The American Gospel SongWith some exceptions (mostly Germanic: Lutherans, Moravians and Anabaptists), the history of Protestant theology and hymnody in America until around 1740 is essentially the history of Calvinism and metrical psalmody. Evangelicalism took hold in America during the period between 1730 and about 1780 and resulted in an event referred to as The Great Awakening and a consequent movement known as Revivalism. [Also see, The Great Awakening.] Musically this led to the first singing of hymns, especially those of Isaac Watts. After about 1820 there was a Second Great Awakening which resulted (for our purposes) in even more hymn singing activity, particularly the hymns of Charles Wesley. [Also see, The Second Great Awakening.] It was during this period of time (1820 and following) that the first shaped-note tunebooks were published and distributed throughout what was then the frontier of America. An important development from this second religious revival was the institution of the "protracted meeting" (see Revivalism) led by professional evangelists whose beliefs were those of American Evangelicalism (later to evolve into Fundamentalism). This was typified by an amalgamation of strict Calvinist and Arminian theology, which at first seems contradictory. Nevertheless, when one combines the Calvinist ideas about the wrath of God, the conviction of sin, the sinner as "filthy rags" -- with the Arminian idea of faith and forgiveness, IT WILL PREACH! And preach it did, pervading all facets of American culture throughout the 19th century. Consequently, Evangelicalism was not just a religious phenomenon but pervaded all aspects of American culture during the early and mid-19th century. See Evangelicalism as a Social Movement. A major tenet of this evangelical viewpoint was "free grace to all," the theological equivalent to American democracy. The hymnic counterpart of American Evangelicalism as it grew out of revivalist activities in the northern urban areas (New York, Boston -- later Chicago) was the Gospel Song. [See: Music in Urban Revivalism in the Northern United States, 1800-1835. D.M.A. dissertation, Paul Hammond, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky., 1974.] The gospel song is the first truly American hymnic development and
has these origins: (1) Sunday
School songs, (2) Camp
Meeting songs, (3) popular American secular vocal
and instrumental music, particularly "parlor songs" (like
those of Steven Foster), (4) Concert Band music (like that
of John Philip Sousa and his predecessors), and (5) the aesthetic
of mid-19th century American Romanticism,
particularly of the more sentimental variety. By the 1880's, Sunday School songs became strongly identified with the revival meetings of Dwight Moody (1837-1899). In this new setting the Sunday School song became known as the Gospel Song, so named after P. P. Bliss’, Gospel Songs (1874) and Bliss and Ira Sankey’s, Gospel Hymns and Sacred Songs, (1875). The Gospel Song became so closely associated with Ira Sankey (1840-1908), who was Dwight Moody’s "song leader" that in England, even today, a gospel song is referred to as a "Sankey." One of the leading poets of gospel hymnody was the blind hymn writer Fanny Jane Crosby (1820-1915). Famous as a secular poet, she turned to hymn writing and eventually produced some 9000 hymn texts which were set to music by such people as Robert Lowry (1826-1899), William Doane (1832-1915), and George C. Stebbins (1846-1945). After Dwight Moody’s death (for whom the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago is named), Revivalism continued to flourish with the idea of the revivalist having a song leader who would use and teach gospel songs/ Famous song leaders included Charles Alexander and Homer Rodeheaver, who gained popularity as Billy Sunday’s song leader. The Sunday-Rodeheaver meetings were held mostly in specially constructed tabernacles (temporary buildings with the ground covered in sawdust -- hence the term, "hitting the sawdust trail" for walking the isle to make a public decision). Rodeheaver eventually started a successful publishing company, the Rodeheaver Company (Rodeheaver Hall-Mack Company) in Winona Lake, Indiana which later became the successful Word Publishing Company (now WordMusic). The 20th century inheritor of the 19th century Urban Revival movement is Billy Graham. [Check out the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College.] [From Sing with Understanding, by Harry Eskew and Hugh McElrath (Nashville: Church Street Press, 2nd edition, 1995.]
