Illustrations by Délice Williams
Gospel and Spiritual Music in the Classroom
I am pursuing a degree in Music Education because of experiences I have had in music classrooms and in choirs that have made me feel connected to other people, both my fellow musicians and our audience, in ways that nothing else has. That connection is incredibly important in the music classroom. To foster this connection, one of the questions I have been confronted with is how to make my classroom into a space that is both inclusive and educational. In the University of Delaware Concert Choir, we had an entire class devoted to discussing one of our pieces? Music Down in My Soul” by Moses Hogan. It is a gospel piece with explicitly religious text by one of the most famous composers in modern choral literature. Many students voiced their concerns about singing this piece, worrying both about its place in a university choir and about the idea of performing it as a predominantly White choir being led by a White conductor. Conversations like this have been happening in choral spheres for a long time. The biggest question is this: Do gospel and spiritual pieces have a place in choral education, and, if so, how do we approach these genres? I argue, yes, these pieces deserve a place in the music classroom. Gospel and spiritual music are part of the foundation of American choral culture and to remove them from choral experiences would be erasing part of that rich history. These pieces must continue to be a part of music education; however, to be performed properly, they must be treated with a deep sense of understanding and respect.
To begin, we must define spiritual and gospel music. As composer Marvin V. Curtis points out in African-American Spirituals and the Gospel Music,” these terms are often used synonymously. Although the styles can sound similar and have similar origins, the differences are crucial. Spirituals, on one hand, are based heavily on the practice of improvisatory community music-making. The idea of a call-and-response format is an important choral music staple that has its roots in spirituals. Gospel, on the other hand, is more modern and is more often the compositions of ministers and musicians. Importantly, both genres were created out of need for African Americans to express their feelings about living in a society that showed them indifference and ill-treatment” (Curtis 19). It is also important to come to an agreement on the definition of another key term: cultural appropriation. Ryan Cho, choral singer and conductor, discussed this in his 2015 article, Cultural Appropriation and Choral Music.” Cho described cultural appropriation as when people from a more powerful culture adopt the art, symbols, or elements of a less powerful culture without understanding or respecting the context or history of that material,” adding that these elements can become distorted,” or used as a gimmick,” and that this often exacerbates an exploitative power dynamic” (Cho 59). He defined cultural appropriation in direct opposition to cultural exchange, which inherently contains a sense of reciprocity and mutual respect,” and this is what Cho believes music educators should be striving for (Cho 59).
The inclusion of gospel and spiritual music in choirs increases diversity in choral spheres, provides a more complete education, and shapes students into well-rounded individuals. Although it is difficult to discuss something as subjective as music using hard data, there are some ways we can analyze the impacts of music. A study commissioned by Chorus America done by Alan Brown et al., entitled Assessing the Audience Impact of Choral Music Concerts” did just that. The goal of this study was to examine the demographics of audiences at choir concerts, the experiences of those audiences, and if those audiences and experiences varied based on the style of music. Eighty-six percent of surveyed audience members at choral concerts identified as White, but this figure changed at concerts where the music was from particular cultures. The percentage of Black audience members jumped from 3% to 23% at a concert celebrating African American music. Likewise, a concert featuring Mexican composers showed a 10% increase in Hispanic/Latino audience members (Brown et al. 21). Audience members of color also reported higher levels of Social Bonding” at concerts that featured music from their culture. Social Bonding measures how connected audiences felt to other audience members and their community during concerts. This data shows a clear correlation between diversity in repertoire and engagement of a more diverse audience. It would not be a stretch to infer that, in the same way, a diverse repertoire may also attract more diverse singers to these choirs. Opening the door to more diverse singers, conductors, and audience members is key to growth across the choral world, from school groups to community organizations.
Much discussion has been had about incorporating a variety of music into the standard music curriculum. Sharon Davis Gratto is a choral music educator who spent almost twenty years exploring ensembles around the world, focusing on how to approach diverse musical repertoire. In a journal published by the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), she states quite simply that the best choral programs are the balanced ones” (Gratto 51). There is some dissent about this opinion, however. At a 2003 ACDA conference, conductors and educators Simon Carrington and K. Lee Scott hinted that perhaps we have gone too far in our use of multicultural repertoire” and are neglecting traditional and contemporary works that are also incredibly valuable to the choral music world (Gratto 51). While preserving and uplifting these works is an understandable goal, Carrington and Scott seem to misunderstand the goal of people who are uplifting multicultural works. As Gratto and others have explicitly stated, the goal is not erasure or replacement, but rather a sense of balance. Grotto seeks to incorporate this music without displacing the wealth of wonderful traditional choral music from past centuries and the present that singers need to experience” (Gratto 54). It would be hard to argue that this variety would not provide students with a more well-rounded, complete music education.
