GOSPEL MUSIC

When Israel was in Egypt´s Land,
Let my people go.
Oppress´d so hard they could not stand,
Let my people go.

Go down Moses
´way down in Egypt´s land
Tell ol´ Pharaoh,
Let my people go.

How many of us have sung this during worship or at church camp without considering how it got to us?

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, Go Down Moses, Let us Break Bread Together On Our Knees - and countless others of our most beloved songs, are spirituals created by Africans brought to America and sold as slaves.

In America, everything the captured Africans were familiar with was stripped away - language, food, customs, family - but not music. Over the years as many slaves adopted the Christianity of their captors, their songs reflected the oppression as well as the hope found in the Old Testament. Since most slaves were not allowed to read or write, these songs were composed on the spur of the moment and passed orally from person to person.

Spirituals not only provided comfort and peace to those singing them, but were often used to communicate among plantations and spread information about the Underground Railroad, plans for meetings or other vital news.

With the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War some former slaves (mainly in the north and west) formed churches affiliated with white denominations and modeled their worship and music after them. They often rejected the spirituals as reminders of their former captivity.

In the South, former slaves often developed their own pentecostal or holiness churches. And, in these churches, music began to appear that combined the rhythms, improvisation and characteristics of the spiritual with the more formal structure of the white hymns. These "gospel hymns" predominantly expressed the "Good News" of the Gospels.

Unlike the more informal spiritual, this music was published and copyrighted and began to be performed with instruments and male quartets and female choirs.

As many African Americans moved north for greater opportunity in the 1900s, Chicago became the center of gospel music. Gospel greats Thomas A. Dorsey (known as the "Father of Gospel Music") Mahalia Jackson, Sallie Martin and Roberta Martin all started began their careers in Chicago at this time.

By the 1950s, electric instruments had been added and singers such as Sam Cooke, who led the Soul Stirrers, introduced new audiences to gospel. Mahalia Jackson played Carnegie Hall and the Ed Sullivan Show in New York City and gospel singers took the stage at the Newport Jazz Festival for the first time.

In the '60s, there were gospel musicals on Broadway and gospel music being performed in nightclubs. Aretha Franklin, the Staples Singers and James Cleveland shifted gospel into the popular music realm, something that made traditionalists uncomfortable.

Contemporary gospel is dominated by large choirs with soloists using the same sound equipment as rock bands. The choir robes are gone for the most part, and gospel groups can be found on every college campus. And, rap gospel has even taken root in some places - to the chagrin of some but delight of others. Its ability to change while remaining true to its past, has allowed gospel to survive and flourish.

So, the next time we hear or sing Michael, Row the Boat Ashore  or Mary Had A Baby, take a moment to remember what others had to endure for us to have this magnificent music.