When was gospel music created

When people spoke of sacred music, they talked of spirituals, anthems, jubilees, lined-hymns, and congregational singing. In most cases, these styles of singing were expressed without the accompaniment of musical instruments. In many denominations, musical instruments like the drums and guitar were considered tools of the devil because they were also used in bars, honky tonks and juke joints.

Others believed that since Jesus did not use instruments in His ministry, it was not proper for contemporary Christians to do so either. In order for the modern notion of gospel music to come into existence, a radical change had to occur.

In an African American religious leader named William Seymour accepted the invitation of one of his former congregants and relocated to Los Angeles, California to pastor a church. Encouraged by this revelation, Seymour and his followers decided to host a revival in a building they rented from an African Methodist Episcopal church in the area now known as Little Tokyo. Initially scheduled to last a week, the Azusa Street Revival continued from to It is the birthplace of modern Pentecostalism.

In addition to its theological significance, the Azusa Street Revival is also important musically. Using Psalms to justify the use of instruments in worship, congregants sang, danced and played everything from trumpets and tambourines to cymbals and flutes.

Preaching the power of possession by the Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues, this musical experience reminded many in the audience of the shouts that Blacks had engaged in back on the plantation. For many converts to the new Pentecostal faith, the music of the traditional church did not match the energy and fervor that they felt in those Holiness revivals and camp meetings.

In contrast to the tight harmonies of the Jubilee Quartets and the formality of hymns, these individuals created two new genres of Black sacred music to meet their needs.

These are known as Sanctified Music and the Holy Blues. While Sanctified music was an attempt to directly imitate performance traditions of the Azusa Street Revival, the Holy Blues mixed in secular sounds and also influenced Blues, Jazz and Ragtime.

Arizona Dranes, a blind piano master from Texas who migrated to Los Angeles in the s, was the first woman ever recorded playing this music. Because of her affiliation with the Church of God in Christ COGIC , the largest African American Pentecostal group, she exerted a huge influence on the institutional development and growth of the sound in African American communities throughout the country.

No one person did more to make Gospel music a widely accepted and qualitatively distinct musical style than Thomas Andrew Dorsey. He created the Dorsey House of Music, the first publishing house dedicated to distributing gospel music by Black writers, and founded, with the assistance of pioneering singer and businesswoman Sallie Martin, the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses. When he was eleven years old, his family moved to Atlanta, and young Dorsey became exposed to a variety of musical styles emanating from the Southern city.

Developing his skills in churches, at school, and in local theaters, he was a dedicated musician by the time his family moved to Chicago in For four years he toured with the great Blues queen Ma Rainey. Always looking for a way to support himself financially, Dorsey felt no guilt about composing Blues and sacred music. In , Dorsey had a religious awakening and decided to compose exclusively for Gospel.

Even though he left the world of the Blues, it is the musical sensibilities of the Blues — the bounce, the rock, the swing — that Dorsey used to accompany his religious lyrics. With partner Sallie Martin, he began to make copies of his songs and tried to sell them through the mail. Gathering together a group of singers who could personalize songs to the stylistic sensibilities of each particular congregation, Dorsey began the practice of demonstrating his music to choir directors.

This proved to be the marketing technique that worked best. In Los Angeles this spread directly related to the growth of the Black Community in the first half of the 20 th century.

By the end of the s, there were more than , African Americans living in Los Angeles. Due to residential segregation, the vast majority of these new migrants lived in the area known as South Central Los Angeles. With Central Avenue as one of its main thoroughfares, the area was a hotbed of social engagement and political activity. On the music scene, migrants from the Midwest and the South soon brought the new music to Los Angeles and, like the Azusa Street Revival, it spread like wildfire.

In major Gospel cities like Chicago, the expression of Gospel during the Golden Age was centered on soloists, duets, and small groups. In Los Angeles, the most common expression of the music came from key religious leaders who migrated to the city and established churches.

These individuals attracted, mentored, and supported a number of key composers and directors who introduced the music, organized choirs and perfected the sound.

