The gospel about Gospel—the power of the ring

Currents in Theology and Mission, August, 2004 by Mark P. Bangert

Not all origins of Gospel were rural. Some African Americans living in the northern urban areas of the east coast in particular centered their efforts in developing a hymnody that was built on the foundations of both the spiritual and the gospel songs in the tradition of "Dr. Watts." A pioneer in this effort was Richard Allen, founder and first bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1801 he arranged to make available a collection of hymns for his congregation. (13) Not only was his printed collection the first of its kind, but also he set in motion the publication of materials, which gave rise to yet more spirituals as well as providing for the worship of established African American churches.

By the middle of the 19th century, most of the roots of Gospel were established. Stages of growth followed. For instance, the tendency to provide songs in a popular style with musical connections to marches and parlor music and with textual anchors in personal experience and straight-forward expressions of the "good news" flourished in the songs of William Bradbury ("He Leadeth Me"), intended by him to be used in the increasingly popular Sunday School, and in the thousands of hymns by Fanny Crosby ("Blessed Assurance"), to name just two of many sources.

As cities expanded, urban growth from Gospel's roots increased in tandem. The revivals led by Moody and Sankey succeeded because of the popularity of the gospel hymn, a staple at the events. Sankey both sang these songs as solos and developed ways to lead others in song. The Moody/Sankey formula proved to be productive and led to further pairings of evangelist/musician. Bliss also worked with Moody, but after the latter's death William Sunday and Homer Rodeheaver expanded on concepts and repertoire developed earlier. Later still, under the guidance of Charles Alexander, these revivals took on a new informality, with Alexander using the piano instead of the organ, employing sweeping gestures, and filling the atmosphere with banter and jokes. (14)

Among African Americans, the emancipation of the slaves seemed also to elicit an emancipation of the black spiritual. Collections began to appear, which in turn supplied the grist for choral arrangements eagerly sought by prestigious choral groups such as the Fisk Singers in the 1870s. The Fisk group and its many imitators brought a certain respectability to the spiritual even if certain important characteristics of this music were lost in the process. Meanwhile, matters were not as settled as these arrangements suggested. While slavery technically ceased at the conclusion of the Civil War, transplanted African Americans continued to experience oppression, particularly in northern cities. The lack of economic opportunities made things worse. From the midst of those conditions arose a new yearning for hymns of comfort, satisfied in part by the urban revivals but also by an expanding African American gospel hymnody typified and perhaps best represented by Charles Albert Tindley ("Stand by Me"). (15)