Let
Every Spirit Praise the Lord
A Study on the Culture of Gospel Choir
Praise Him with sounds of trumpet:
Praise Him with timbrel and choir
Praise Him with strings and organs Praise Him on high sounding cymbals
Praise Him on cymbals of joy Let every spirit praise the Lord
Alleluia
Psalm
150: 3-5
Introduction
Growing up from
a Christian church background, I always thank God for giving me two most
precious things in the world, Jesus Christ and music. I never stop thinking how
lucky I am to have music accompanied me for the majority of my life. I
especially feel eminently joyful when I use music to serve God. However, my
curiosity did not allow me to stay where I was. I began to get interested in
various ways of worshiping. I also pondered what made Christians around the
world the same and what made them different in terms of worshiping God. This
thought has puzzled me the most especially when I read from the scripture saying
that Jesus told their disciples; “Go to the people of all nations and make
them my disciples…teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with
you always.” I told myself; “this definitely is not going to be cool if
people of all nations have to learn Hebrew to become Christians.” It
is not going to be fun either if Christians of all nations only sing Gregorian
chants.
Indeed,
just like people around the world speaking different languages, the Christians
of all nations should worship God in a unique way accordingly with their
cultural differences. “But, how?” I wondered about this question again. “I will follow Him” is the first gospel song I
heard from the movie “Sister Act.” I could never forget how surprised I was
at the first time I saw them swinging bodies, snapping fingers, and singing in a
“wild” way at a church. There I told myself; “this should be the
answer.”
Gospel
music, with approximately 200-year history, is originated from both African and
white European sources. In the past 200 years, the mixture of slave “sorrow”
song and tunes borrowed from white people’s hymnody plus the African style of
rhythm, harmonization, and performance manner --call and response-- make gospel
music a distinguished culture both in church and music history in the U.S.
In
a basic performance setting, gospel choir members interact with their
congregation through skilled song leaders who evoke congregation bodily
movements, such as shaking their heads or moving their bodies, and related
rhythmic responses (foot-stamping and hand-clapping). The role of these song
leaders is as important as that of the pastor’s during the worship since the
major task of these song leaders is to watch congregation’s emotional response
and decide what the choir is to sing next.
In addition to gospel music’s religious function, what really interests me now, after acquiring the basic information about gospel choir, is how these song leaders interact with both their choir members and congregation simultaneously and what kind of musical structure is it that allows such a flexible worship setting taking place.
The Site:
To realize how African American people engage in this unique setting, I not only asked for permission from the director of this local African American Baptist church to sit in on their weekly rehearsals, but also attended their Sunday Services regularly. According to the director, this group, as being called "combined" chorus, was a new setting to both church congregation and the members themselves. This choir had approximately 60 members, among which female were the majority. The instrumental part includes two percussion players (one played the drum set, the other was in charge of congas and other percussion instruments), one organist, and the director herself who used the keyboard synthesizer to lead the group.
Research methods, such as observation, field-note taking, and interviews from both participants and congregations were employed in this study. Other materials about this group, such as the program notes of Sunday Service, and the pages of introducing church history and music ministry, on church's website were also included as part of the collected data.
Data Collection and Analysis:
This gospel choir met once a week for a two- hour rehearsal on Mondays, although they did gather for more extra rehearsals if it was necessary. One of the rehearsals I went (September 6), an "extra", according to the members, was given because there's a need for them to "polish" the songs they're going to sing for the 95th anniversary celebration of their church.
The choir members always sat in their regular seats on stage when they rehearsed in sanctuary (see Fig.1 for the map of setting). Sometimes, they had their rehearsals at one of the bible study rooms downstairs in the church. They also held prayer meeting started from 10:30 AM every Sunday before they went up to the stage for the 11:00AM services. I went for two rehearsals and attended one of their prayer meetings to observe how the members interact with each other and how much their religious belief influences their music behaviors. Interviews were also conducted to realize how the members felt to be in this group, how congregations viewed this music group, and how the director thought about her music ministry.
After I
finished the observations and interviews, I transcribed my field-notes and
established a theme of “holy spirits and music” that I though unique and might represent the ideas and
information I acquired from my data. According
to the following definitions, the transcriptions were coded as the
sub-categories within the frame of my theme. The sub-categories are
1.
Conducting patterns (CP)
2.
Active performance manner (AP)
3.
Spiritual presentation (SP)
4.
Rehearsal technique (RT)
Trustworthiness was sought through multiple observations and peer review at
the
transcriptions.
In addition, my visits to the rehearsals, as an observer, seemed not to be an
intrusion to them. Interviews, both from the choir members and congregation also
provided trustworthiness.
Interpretation
of Data
From
the data, I identified the theme related to the flexibility within the frame of
a musical setting. Two factors regarding the idea of flexibility in this gospel
choir are their traditional African cultural characteristics and the religious
function music serves.
According
to Merriam, in traditional African society music is “an all-pervasive and
continual aspect” of the day. Most communities “make a daily cycle of events
with music.” They tend to tie music to “the socio-cultural events for which
it is created.” For the Africans, “without the events, the music is not
produced” (1982, p149). Moreover, to the Africans, the process of making
music, requiring a communal contribution, is similar to the routine of their
daily work. Individuals in a group have their own roles in maintaining an
optimal daily routine. The particular characteristic of relating music to their
daily life can be seen both when this choir rehearsed and performed.
