Resources: Genres and Performers: Gospel
Gospel Music is a form of popular hymn that developed in the late 1800s from Sunday school hymns, camp meeting spirituals, and melodies from the popular music of white North Americans in the 1800s. By that time, several camp meeting song books such as "A Collection of Camp Meeting Hymns" by Lorenzo and Peggy Dow and "A Collection of the Most Admired Hymns and Spiritual Songs with Choruses Affixed as Usually Sung at Camp Meetings" were available for the men, women, and children who participated so physically in the religious camps that they became known as, "holy rollers."The music uses little harmony, has moderate dynamic range, and usually based on 2/4 or 4/4 time.
Camp meetings and the music from them became increasingly popular through the 1800s. By the 1850s, they had spread from the southern states to the midwest and north east. And, while camp meetings faded in popularity with the Civil War, gospel music did not. Instead it was adopted by the Shakers and Normal Singing Schools promoted by singers, evangelists, and music publishers. Homer Rodeheaver and Billy Sunday were two of the most influential evangelists who used gospel music to reach the broad audience of ordinary Americans with their messages. In the early 1920s, Rodeheaver had a record company that recorded such songs as "The Old Rugged Cross." By the 1930s, gospel singing was done mostly by family ensembles who sang such songs as "Are You Washed in the Blood of the Lamb?" Albert Brumley's 1932 "I'll Fly Away" has been recorded over 500 times, and continues to be among the tunes sung in churches and jam sessions around the United States even now.
Black gospel music emerged during the 1920s, combining hymns with black spirituals and performing styles that include singing, dance, hand-clapping, finger-snapping, and tambourines. Black gospel quartets that began performing in the 1930s used vocal effects to support a strong vocal lead, rhythmic interest, and bass.
Cleaveant Derricks, Reverend C. A. Tindley, Reverend William Brewster, and Lucie Campbell were among the composers of Gospel. Blind Wille Johnson, Blind Joe Taggert, Washington Phillips, and Arizona Drane were all recognized Gospel singers. Tom Dorsey, pianist and musical director for Ma Rainey is often called the "Father of Gospel Music." By the late 1930s, Roberta Martin was accepted as one of the all-time great Gospel singers.
Mahalia Jackson (pictured above), is probably the most aclaimed black gospel singer of the twentieth century. Like many Gospel singers, she began singing in church, and was influencedby revival singing and blues. She Mahalia Jackson helped to make the music worldwide and multiracial.