The History of Gospel Music
The Gospel Music experience cannot be told in a short story, or even
in a melody of songs, for it is far too rich, far too harmonious and
deliberately stimulating. It is a living experience, always changing,
always giving, and always becoming the foundation that gave moral,
physical and spiritual support to a great and powerful people.
Gospel Music is a shining beacon of hope, a fantastic journey of joy
divine, and a triumphant victory in God that comes from deep down in the
souls of God’s Chosen People. The greatest melodies and the most
stimulating songs have been given to this Nation and the World through
the African American experience.
There has been no other event in history that has been more
compelling, convincing, or persuasive than Gospel Music. Some of the
most beautiful music of all times was born out of intense grief and
suffering, and Gospel Music is no exception.
It is the Alpha and Omega of God’s spiritual principle that plays
upon the keyboard of mans integrity. It is a resonance, an echoing
sound throughout the ages that has surrendered the wonders of God’s
Almighty creations.
After thousands of years, the sound of Gospel Music is still
enthralling and captivating because it stands against the social
background as a shadow of today’s community problems and dilemmas. From
the 1930’s to the 1960’s desperate circumstances controlled our lives;
despair and hope, life and death; but Gospel Music mirrored our
predicaments as a collective group of people, it reflected upon our
social status, and eventually reverberated in our made up minds that God
was indeed on our sides.
Theprologue of Gospel Music owes its grandeur and its sense of
veracity to Thomas Andrew Dorsey who is called the “Father of Gospel
Music.” He combined Christian praise with the rhythms of jazz and
blues. Mr. Dorsey wrote many songs, two of his greatest were “Precious
Lord” and “Peace in The Valley.” Both of these songs were written after
the tragic death of his wife and newborn son. These songs have become
community owned songs, as singers and listeners throughout the world
relate to the words of assurance that are delivered and adopted in the
messages.
The influence of Mahalia Jackson is evident in her style and
references to the storms of life and of the good that is produced
through overcoming adversity. Her melodious voice stirred listeners as
they “Moved On Up A Little Bit Higher” and invited them to participate
in her songs. She developed a flair for composing songs that moved the
heart and regenerated the soul of a people who looked to the hills from
whence cometh their help. The songs were so exciting and popular that
congregations automatically joined in the singing and shouting as they
lifted up the name of Jesus.
Religious freedoms stood in the forefront of a people who knew that
God was the beginning and the end. The methodical beats of and the
syncopation rhythms of Mrs. Albertina Walker and the Caravan gave birth
to a brand new gospel experience. With her words representing patience,
endurance, survival, and staying power, her voice rekindled the awesome
power of God as she told Him in song “Lord Keep Me Day by Day.” Her
dominant presence in religious song has been formulated, devised,
developed, and shared among all generations. The Caravan along with
Mrs. Walker presented a wholesome type of devotion that rekindled a
loyalty, which inspired the people to rise up and become God fearing.
Mrs. Walker was born in Chicago, Illinois and began singing in the youth
choir at the West Point Baptist Church at an early age, and joined
several Gospel groups thereafter, including The Pete Williams Singers
and the Robert Anderson Singers. Albertina was greatly influenced by
Mahalia Jackson her friend andconfidante. Mahalia Jackson took her on
the road when she was just a teenager. “Mahalia used to kid me. She’d
say, ‘Girl, you need to go sing by yourself.” Albertina Walker did just
that. In 1951, she formed the group called The Caravans. She was given
the title “Queen of Gospel Music” initially by such notables as the late
Reverend James Cleveland and Jessy Jackson for her outstanding
achievements within the genre after the death of Mahalia Jackson in
1972.
More than that. The great struggle of the 1960’s until 1980 was a
struggle of the common man. It was a battle for rights against
privileges, the long, slow, and awkward striving for government, this
syncopation consisted of the people, by the people, and for the people-
the struggles which were identical in Blacks, Whites, Brown, and Others.
In outward form there is difference and variety, but at the heart of
each individual there is equality. James Cleveland expresses this in
song “Lord Do It.” Elvis Presley who sung and won a Grammy for “ He
Touched Me” written by Andrea Crouch and a song by Walter Hawkins “God
Is” gave stamina and determination to sing the Lord’s song even in a
strange land of struggling.
And in this common struggle of man / woman we have found that no one
member can win or can lose alone. For we are all in this struggle of
lifetogether, look around; the musical chord of brotherhood joins
us—unified together. Against the most revered and arrogant institution
of entrenched Segregation that this Nation has ever experienced, Black
people came to believe that we were Somebody and that We do count in the
great scheme of things.
It is impossible for us to understand the development of Gospel Music
without some knowledge of the temptations that have crossed our faith.
In analyzing those factors that have entered into our moral and
spiritual lives, we find that the part that slavery has played in the
drama of African Americans life that was experienced in this new land.