Finally, one of the most valuable aspects of teaching any music that is not native to the culture of those being taught is its ability to promote tolerance, global understanding, and cultural sensitivity, and to broaden our singers’ and audiences’ cultural knowledge” (Gratto 51). This argument of Gratto’s reminds me of a workshop I attended through the University of Delaware’s chapter of the National Association for Music Education. This workshop was led by current University of Delaware graduate student, Sarah Wojcik. We discussed Social Emotional Learning, or SEL. SEL is centered around helping students develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals? and make responsible and caring decisions,” to name a few (?Fundamentals”). Wojcik has done a generous amount of research on this subject and spoke about how SEL is crucial particularly in music education, due to the inherently vulnerable and emotional nature of music itself. As music educators, we must not only teach our students basic musical facts and ideas, but also help them grow as individuals, and providing diverse repertoire for them to explore is a key part of achieving that goal.
Clearly, the inclusion of gospel and spiritual music in the classroom provides many benefits. What, then, are the concerns? The first major worry is about the inherently religious nature of most gospel and spiritual tunes. The text is often sacred, sometimes being directly taken from the Bible. Many people who are not Christian feel uncomfortable singing such innately religious lyrics. There was a panel discussion about teaching sacred music in a secular context held at the 2006 Eastern Division ACDA Convention, where Joshua R Jacobson, a Jewish music educator, talked about his experiences. He mentioned school assemblies where all of the children were expected to sing Christmas carols.” Jacobson sang along, more or less? until [they] came to the words ‘Christ is the Lord’… [he] understood that [he] could not in good faith sing those three words” (?Approaches”[1] 41). Jacobson says that these experiences made him feel othered. People from a variety of backgrounds and faiths sometimes feel this same sense of otherness in choirs that perform inherently religious music. Jacobson, though, draws a distinction between performing historical religious works, such as a requiem, a mass, a passion, or a Messiah,” and performing Christmas carols. The intent of singing religious Christmas carols, Jacobson argues, is usually an expression of a shared religious community” (?Approaches” 42). Meanwhile, he reports that he can relate artistically to the former group of pieces. I would make the argument that gospel and spiritual music falls solidly into this category. The original intention of these genres, as stated by Martin V. Curtis, was to express the strong, intense pain experienced by African Americans who were enslaved. This pain and oppression is something that still affects our society today, and the music from this community needs to continue being heard.
The other major concern many people have is the idea of choirs that are mostly or entirely White singing songs that are so important to the African American community. This is where Ryan Cho’s definition of cultural appropriation is important. The first criteria he outlines is the idea of a more dominant culture adopting something from a less dominant one, which is undoubtedly occurring when White choirs sing these pieces. Cho also states that in order for something to be appropriated, the perpetrators must lack understanding or acknowledgment of the context and history of the practice.[2] This is something that certainly occurs in some instances and leads to Black Americans feeling that their culture is being mocked or turned into a gimmick. However, this does not always have to be the case. When the culture and context of these pieces are properly discussed and a piece is taught authentically in its cultural context,” as Sharon Davis Gratto puts it, it remains a respectfully done piece of art, and an example of cultural appreciation, or cultural exchange (51). The opinion that people of any race can perform these songs respectfully is the one held by the majority of professional singers, according to a survey conducted by Caroline Helton and Emery Stephens, music educators at the University of Michigan. They found that while most respondents felt that race either moderately or greatly contributed to perceptions of authenticity” when performing cultural pieces, almost all of the respondents (99%), reported a high or moderate level of comfort” with singers of any race or ethnicity performing such selections (Helton and Stephens 75-76). We as musicians can acknowledge that the race of a singer may impact any performance of gospel and spiritual music, but this impact does not mean these genres should only be limited to being performed by people of certain races. White choirs absolutely can, and should, do these pieces. In fact, the erasure of these genres would be equivalent to an attempt to erase African American contributions to American choral music.
