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The Secularization of Black Gospel Music
- University Press of Mississippi
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The Secularization of Black Gospel Music Anthony Heilbut IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, John Wesley wondered in straightforward Methodist style, why the devil should have all the good tunes, as if saints and sinners could divide music up into spiritual and secular provinces. Perhaps in other times and places, sacred and worldly music comprised discrete entities . But the music of the black folk church has beengrappling with secular forces since the early twenties, a period coinciding with the massive distribution of recordings for black audiences, if not earlier. There has been a continual dialectic between the "songs of Zion" and the "devil's tunes," and as happens in the most interesting dialectical encounters, this particular conflict ushered in a subtle intermingling of extremes , and a consequent confusion of forms and habits. As a happy result, the twenty-year period from 1940 to 1960, Gospel's Golden Age, produced an outpouring of creative talent surpassed only by jazz. Twenty years later, through other dialectical twists, black gospel finds itself besieged by the worldly appeals it warded off so well so long. The enemy this time is not the devil—as Thomas Mann reminded us, Lucifer makes a splendid music critic—but the forces of the marketplace . The secularization of black gospel music has evolved from a generalized commercialization, not merely of gospel. And this development has social and political implications 101 102 THE R E L I G I O U S S O U N D that quite dwarf the problem of whether the music is asgood as it once was. It is a commonplace that modern gospel music dates from the early thirties. But there are certain constants in black church music that go back much longer. I would stress the Dr. Watts hymns—named after the English hymnodist, Isaac Watts—both for the beauty of their solemn cadences, and for their characteristic performing styles—the blue-noted keening and humming, known as "moaning," and the intricately convoluted melismatic patterns, compact of slurs, spoken interpolations , and absolute rhythmic freedom. These seem to me the essential characteristics of the black gospel style. Dr. Watts's singing allows for liberties, for elaborate ornamentation , always, however, signaled by "spirit feel," an elusive mood that can make a hymn like "Amazing Grace" or "The Day Is Past and Gone" go on for anywhere from five minutes to half an hour, if the spirit isright and the singerssoinclined. Obviously not all black church songs were as poignant as these evocations of hard times and imminent death. The happier, rhythmic songs were accompanied by the holy dance, the "shout." (Incidentally, the word "shouting "isalso used to describe the holy dancing of white Pentecostals.) Shout steps vary with the individual. Once they may have been standardized , just as once the only accompaniment washand-clapping and foot-tapping. Today when someone gets happy, he or she may dance to a full instrumental ensemble, and the steps may be extremely flamboyant and acrobatic. What is constant, again, is the emphasis on spirit feel, and the oft-expressed conviction of one's shout steps originates with his or her conversion, and so is as individual a public display as his or her way of walking or talking. The very term "holy dance" calls attention to itself. Anyonewho has seen holy dancing in white Pentecostal churches, much less the meetings of the soi-disant charismatics, will understand how distinctive holy dancing in black churches is,and how influential: a perception evident in the works of Alvin Ailey or the dancesperformed on "Soul Train." [18.204.214.205] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 23:48 GMT) Secularization of Black Gospel Music 103 The social functions of the black preacher have been well analyzed. I would liketo point out the premium congregations place on his showmanship. As the ethos dictates that he must be "called" and "sent," so the dictates of the spirit will color his preaching, causing him to growl, moan, chant, and even sing his words, to move about freely, to run, to crawl, to shout, in a word, to "clown." Clowning, as the description of showmanship, is an ambivalent term among gospel singers. Everyone knows it's wrong to put on, yet every singer or preacher knows it is necessary and well-nigh universal. As a larger phenomenon, clowning as it manifests itself in gospel, blues, soul, or for that matter, country and western and white gospel, is worth some real attention. Once again, it evokes a dialectical response: the...