Introduction to

Fredara M. Hadley, Ph.D.The Rise of Black Churches & Their Music

Oberlin College

Objective

• Understand the context in which black churches are born

• Learn the music genres included in mainline churches and black churches

Timeline

• 1750-1865

People

• Isaac Watts• Charles and John Wesley• Richard Allen• Absalom Jones

Places

• Camp Meetings• Revivals• Praise Houses

Things

• Great Awakening• Psalms• Hymns• Folk Spirituals• Lined-hymns

The 2nd Great Awakening

• 1790-1840• post-Revolutionary War• Led by Methodists and Baptists• Converted Southern Whites and enslaved Blacks

through huge camp meetings• Led to the abolitionist movement and the

suffragist movement• Tied to enslavers salvation to that of his

enslaved

Religion and Enslavement

• Both colonialist constructs• Religion was mostly at the service of the state

THE BLACK CHURCH??

Independent Black Churches:

• Were autonomous spaces in which Black people used Christianity to establish their own religious customs and cosmology.

• Structures that created a relatable language, cultural experience, and musical canon in which large numbers of Black people could participate.

• Gave rise to a new form of music called gospel hymns and spirituals

Roles of the Black Church

• Spiritual• Social• Educational• Political

The First Black Churches

• WE HAVE TENSION IN THE METHODIST CHURCH IN PHILADELPHIA BECAUSE WHILE THE CHURCH WAS LIBERAL ENOUGH TO BAPTIZE AFRICAN AMERICANS, IT WASN’T REALLY INTERESTED IN DESEGREGATING THEIR SANCTUARIES.

• IN 1787 A SLAVE WHO BOUGHT HIS FREEDOM NAMED RICHARD ALLEN WALKED OUT OF ST. GEORGE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND IN 1794 FOUNDED THE “A.M.E.” DENOMINATION: AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH (WHICH IS STILL AROUND TODAY) AND ABSALOM JONES FOUNDED THE AFRICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH, ST. THOMAS

Black Liberation Theology

• A term coined in 1966• It is the opposite of White Christianity’s

religion of suppression as it places the “black liberation” and freedom at the center of its message of salvation.

• The music is is a tool of subversion that supports its theological bent.

Antebellum Theological Differences

White Churches• Used scripture to validate

enslavement, White racial superiority

Black Churches• Used gospels as a source of

hope and exodus as an indictment of slavery

Important African American Christians/Revolutionaries

• Nat Turner• Denmark Vesey• David Walker• Harriet Tubman

Antebellum Religious Music

White Churches• Psalms• Hymns• Lined-Hymns

Black Churches• Folk Spirituals• Ring Shouts• Lined Hymns

EUROPEAN RELIGIOUS MUSIC TRADITION

Important Hymnists

• Martin Luther (1483-1546)– “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”

• Isaac Watts (1674-1748)– “A Charge to Keep I Have”

• John and Charles Wesley (1703-1791) (1707-1788)– “Father I Stretch My Hands to Thee”

Psalms

• Psalms is a book in the Bible written by the musician David

• It contains 150 poems – many of which have musical instruction.

Psalm 23The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.He maketh me to lie down in green pasturues: he leadeth me besides the still waters.He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art is with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou annointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Hymns

• A religious poem that is not necessarily based on scripture

• Structure: 3-4 verses and may or may not have a refrain

• Found in a hymnal with or without musical notation

• Example: “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” by Martin Luther (1529)

AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGIOUS MUSIC TRADITIONS

Folk Spirituals

• Source material: psalms, hymns, works songs, field songs, and protest songs

• Born out of a reinterpretation of Christianity to suit their own realities

• Often included dancing and weren’t only secular

Ring Shout

• A “shout” is a dance in which the participants “shuffle” their feet while moving in a counter-clockwise circle.

• The McIntosh County Shouters perform a ring shout

Lined-Hymn

• Based on tradition hymn, but the preacher or deacon feeds the lines to the congregation

• Born out of necessity when most congregants could not read

• Unmetered and unaccompanied

“Am I a Soldier of the Cross”

• Traditional singing of “Am I a Soldier of the Cross”• The lined-hymn singing of “Am I a Soldier of the Cross”Am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the Lamb,And shall I fear to own his cause,Or blush to speak his name?Must I be carried to the skieson flowery beds of ease,While others fought to win the prize,And sailed through bloody seas?

The Current State of Lined-Hymns

• Short Documentary

The Commodification of Black Music

• Negro spirituals were the first musical product sold in the US (other than the enslaved themselves).

• The money was used to raise funds for abolitionist causes in the North.

Transcription Exercise

• Apply Olly Wilson’s Heterogenous Sound Ideal to what you hear

• Attempt to transcribe the lyrics• Attempt to transcribe/describe the music