We have established that gospel and spiritual music have a place in schools and that, despite its religious nature and roots in the African American community, this type of music can, and should, be performed by people from a variety of backgrounds. Now we come to the question of how we can ensure that choirs are doing these pieces respectfully. Most of the specific performance suggestions I will outline come from Andr? J. Thomas and Anton Armstrong’s book, Way Over in Beulah Lan’, but the ideas are echoed by most other authorities on the subject. Thomas and Armstrong’s years of experience as African American choral composers and conductors make them credible sources. One of the most important aspects of performing gospel and spiritual songs is dialect. As James Weldon Johnson, writer and civil rights activist, puts it, most [spirituals] lose charm when they are sung in straight English” (qtd. in Curtis 15). Examples of this dialect include changing th” sounds to d,” dropping the r” from the end of words like never, and phonetic decay, or the practice of not completing a word” (Thomas and Armstrong 89). An example of phonetic decay would be dropping the g” from the end of a word like burning, making it burnin’. Performing pieces with dialect makes them more authentic, as well as honoring the nuances of African American culture, as long as the dialect is done without mocking intent. These authors also implore conductors and educators not to attempt to imitate what they view as a Black” sound. Often this is done when elements of other traditionally African American musical styles, such as blues and jazz, are put into gospel and spiritual tunes where they are not stylistically appropriate. Unless specifically notated in the music or called for by the arranger, this practice most often just results in stylistic abuse and, ultimately, a mockery of the intentions of the arranger” (Thomas and Armstrong 88). This also includes not employing rhythmic devices such as swing, a technique that is emblematic of jazz music, where it does not belong. Overall, the rhythms of gospel and spiritual music should be smooth and not over-articulated. Much of this is subjective, and the most important thing to consider is the intent of the composer. Importantly, when highlighting these styles, directors should take care to find pieces arranged by experts and members of the African American community, as they will have more knowledge and understanding of these styles and the pieces will not be, as phrased in a compilation of interviews on the subject, the re-working of someone from outside black traditions,” which could lead to a lack of authenticity and respect (Stone et al. 35). If possible, directors of ensembles should seek out videos of these composers and arrangers conducting their own pieces, or, at the very least, find a well-respected and experienced Black conductor and see what performance practices they do and do not use.
In addition, as music educators, we have to have difficult conversations with our students about the music they are performing so that they understand why they are performing it and deliver a more impactful and authentic performance. Some of these conversations include simple text or lyric interpretation. Even with pieces that have sacred text, it is possible to analyze them from a secular, educational point of view. Joshua R. Jacobson discusses analyzing the lyrics as poetry” with his students, as a way of approaching this (?Approaches” 41). Some students may still feel uncomfortable with inherently religious texts, and I do believe choral educators can do our best to look for pieces that could accomplish the same musical goals without strong religious ties, but we also should not avoid these songs entirely, as they are crucial to a complete choral education. In my years of choral experience, I have been a part of many difficult conversations about the gospel and spiritual pieces I have performed. I have been in choirs conducted by expert gospel composers, and I have been in choirs with people conducting songs from these genres for the very first time. Overall, I think the best conversations are those facilitated by students themselves. Students are the future of education. They deserve to feel heard and understood and to have their concerns addressed. An educator has to listen to their students and educate them on how to do these pieces respectfully.
I believe that gospel and spiritual songs have a rightful place in music education, and to remove them would be ignoring a large part of American choral history. There are ways to perform these pieces respectfully, and as long as that sense of respect is maintained, choirs of any background should be including these pieces in their repertoire. Music education is not just ancillary but is central to education. It impacts students emotionally and intellectually in ways many other subjects cannot. A quote I enjoy about this subject is are we teaching people to make music, or music to make people?” The answer is that we are doing both. We are teaching students how to read notes on the page and how to perform them accurately. We are also teaching them the impact that music can have and how it can express powerful emotions. Nowhere is this lesson more evident than in gospel and spiritual styles, and a music education without those songs would be one that is woefully incomplete.