Since
music is part of their daily life, most of the members did not consider music
learning an intellectual practice. “It’s fun to sing!” Mr. A told me;
“she [Ms. H, the choir director] plays it, and we’ll just hum around. I
don’t think much, oh-- maybe the words.”
Ms. H told me that they did not use any notated music when they sang.
“Everyone got a sheet of words.”
Call
and response, a unique musical pattern from African tradition, plays an
important role in African American’s church service in the U.S. In this
pattern, the congregation sings back to the song leaders with either following
phrases or repeated texts. It is also in this pattern that the congregation
responds to the pastors with cries of “Amen,” “Come on,” “All
right,” or “Alleluia” during the sermon. In addition to the real
performance on Sunday services, this pattern was also used as the rehearsal
technique when the choir practiced. Ms. H usually sang and played a phrase and
then had the choirs sing back. “It’s the way I learn” somebody said.
Conducting
pattern, my other category related to this theme, undoubtedly is another
example, which demonstrates traditional Africans’ eurhythmic nature. Although
there’s no way one can see western conducting pattern from the conductors of
this gospel choir, it seemed to me no one in this choir had any problem with
understanding their conductors. There are something in common among these
assigned conductors (different songs required different personals). First, they
would use their point fingers to ask for choir’s attention. Then, they usually
waved their bodies and fingers in a direction either left to right or right to
left. When their hands were in a high position, choristers knew to sing higher.
If they wanted the choir to continue sing more cycles, they either used their
fingers drawing cycles in the air or alternated their both hands in a certain
direction. The reason I think this characteristic is related to their eurhythmic
nature is that the coordination among the body parts and music seems to be a
spontaneous activity for them, which I believe is a heritage from their African
ancestors.
“Holy
spirit” is the most frequent term appeared both in rehearsals and the Sunday
services. I can easily see this is a group of devoted Christians from their
practice and performance. Ms. H, the choir director, not only led this group to
sing; she also was a strong spiritual leader in this choir. After finished a
song in one rehearsal, she told her choristers; “you know what picture I have
in my vision? I see lots of pray flags going everywhere…” and after that,
just like in a preaching sermon, someone in the choir seat stood up right away
and clapped out loud saying “yes, Lord; thank you, Lord.”
“Holy
spirit” also worked the same way during the worship. As mentioned earlier,
once they began the worship, the song leaders were always sensitive to the whole
atmosphere. They not only sang, but also observed the emotions from the
congregation, and then transmitted what they observed to the musical team
including choir and instrumental section. It is these song leaders who decide
how long this song they’re going to sing and what the following song will be.
The
function of song leaders is especially important when there’s something
emergency during the service. September 9 2001, there’s a celebration for this
church’s 96th anniversary. A special guest speaker, Dr. Bailey, was
invited for this event. This Dr. Bailey, however, suddenly felt sever heartburn
before the sermon. An ambulance came right away to take him to the hospital. The
pastor then announced that Sister C would give a sermon in a few minutes and
then he asked a song leader to come out to lead the congregation to sing while
this Sister C was preparing her sermon. Without any rehearsal, without telling
anyone what she’s singing, this song leader sang and the others followed
immediately. They sang different songs during this waiting moment. Again, I was
surprised how—without formal verbal communication—did this work? I asked,
and I heard the lady who stood beside me saying, “Thank you, Lord, than you,
Holy Spirit”
Music and religion have been closely related to each other throughout the history. As an integrated part of religion, music has functioned as a signal to stimulate the people to respond in a certain way. Through singing, dancing, or just listening to music, people get to worship the “greatest” of theirs. Although the subjects to be worshipped may vary from cultures to cultures, this phenomenon of regarding music as part of religious ceremony is very similar among peoples of the world.
Gospel music, serving as a message deliver between God and congregation, demonstrates how music is functioned in the worship setting at African American Christian churches. From my study of the choir in First Institutional Baptist Church, I noticed that a highly active spirit is somehow installed in every single person’s mind in the sanctuary. It is this “active spirit” or so-called “Holy spirit” that works for everyone at this church at every moment they gather. From the song leaders, choristers, to congregation, all believe that it is the Holy Spirit who leads the service. They pray for Holy Spirit to come and ask Him to lead. And then, they spontaneously come out the melodies or songs that meet the overall atmosphere.
One may ask, what musical structure is it that allows such spontaneity to happen? “Call and response,” which originated from their traditional African culture, is the framework on which both worship and sermon are based. Within such a structure, song leaders may easily draw congregation’s attention and have an intimate communication back and forth. It is also in a structure like this that allows the congregation to think about the meaning of the texts and respond to their God.
“What further more can I work on this setting?” I keep asking myself this question while I was writing this paper. Yes, there got to be more. One thing really interests me is that there are five choirs in this music ministry; they are combined adult choir, young adult, children’s choir, youth choir, and men’s choir. From the perspective of music education, I think it will be valuable if I can see how the rehearsal is done in different levels and summarize an approach for gospel singing. I also found it fascinating that how the members of worship and praise team work together with each other and if possible, how they establish a “pattern” or “format” for the church.
Reference:
Merriam, A.P (1982) African Music in
Perspective. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.