Lynn Abbott

This pioneering book sets a new standard of excellence for work in the field of gospel music. It is a serious scholarlystudy based on much original research, very strongly footnoted, but remains free of jargon and so is exquisitely readable. Chapter one details the origins of the genre, from 1850s references to the Fisk ante-bellum era, showing the development of group harmony through the Jubilee period, focusing on the person of John Work II in Nashville. Chapter two deals with the Birmingham singers, and the movement from choral style to quartet arrangement. It discusses in detail, but not in arcane musical theory, the nuts and bolts of how these less formal arrangements developed and were taught, and highlights the place of gospel trainers, as opposed to choir directors, and also moving from strictly written to aural sources. Chapter three shows the movement to Chicago, with a fine re-assessment of the roll of Thomas A. Dorsey, Chapter four concludes with the gospel movement in New Orleans and the eventual decline of the genre when stylistic changes and public taste changed.

This is a seminal, original and significant work that is necessary for anyone interested in black music who has even a passing familiarity to gospel music.… (meer)