known as “ring shout”, the slaves stood in a circle, danced, clapped and pawed their feet (“shuffle”) to a rhythmic melody that essentially consisted of a recitation tone and a few secondary tones.
Singing also took place during work. In the “ Worksongs ”, “Calls” or “Cries” the main focus was on the worker's regular execution of certain sequences of movements and the facilitation of physical work through emotional “work”, namely through singing. The calling of the workers to dinner or the loud offering of the goods at the market also took place in this half-spoken, half-sung form. In the work songs, a lead singer gave the rhythm and melody, which was then recorded by everyone else.
The slave owners tried very early to “ civilize ” the slaves according to their white ideal . They believed they could achieve this by converting blacks to the Christian faith , among other things . With the help of the Bible one wanted to train the slaves to be submissive . At the end of the 18th century a so-called revival movement arose , in which whites and blacks were to be converted in large meetings . Significant were the Methodists and Baptists , who held free meetings ("camp meetings") and led many people to the Christian faith.
Why the slaves adopted the white religion so quickly, even though it did not change their situation, is not clearly proven. The Bible's emphasis on freedom and the equality of all human races is often seen as a reason. Evidence of this can be found in the many slave revolts led by black preachers . The hope for a better life, " eternal life ", is expressed much more strongly in the lyrics of the gospel songs, so that it can be said that the Christian message promised the slaves an afterlife that gave them hope in the unbearable Gave life on earth. In addition, the blacks identified very strongly with the people of Israel from the Old Testament , who were liberated from slavery in Egypt .
Psalms and chorals were sung at the first camp meetings . These were slow and serene melodies sung by the preacher and sung by the crowd. The slaves brought a lot of life into the "white hymns", so that the songs developed their own dynamics .
On this basis, the " Negro Spirituals " (literally: " Spiritual songs of the negroes ") were formed, especially in the countryside in the south of America . An essential feature is the call-answer scheme from the shouts, the blues and the psalm chants of the camp meetings. Since very few slaves could read, song texts were practiced in such a way that one singer sang a phrase that everyone else sang.
The blacks initially adopted the songs of the whites and later developed their own melodies and texts. Here, worship meetings are of particular importance. In addition to fixed songs, there were sermons that, like the calls and cries, were half sung, half spoken. They encouraged the community to participate in the form of shouts and claps . It was not uncommon for a new song to emerge that developed from the sermon . Basically every participant was involved in the divine service .
Singing together on long notes, improvising called "moaning" , was reportedly without any musical specifications, was rhythmically freely performed and began as suddenly as it then ebbed away again after hours of celebration . Very gradually, fixed melodies developed from joint improvisations.
Songs emerged spontaneously from the sermon, as the congregation responded to the preacher with rhythmic calls and from a central sentence of the sermon an alternating chant was formed and turned into a song. The singing style of the cantor was characterized by strong ornamentation.
Political ideas continued to be associated with gospel music, because even in the 1950s black church services remained a place in which Afro-Americans could express themselves more freely than anywhere else. The church was the most important meeting place for the exchange of political thoughts and discussions. Civil rights movements were often founded within the African American churches, like the largest peace movement from 1955 under the pastor Martin Luther King .
style
Gospel music has many different facets. Depending on the parish, this music has different characteristics. However, there are elements that shape the style and for which this style of music became known:
Most gospel songs have in common that they are vocal pieces . However, there have also been purely instrumental gospel recordings in the recent past . Since the songs are particularly about verbal messages, they are performed as soloists or choirs.
Loud, emotional and richly ornamented singing with a tremendous expressiveness are the essential characteristics of singing.
The general sound of gospel music can be described as positive, optimistic and happy. The lyrics in the songs are about praising , giving thanks and the hope that comes from believing in God . Musically appropriate, both fast and slow pieces are basically of a happy nature.
But also other feelings, like sadness and despair, as in some of the spirituals, can be the subject of gospel songs. The best-known example of this is from Thomas A. Dorsey , Precious Lord, Take My Hands , a lament that Martin Luther King wished for his funeral in the event of Mahalia Jackson's early death. His request was granted in 1968.
The communicative principle of the Negro Spirituals with the call and response as well as the development of songs from the sermons were retained in the gospel songs. Whether pastor with congregation, soloist with choir or band with singers, the principle of alternating chants can almost always be found in the songs.
