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Post by Admin on Mar 25, 2013 9:18:26 GMT -5
Many people ask what the difference is between the spirituals and Black gospel music. Simply put, the spirituals are the Southern sacred "folk" songs created and first sung by African Americans during slavery. Their original composers are unknown, and they have assumed a position of collective ownership by the whole community. They lend themselves easily to communal singing. Many are in a call-and-response structure, with back-and-forth exchanges between the leader and the group. A formal concert tradition has evolved from the original spirituals, with solo and choral arrangements based on original slave melodies, employed for performance by amateur and professional artists. Black gospel music originated in the churches of the urban North in the 1920's, and has been the predominant music of the twentieth century Black Church. Each gospel song has an identifiable composer. Gospel fuses musical elements of both the spirituals and the blues, and incorporates extensive musical improvisation, with piano, guitar or other instrumental accompaniment. While the gospel tradition descended directly from the spirituals and the blues, the spirituals have also continued to exist as a parallel cultural force.
The spirituals are the religious folk songs created and first sung by African Americans in slavery. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot;" "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho;" "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child;" "Go Down, Moses;" "Steal Away to Jesus;" "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel?;" "Wade in the Water;" these are some of the best known survivors of the hundreds of remarkable religious folk songs that were created by enslaved African Americans. In fact, many Americans from all ethnic backgrounds can remember "growing up" with these songs, which were created by a circumscribed community of people in bondage but eventually came to be regarded as the first "signature" music of the new American nation. In time, the spirituals were offered as a gift to the whole world, exerting their cultural impact well into the beginning of the twenty-first century.
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Post by cliveianholloway on Mar 26, 2013 18:19:58 GMT -5
this thread has got me back to reading this book: ..which I started a while ago but didn't finish - the first chapter contains a great account of the development of the gospel (and secular) quartets, and also outlines definitions of gospel music
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Post by Admin on Mar 26, 2013 21:43:28 GMT -5
this thread has got me back to reading this book ..which I started a while ago but didn't finish - the first chapter contains a great account of the development of the gospel (and secular) quartets, and also outlines definitions of gospel music That looks like something I might start when I finish the 3 I've started. Thanks Cliive
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Post by karlhenning on Mar 7, 2014 10:05:46 GMT -5
Not sure if this is the right thread (seems the most nearly right thread) . . .
Day before yesterday was my first Ash Wednesday service as director of the Holy Trinity United Methodist Church choir; it was a relatively quiet, solemn service, and the choir's contribution was 'confined' to leading the congregation in chanting the 51st Psalm to a simple plainchant psalm tone. It was, I thought, a lovely occasion, thanks in part to the choir's participation (we had the choir seated out among the congregation for this service).
Last night we had our weekly rehearsal, and we sight-read perhaps four pieces (including an easy-ish choir-&-piano anthem for Easter morning).
Cheers, ~Karl
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Post by Admin on Mar 7, 2014 16:41:01 GMT -5
Karl, that sounds like a great service. Do you do your own arrangements for choir service? If so, perhaps you would like to share some of them?
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Post by karlhenning on Mar 8, 2014 10:22:10 GMT -5
Thanks for the invitation! This choir direction appointment is still fairly fresh (it's my first Liturgical year), so . . . if I do act on a recent thought of arranging "My Lord, What a Morning" for the choir, it will be the first work specifically for this group. So far, when I have had them sing (or try a piece of mine, it is something I had written for another choir earlier. For some years I did a lot of work with the late Bill Goodwin, who was organist and music director at the First Congregational Church in Woburn, Mass.; and his choir is relatively modest, musically, so some of the music I originally wrote for them (like the Palm Sunday arrangement) suit "my" choir very nicely.
I have already written two new pieces for the handbell choir, though . . . it's the first I have worked intimately with handbells, and I really enjoy the medium. My friend, fellow composer Charles Turner, also plays shakuhachi (the traditional Japanese bamboo flute), so I first wrote a piece for handbells, shakuhachi and tenor drum, When the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy (a line from the book of Job). And I wrote a handbell accompaniment for the plainchant Divinum mysterium ("Of the Father's love begotten"). We shall ring both pieces Sunday the 16th; I shall try to get good audio of them.
Cheers, ~Karl
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Post by Admin on Mar 8, 2014 11:22:22 GMT -5
Thanks for the invitation! This choir direction appointment is still fairly fresh (it's my first Liturgical year), so . . .
I know it will be a great arrangement Karl.
I have already written two new pieces for the handbell choir, though . . .My friend, fellow composer Charles Turner, also plays shakuhachi (the traditional Japanese bamboo flute), so I first wrote a piece for handbells, shakuhachi and tenor drum, Cheers, ~Karl
I know we need to get Celeste to join in this discussion.
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Post by celeste on Mar 8, 2014 11:30:01 GMT -5
I would love to hear the recordings, Karl.
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Post by Admin on Mar 8, 2014 11:33:22 GMT -5
For those not familiar with the Japanese Bamboo Flute, here's a youtube clip. I remember hearing this beautiful instrument for the first time when I was stationed in Iwakuni, Japan in the 50's as part of the USMC.
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Post by karlhenning on Mar 26, 2014 8:41:10 GMT -5
To many Western ears, this will sound like another world . . . a new (although very much in traditional Orthodox Liturgical choral style) setting of the Lord's Prayer by a young Slovenian composer:
Ambrož ?opi ?
Cheers, ~k.
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Post by karlhenning on May 31, 2014 17:32:35 GMT -5
The performance was not perfect, but it was enthusiastically received at church last week:
Cheers, ~k.
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Post by karlhenning on Nov 3, 2014 7:58:13 GMT -5
Again, mine is but a musically modest outfit (they're no Tanglewood Festival Chorus).
And it is not my arrangement, save for the handbells alone.
That said, I was pleased with how my folks did a week ago:
Cheers, ~k.
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Post by JamesP on Nov 3, 2014 10:37:04 GMT -5
Thanks Karl. I enjoyed it.
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Post by karlhenning on Nov 3, 2014 11:29:04 GMT -5
Thank you!
Cheers, ~k.
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