Gospel Hymnody in the 20th Century

The term, "gospel hymn" is defined as any congregational song which is set in a popular musical style, especially when there is a clearly defined "classical" or traditional style already in place. In a broad sense all Christian hymnody is "gospel" hymnody because through the history of the Christian church congregational song has always been set in a popular musical style. Consequently, the hymns of Ambrose (c. 350 CE) are gospel hymns because they were set in the style of the popular marching songs of the Roman soldiers. The hymns of Martin Luther were gospel songs because they were set in the popular secular music of the day (Meistersingers). And certainly any mid-19th century American congregational song set in the style of the popular music of the day is a gospel song.

In the late 20th century, the dichotomy between" popular" and "classical" is particularly strong because of the universal presence of American popular culture. Most popular music generally uses drums and/or guitars and electronic instruments including electronic amplification. Consequently, the majority of recent gospel music utilizes the same kind of performance practice. Traditional hymnody, on the other hand, is identified with classical music in the style of classical composers such as Bach, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, etc., and generally does not use percussion (drums) or electronic instruments/amplifiers.

The roots of American gospel hymnody is explored elsewhere. Here we will look at 20th century gospel hymnody as especially what has become known in the late 20th century as "contemporary Christian music" and "praise and worship music."

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The immediate ancestors of current (late 20th century) praise and worship music were:

"Contemporary Christian music" (CCM) as it has become known after about 1980 is synonymous with "gospel music." However, a distinction needs to be made between CONCERT GOSPEL and CONGREGATIONAL GOSPEL. Some CCM is congregational but most is not. It is beyond the scope of this study to focus on the history of concert gospel music. However, congregational gospel music can be studied by looking at specific hymnal publishers and their hymn collections.

Currently, the largest publishers of gospel music collections are Word Music, Brentwood Music, and Hope Publishing Company. Denominational publishing houses such as Southern Baptists, Methodists, Church of the Nazarene, Assemblies of God, etc., have also published collections of gospel hymns.

Through the 1950's one of the most popular publishers of gospel hymn collections was Singspiration. This company was started in 1941 by Alfred B. Smith and John W. Peterson. Smith was the first song leader for the Billy Graham Crusades. Singspiration became extremely successful, selling millions of small collections of gospel songs. Zondervan Publishing House purchased Singspiration in 1961 and Brentwood Music purchased Zondervan in the early 1980's. Brentwood Music also acquired Paragon Associates in the 1990's along with their successful hymnal, Hymns for the Family of God (Fred Bock, editor).

Important publishers of gospel songs in the early 20th century were the companies of Charles Alexander and Biglow & Main, both of which were purchased by Hope Publishing Company Hope purchased Biglow & Main in1920. Biglow & Main evolved from a company begun by William B. Bradbury. Hupert P. Main became associated with Bradbury's publishing company in 1867 and after Bradbury's death in 1868, the company became known as Biglow & Main. Both Robert Lowry and William Doane worked as music editors and songbook compilers for Biglow & Main. Lowry and Doane composed many gospel song tunes, particularly for Fanny J. Crosby's texts (poems).

Another important early 20th century gospel song publisher was The Rodeheaver Publishing Company (established in 1910) and later purchased by Word Publishing Co. Word was acquired by the Thomas Nelson publishing company in the early 1990's but later spun off the music division as a separate company -- Word Music. Word Music is the publisher of the current and popular, Celebration Hymnal.

Parallel with the success of Rodeheaver and Biglow & Main before 1940, was the successful Ruebush-Kieffer Publishing Co. of Dayton Virginia. Established in 1870, the collections of this publishing company were popular mainly in the south and mid-west. Ruebush and Kieffer started a singing school at Dayton, VA about 1880. In 1883 James D. Vaughan of Lawrenceburg, TN attended the singing school of Ruebush and Kieffer. Vaughan went on to establish his own publishing house -- the James D. Vaughan Publishing Company, with offices in Tennessee, Florida, and Texas. The manager of the Jacksonville, FL office was Virgil O. Stamps. Stamps established his own publishing house -- the Stamps-Baxter Publishing Company. These three companies (Ruebush-Kieffer, James D. Vaughan, and Stamps-Baxter) comprise the basis for what became known after about 1950 as "Southern Gospel." There is disagreement over where, exactly, is the "birthplace" of Southern gospel music. Lawrenceburg, TN maintains that IT is the birthplace while Singers Glen, VA (original location of the Ruebush/Kieffer Publishing Co.) maintains that IT is the "birthplace" of Southern gospel music. The claim of Singers Glen is certainly more reasonable because the publishing house of Joseph Funk was in business at Singers Glen as early as 1816. Also, the first collection of what would be recognized as "gospel songs" were published by Ruebush and Kieffer as early as c. 1870, a full generation before James D. Vaughan made it north from TN.

Ruebush-Kieffer closed their publishing house in the 1940's and was followed by the Vaughan Publishing Co., in the 1950's. Stamps-Baxter continued to publish gospel hymn collections until the 1960's when the overall style of "Southern Gospel" singing became associated mainly with the Stamps-Baxter Publishing Co. More specifically, Southern Gospel music is associated with the singing school tradition and the 7-shape system of notation still taught today by the Stamps-Baxter School of Music.

Southern Gospel music is often associated with concert gospel quartets and their "quartet style" of singing (The Speer Family, The Blackwood Brothers, The Happy Goodmans, etc.). Nevertheless, the tradition of Southern Gospel (reading and singing shaped notes) is still alive and well today thanks to the efforts of the Stamps-Baxter School of Music. The individuals perhaps most often associated with this tradition today is Bill and Gloria Gather. The Gathers edited their own hymnal in the 1980's, the Worship His Majesty Hymnal. This hymnal was published by Word Music but is now out of print and is replaced by Word's, Celebration Hymnal.