Gospel songs appealed to common and ordinary people because they were simple both textually and musically and were fun to sing in large crowds. After 1900, with the rise of ragtime and other popular musical styles (jazz, blues, etc.), the music of many gospel songs tended to become more rhythmical in character. The texts of gospel songs are characterized by an absence of the elements of adoration or worship. The main emphasis is on personal experience with an exhortation to fellow human beings to turn from a life of sin and sorrow, -- the counterpart of the revival sermon. Many texts were extremely sentimental, paralleling the aesthetic ideals of American Romanticism:
Other texts of a higher quality can be compared favorably with the great hymn texts of the past:
However, even the best gospel songs texts did not contain the depth of complex ideas or personal experience common to the great hymns of the past. Nor was that their intention. The intention of gospel hymnody is synonymous with Evangelicalism: to present the gospel simply and to exhort people to make a public confession of faith toward the goal of accepting Jesus Christ as personal savior. Complex theology, liturgical and poetic symbolism, and emotional depth associated with complex methaphor is not the intention of gospel hymnody. Consequently, it should not be evaluated by the same criteria. Donald Hustad has given guidelines for making value judgements regarding church music in the Evangelical (Revivalist) tradition (including hymnody):
The Late 19th century Shaped-note Gospel Song The Early 20th Century Gospel Song The Early 20th century Afro-American Gospel Song After about 1930 gospel music as a distinct genre evolved into three separate streams and each stream needs to be studied separately:
Bluegrass Gospel Music after about 1940 Mid-20th century Gospel Songs (1950's) - Singspiration Early "contemporary-Christian"(CCM) gospel music (late 1960 - 1980) Fully Developed CCM gospel music and "praise-and-worship music" (PWM) (1980 - present) Fully Developed Southern Gospel and Quartet Music (the Stamps/Baxter tradition 1960 - present) After about 1980, these three streams came together and continue to intermingle and influence each other. Nevertheless, Southern Gospel continues to value and teach its tradition and there is no hint that it will eventually become an historic footnote. Bluegrass Gospel is essentially an outgrowth of the 7 Shaped-note tradition of Southern Gospel. With the success of professional Bluegrass musicians of the 1940's and '50's (Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, Jim and Jesse, etc.), Bluegrass Gospel achieved somewhat of an independence from Southern Gospel. The overall popularity of Bluegrass Music has waxed and waned since the 1960's and currently (2002) is enjoying a new renaissance thanks to the successful movie, Brother, Where Art Thou? After about 1980, white mainline Gospel Music evolved into Contemporary-Christian Music, which has evolved hymnically after about 1990 into Praise-and-Worship Music. Today, Gospel Music means MANY things, covers many different styles of music, and is very difficult to simply categorize. However, one constant does seem to be pervasive. Theologically, Gospel Music evolved within the milieu of 19th century American Evangelicalism and Revivalism. Evangelicalism was not just a religious phenomenon, but pervaded all aspects of American society throughout the 19th century (see Evangelicalism as a Social Movement) . Evangelicalism evolved into Fundamentalism after about 1920 and throughout the 20th century (and continuing today) Fundamentalism and Gospel Music have always gone hand-in-hand. Indeed, Gospel Music is the popular religious music and hymnody of Christian Fundamentalism. Ruebush-Kieffer Publishing Co. James D. Vaughan Publishing Co. Stamps-Baxter Publishing Co. See Vernacular Religious Music in Tennessee -- from Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture See Best of Gospel (more to follow soon) Some Interesting Sites: (I've just 'thrown' these on here. I'll go back later and review them more critically. -- DL 9/26/2001) Southern Gospel Music Association Bluegrass Gospel Canadian Gospel Music Association Women Hymn Writers of the 19th Century Wesleyan Holiness Movement American Holiness Hymnody The Second Great Awakening and Rise of Evangelicalism Key Figures in [gospel] Church Music in the 20th Century Gospel Timeline Moody and Sankey Songs Toward Singing with the Understanding The Emergence of Gospel Some Library Resources My life and the story of the Gospel hymns and of sacred songs and solos, by Ira D. Sankey ( 1840-1908) with an introd. by Theodore L. Cuyler. Sankey, Ira David, New York : Red label reprints, 1907. [The Divinity School Library at Vanderbilt University[ BV 315 .S227 George C. Stebbins: reminiscences and gospel hymn stories, with an introduction by Charles H. Gabriel. by Stebbins, George C. Stebbins (1846-1945), New York, George H. Doran company, 1924. [The Divinity School Library at Vanderbilt University] BV325 .S7 Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss. Edited by D.W. Whittle, contributions by Rev. E.P. Goodwin, Ira D. Sankey, and Geo. F. Root. Introd. by D.L. Moody. New York, A.S. Barnes, 1877. [The Divinity School Library at Vanderbilt University] BV325 .S7 Song stories of the sawdust trail, by Homer Rodeheaver, with a foreword by the Rev. William A. Sunday. Rodeheaver, Homer A. (Homer Alvan), 1880-1955. New York, Moffat, Yard and Co., 1917. [The Divinity School Library at Vanderbilt University] BV340 .R6 Gospel singers and their songs, by F. D. Hemenway, and Chas. M. Stuart. New York, Hunt & Eaton, 1892. [The Divinity School Library at Vanderbilt University] BV340 .H4 |
Home
Check out 100
Hymn Tunes You Should Know
© 2001 Smith Creek Music
Site last updated: February 15, 2007