Author: Noah Mummert, Honors College, Class of 2025
Last year, I was part of frequent conversations in choir and music education classes about how to program and perform music in a culturally responsive and respectful way. We had a lot of thoughtful discussions about how gospel and spiritual music fit into the world of choral repertoire and important stylistic features of this music that are crucial to performing it authentically and respectfully. The question for many of the choral students who had years of experience in the choir was how do we perform this music to the best of our ability while acknowledging the very important cultural context behind it?” However, many people who did not have this same knowledge or experience were asking why we, as a predominantly white choir at a predominantly white institution, were doing this music in the first place.
At the same time, in my ENGL110 class, we were reading and discussing narratives written by enslaved people, and learning about the importance of culture and storytelling to those communities. Music is a hugely important part of that story, and I was drawing connections between these conversations that slowly morphed into the idea for this paper. I kept learning from my own experiences and drew on the wealth of research done by Black musicians, choral directors, and music directors as I wrote. I wanted to emphasize the incredibly valuable place gospel and spiritual music hold in the music classroom and in choirs of all kinds. I look forward to continuing to learn and to apply these lessons to choirs I am a part of and eventually direct.
Instructor: Frank Hillson
The Slave Narrative: Past and Present,” an honors E110 course, examined the enduring legacy of the slave narrative. We began our study by reading three texts in Classic Slave Narratives by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. We also explored the rich area of neo-slave novels by analyzing Octavia Butler’s Kindred, a science fiction/slave narrative hybrid. Together, these works provided a rich vehicle to research a topic (freedom, race, education, etc.) and relate it to a modern societal issue. Kaitlyn Mummert’s interest in music and music education struck a chord: What about gospel and African American spirituals? She started with a one-page research proposal discussing the so what” of the topic. Why is this important? Then, she investigated further via a four-page exploratory essay with sources. Later, she nut-shelled her idea in a five- minute, multimodal presentation. The result: an excellent research paper where she convincingly argues that gospel/African American spiritual music is essential to the modern choral repertoire because it provides a fuller education and shapes students into well-rounded individuals. Gospel and spiritual music is a powerful art form, deserving the widest dissemination, as long as it is treated with a deep sense of understanding and respect.”
Works Cited
“Approaches to Teaching Sacred Music in a Secular Context.” Choral Journal, vol. 47, no. 9, 2007, pp. 40-47. ProQuest, www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/approaches-teaching-sacred-music-secular-context/docview/1033360/se-2?accountid=10457.
Brown, Alan et al. “Assessing the Audience Impact of Choral Music Concerts” Chorus America, 2016 chorusamerica.org/sites/default/files/resources/Assessing_the_Audience
Cho, Ryan. “Cultural Appropriation and Choral Music: A Conversation that can make both our Music and Community Better.” Choral Journal, vol. 55, no. 10, 2015, pp. 59-63. ProQuest, www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/cultural-appropriation-choral-music-conversation/docview/1712710571/se-2?accountid=10457.
Curtis, Marvin V. African-American Spirituals and the Gospel Music: Historical Similarities and Differences.” Choral Journal, vol. 41, no. 8, 2001, pp. 9?21, www.jstor.org/stable/23553686. Accessed 15 May 2022.
Fundamentals of Sel.” CASEL, 11 Mar. 2022, https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/.
Gratto, Sharon D. “Repertoire & Standards Committee Reports: Ethnic and Multicultural Perspectives – World Music in Today’s Choral Programs: Reflections Past and Present.” Choral Journal, vol. 45, no. 8, 2005, pp. 51-54. ProQuest, www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/repertoire–standards-committee-reports-ethnic/docview/1033368/se-2?accountid=10457.
Helton, Caroline, and Emery Stephens. Singing down the Barriers: Encouraging Singers of All Racial Backgrounds to Perform Music by African American Composers.” New Directions for Teaching and Learning, vol. 2007, no. 111, 2007, pp. 73?79., https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.288.
Stone, Mollie Spector, et al. If You Don’t Know, Don’t Assume.” Choral Journal, vol. 59, no. 3, Oct. 2018.
Thomas Andre? J., and Anton Armstrong. From the Printed Page to the Concert Stage.” Way over in Beulah Lan’: Understanding and Performing The Negro Spiritual, Heritage Music Press, Dayton, OH, 2007, pp. 87?97.