In the churches of the 1930s, the pattern of the ring shouts was also danced. The ecstatic phases in the service became stronger and longer under the driving rhythm of the instruments. In addition to the formation of piano, organ, drums and bass, guitar , wind instruments and, above all, the bell ring were often used . The latter increased the basic pulse , which had been reduced to beats 2 and 4 for the off-beat and reinforced the driving element in the music. The common off-beat clapping of the whole community on fast pieces set the tone.
The songs were kept in both binary and ternary rhythms, with " groovy " pieces in the binary eighth note rhythm predominating and - parallel to the development of beat and rock music - being found more and more frequently.
The African melody was largely preserved in the original ring shouts, work songs and negro spirituals. The African modes cannot be recorded with our European tone system, since the intonation differs from our tone system. In the course of the mixing of musical cultures, pentatonic scales and blue notes grew out of them .
The pentatonic scale is a semitone-free scale that knows neither major nor minor and can be found in almost all cultures of the world. Starting with C the notes would be called CDEGA. You can start this scale with any note.
Another characteristic are the blue notes . These are the “blue third”, “flatted fifth” and the “blue seventh”. These are scale tones that are about a quarter tone lower than the European tone system provides. The "blue third" occurs most frequently. In the German language it is referred to as the blues third . In C major this would mean: The e 'is a little deeper than the pure intonation would provide. But any other tone can also sound a little too deep or "blue" when sliding in from below.
The blue notes are mostly used in addition to the "normal" scale and used depending on the phrase. In an experience report , James Lincoln Collier tells : "The exhorting preacher breaks into song at points in the sermon, typically using a melody that begins on the fifth and then descends through a blue fifth and blue third to the tonic."
This melody was used particularly extensively in blues and gospel by singers, wind players and guitarists. Pianists who cannot change the intonation of the piano use so-called clusters or suggestions. Playing pure notes and a small second underneath at the same time creates a similar “blue” or “dirty” sound. These suggestions are often played by wind players, following the example of the pianists.
European cadences did not form the harmonic basis in the old black chants, but mostly only a tonal center in the sense of a tonic . Later there was the change with the subdominant and occasionally the dominant appeared . The early blues schemes consisted mainly of tonic and subdominant until the current 12-bar form developed around 1912 , in which tonic, subdominant and dominant have their fixed place.
In later gospel and blues, certain motifs (so-called riffs ) emerged from the interplay between tonic and subdominant , which guitarists and pianists took up and which also set the style for boogie-woogie . These chord changes are known as plagal cadence or colloquially as "amen chords".
Compared to this very original black music, there was a continued type of gospel music that was based on a harmony scheme, which is referred to as " close harmony ". Close Harmony , which is derived from the traditional European system, uses scale-like melodies via harmony schemes with intermediate dominants. This type of harmony was used by gospel groups in the tradition of the Fisk Jubilee Singers , such as: B. the Golden Gate Quartet . The jazz harmonics (i.e. the harmonics of blues and swing ) were included in the gospel song of the 1930s . Major seventh chords not only in the dominant, turnarounds , option tones in chords and the jazz melody was woven into the traditional music.
The harmony and melody in gospel music can hardly be distinguished from blues. Music researchers agree that the gospel song basically represents the blues with religious texts or, conversely, the blues is the secular form of gospel music.
The blues singer T-Bone Walker wrote: “Of course, a lot of the blues comes from church. I heard the first boogie woogie of my life in church. "
In practice, the spontaneous calls from the congregation were reinforced by comments from the band. The band often accompanied the spoken sermon with soft harmonies, ostinate lines without harmony changes or played the 16-bar basic form.
Slow gospel pieces are usually found with triplet subdivisions of the quarters, as well as in 3/4 or 6/8 time , as in the most famous composition by Thomas A. Dorsey , Precious Lord, Take My Hands . Presumably the triple bars are used because they are more fluid than binary bars and shouldn't appear static in slow tempos . In them the parishioners can rock themselves to the beat or even dance.
Known as the "gospel ending", the end of a song with a subdominant and tonic (as opposed to the dominant as the leading chord to the root key .) Most of the time, the lead singer sings an improvised cadenza on sustained chords.