The Gospel’s of this era had a measure of strength, might and
potency. It revealed humanity in times of severe, brutal, and
relentless hardships. But throughout this ordeal, Gospel Music wasa
place of inspiration. It was a comfort that provided a renewed hope, a
renewed joy, renewed peace, and a renewed passion for life. The music
is a deep well cast down into a refreshing stream of life encompassing
notes.
As the curtains of 1980 through the 1990’s drew opened, there was a
soothing melody found in Contemporary Gospel. This new Gospel gave us
peace of mind. A peace of mind that continues to be the foundation of
real happiness and that peace is the fruit of our love perfectly
fulfilled in song / music. It provided great comfort in knowing that we
will one day see Jesus. Artists such as V. Michael McKay “All In His
Hand,” The Winans, “Tomorrow,” Vanessa Bell Armstrong, “Peace Be Still,”
and Thomas Witfield,” Precious Jesus” reassures us in our daily walk
with God. In declaring that God knows each of us by name, and that His
love for us was affirmed by His death on the Cross-, continue to give us
hope in a dark, sin filled world.
We found that nothing lofty, nothing beautiful, nothing good, or
nothing too proud is done without love. We have continued to believe
through song that “We can give without Loving, but we cannot Love
without Giving.” This music must be judged in part by the messages it
portrays, not merely by its’ rhythms and beats, but by the ideals and
the measure in which mankind realize these ideals. It has produced the
cultivation and improvement of the Spiritual principle in man. We are
composed of two elements; the one, a little dust caught up from the
earth, to which we shall soon return; the other, a spark of that divine
intelligence, in which and through which we bear theimage of the great
Creator. By respect, our voices shout as Blessings go up and Praises
come down.
Contemporary Gospel is a development of our faculties and powers
through a relationship with God. It reinforced the belief that God is
the Master of our Faith and the Captain of our soul. And we need,
incidentally, to know enough to know whose we are and what we are here
for. This new music had it’s crossover into theworld of entertainment
through such stars as Ray Charles, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, The Edwin
Hawkins Singers (O Happy Day), Andrea Crouch; (The Blood Will Never Lose
its Power), which was composed by him when he was only thirteen years
of age.
During the 1990’s until 2000 and beyond singers such as Yolanda
Adams, “The Battle is The Lord,” written by V. Michael McKay, “Perfect
Praise,” written by Brenda Joyce Moore and lead by Lecresia Campbell
with Walt Whitman and the Soul Children of Chicago, and we can never
forget Kirk Franklin, “Why We Sing,” these timely artists have made
impressions of international clefs on Gospelmusic. These singers have
carried the beats and measures as they have made an everlasting impact
on the American culture and beyond. The songs that they sing are
statements of faith that has kept our hearts and minds stayed on Jesus
as we enjoy today and look forward to better tomorrows.
The past has revealed to us that all its secrets, and the future
hangs over us like the mist of the morning, but the present is as clear
and distinct as a mid-day sun. The songs that came from the emancipated
people gave them courage through their difficulties and
disappointments. It carried them through the Reconstruction Period,
through the Black Codes, the promise of forty acres and a mule, through
the migration North, through being considered second-class citizens,
through Brown vs. Board of Education, even through the Civil Rights era.
This Contemporary Music is the heart and soul of today’s gospel
music. The music represents that God is our hope, our purpose, and our
way out of no-way.
So from 2000 until 2010, the free-flowing music styles of Kirk Carr, “
In The Sanctuary” William Murphy, “Praise Is What I Do,” “Good News,”
by Vanessa Bell Armstrong,” Hezekiah Walker, “God Favored Me,” and
Israel Houghton, “You Are Good,” are unique to the African American
Church History.
Gospel Music is a romance of going to a favorite spot, a favorite
tree, and a hallowed spot, just to talk with God. So from the very
beginning the African American has believed that God would hear an
earnest and sincere prayer or song. This very spirit meant that God
could bless whom He would as well as curse anyone according to His
Will. From these songs we have been able to tell God exactly what we
want, even in a Strange Land.
There has never been a time when Gospel Music has not been a part of
the African American Experience. When we consider the tragic, dreadful,
and catastrophic experiences which occur to so many in our society- and
when wetend to feel and believe that there is no way out, Gospel Music
is there to“Take our Hands and Lead us On.”
Gospel Music is not a mere form of entertainment to be had when
desired; it is a form of character, obedience, and spirit. It follows
upon the long discipline, which gives a people self-possession,
self-mastery, a habit of order and peace and common counsel and
reverences for God’s will that directs our lives.
Finally, this sincere admiration of Gospel Music, this admiration and
reverence is now felt throbbing in every corner of the globe, and are
the Musical Chords that bind the Nations of the world together while yet
leaving unimpaired that love of country in the individual citizen which
in the present stage of the world’s progress is essential to the
world’s well-being.
We must Lift our Voices and Sing! Sing! Sing!
SOURCE::http://gospelmusicheritage.org
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