Although quartet singing has been a part of the African American sacred music scene since the Fisk Jubilee Singers, modern quartet singing is very different from its 19 th -century forefather. Most importantly, modern quartet singing has nothing to do with the number of people in the group.

Instead, it has to do with the style of singing. Using close harmonies, instrumental accompaniment and grounded by a repetitious chorus line that often continues throughout the song, modern quartets were the place where great Black male vocalists showcased their talents. Instead of singing within the four-part harmony of a traditional quartet, modern quartet groups added at least one other performer to sing against the traditional four-part harmony.

Smooth sounding when they needed to be, the great quartet groups of this era could moan, shriek and bring on the Holy Ghost when the situation demanded. Traveling throughout the country and playing to sold out auditoriums and houses of worship, these groups were known for their showstopping performance and stylistic flair.

I lost a lot of confidence in the Lord or somebody. It was quite a while before I could get myself together. When he did, Dorsey cast aside the blues life and poured his musical gifts into writing songs of faith. He had dabbled in religious music before, but now it became his passion, prompting him to write a new type of religious song. By introducing syncopated rhythms, lamenting vocal lines and other blues elements to religious music, Dorsey invented the gospel song--a music neither totally sacred nor wholly secular.

Just a month after his personal disaster, Dorsey penned "Take My Hand, Precious Lord," which would become one of the most popular of all gospel songs. The purpose of gospel music is to uplift and encourage Christian believers and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ through music with the hope of bringing salvation to non-believers.

When historians talk about the history of black music in America , they often follow a very similar timeline of styles and influences. These songs of the mid-twentieth century would not have come about without the influence of black rhythm and blues artists. The further back we go along this thread, the deeper we get into blues and ragtime music of the South.

While this is an important musical timeline, it is not the only route in African American musical history. Some go deeper into the music of their churches and communities. This all leads back to a deep-rooted connection to gospel music. Gospel music as we know it began in the s but the roots can be seen much earlier in the southern states.

African American communities in the late 19th century would come together in their churches to give praise and sing poignant spirituals and hymns. The power of the message and rhythm of the music would often come out through the hand-clapping and foot-stomping still seen in churches to this day. Before that, those spirituals were an important part of slave culture.

Groups of slaves would sing together as they worked on plantations, often choosing old songs connected to their faith. For some, this was little more than a way to feel closer to God during hardship. For others, the communal songs and harmonies would create bonds between workers. There was also the use of song as a means of covert communication. African American composers continued using biblical themes and stories of black history in the time of emancipation and beyond.

The development of gospel music was an evolution of this style as African American communities moved into cities and more urban societies at the beginning of the 20th century. This was a continuation of their connection between music and faith. The gospel songs carried on into the new churches of these northern cities. There were four distinct styles of gospel music that developed in the golden age of gospel from the s. Traditional gospel took the songs and hymns and gave them to a larger choir.

It followed the more minimalist approach that was expected when the community came together in song. Contemporary gospel changed this and allowed solo artists to come forward and tell their stories on their own. Quartet styles saw groups of vocalists sing these songs in tighter harmonies, something that would later emerge in other musical styles.

Then there was the praise and worship style. This is the one that many outsiders immediately think of when they imagine gospel choirs. This blend of styles brings together the choir, soloist and the responses of the congregation. There is no musical link here. However, there is that same sense of a need to vividly express a connection to God during a time of worship. The sound of black gospel music may have evolved greatly over this period but the fundamentals remained the same.

A Philadelphia minister named Charles Albert Tindley was instrumental in this evolution in the early part of the 20th century. He composed hymns that would offer the same message and spiritual connection with a new style of musical accompaniment. These songs came from hymns, spirituals, and stories from times of inequality, hardship, and suffering in southern plantations and communities.

All those decades later in the north, urban emancipated communities still faced inequality, hardship, and suffering in the fight for civil rights. In many ways, gospel music was a way of reconnecting with the past and strengthening their faith. It helped reinforce that feeling that God was with them through the best of times and the worst of times. Thomas A. Dorsey was a blues and jazz composer and son of a Georgia Baptist preacher.