Gospel music

In his book "People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music," Robert Darden calls gospel music “religion with rhythm.” He describes the music as the foundation of other styles, writing that it has all of “rock’s resilient features,” including the beat, the drama and group vibrations.
Modern gospel music originated only about 100 years ago and became popular by the mid-1940s, along with the rise of gospel choirs. However, the music form builds on religious singing and preaching familiar to generations of black people. Its sound and message draw from slave songs, spirituals and Protestant hymns.
In "How Sweet the Sound: The Golden Age of Gospel," music scholar and gospel performer Horace Clarence Boyer defines the genre. Although gospel's harmonies are simple, he wrote, “gospel’s rhythm, always personalized by singers into the accents and cross-pulses of their speech, walk, and laughter, was intricate and complex — yet precise and clear enough to inspire synchronized movement.”
What came to define gospel, according to Boyer, was not music as it was written on a page but its practice of “exaggerated improvisation” and the diversity of its creators' "musical personalities."
However, Boyer says, the overriding hallmark of gospel music is not purely a result of vocal chords and physical movement but the inner, spiritual inspiration of the singers. Each vocalist sings "with the passion of a convinced Christian,” Boyer writes.

Gospel music is unlike other genres, Simon says; it has an “ability to restore the soul and the spirit, to encourage and to change lives.” The lyrics are speaking the words of God, and the “influence of the spirit guiding the person ministering the song” provides a unique power.
“All music inspires and expresses emotion, but gospel expresses love for a creator,” Murphy says.
The manner of singing requires great vocal exertion, Simon says: “Singing strains your voice … but in the end, I see it as a price and a sacrifice made in order to be restored on the inside."
The LBC Gospel Choir primarily selects contemporary gospel songs but also includes more traditional ones. Traditional gospel music is based on the blues, while contemporary gospel music is based more on a combination of R&B and jazz. The words of traditional songs are always well-pronounced, but the lyrics of contemporary gospel can be less marked amid the powerful instrumentation found in rock or reggae styles.
The choir's directors choose songs that will sound youthful and with lyrics that will push both the choir and audience to focus on a spiritual journey.
“Most people our age prefer the contemporary style, but what is most important is that we give them what they need: the gospel,” Williams says.
Gospel music is generally not written down. The LBC choir directors teach songs based on recordings found on YouTube, iTunes or a CD. The musicians must learn to play it by ear.
As in most gospel music, the lyrics the choir sings are not long or complex. But the musical variations in the repetition of lines make the songs dynamic. Fewer words make the music more powerful and more pronounced to “drive home” the message to the audience, Simon says.
The lyrics emphasize praise and humble requests to God. “Our father,” they sing, “you are holy. We give you glory, and we bless your name.”
Other lyrics stress central tenets of Christianity: “Oh the blood that Jesus shed for me, way back on Calvary, shall never lose its power. ... I am his because of the blood. It reaches to the highest mountain, and it flows through the lowest valley.”
Such emphasis on the Christian message is in line with the historic purposes of the gospel genre. “Despite the fact that gospel songs were sung for others to hear, it was paramount that the singers use singing to communicate their feelings about Christianity,” Boyer writes.

Worship expression and musicality

In The Western Journal of Black Studies, a survey by Sharon Young of gospel choirs at almost 60 U.S. colleges and universities found that, like the LBC choir, student-organized gospel choirs centered on a camaraderie of Christian belief.
“We are really devoted to spreading the gospel,” Simon says. “We want to tell people about Jesus Christ. That’s the most important aspect of the choir we can stress. It transcends each and every individual. The gospel is even more important than the choir; it’s the reason the choir’s even here.”
But gospel choirs affiliated with a music department tend to emphasize musical education rather than faith, found Young, a professor of music at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and director of the campus' gospel choir. In her survey, she found that it didn't matter whether the school was a historically black college or a predominantly Caucasian university or what the racial makeup of the members or the director was; the emphasis remained on the music.
Even in college and university choirs with an educational emphasis, “gospel music cannot be performed devoid of its message,” Young says. “The ensemble interacts with the audience as they sing from the spirit. They have no control over whether they shout; these are true, honest feelings. I cannot stop their expression.”
The LBC choir does not require formal auditions, unlike some music choirs and campus groups. Some of its members are novices and some are professional vocalists, but all join the choir because of a passion for singing gospel music.
When in concert, the LBC choir members' spiritual expression flows freely from their voices into physical movements. As a fast-paced song progresses, members of the choir and audience increasingly wave their hands in the air, close their eyes, sway or dance.
"As the spirit begins to move," Simon says, "you feel compelled to stand up or to shout out, or even it may be such a deep revelation that you can’t do anything but just sit still or cry.”
The experience is a two-way interaction. The expression of the audience "feeds into the choir," Murphy says. A soloist stepping out to the front and leading the choir really adds to the "hype and excitement" and energy in their expression, she says.
But Young says a university-affiliated choir will exhibit more professional behavior and will have polished the musicality of the piece under the conductor’s guidance.
Although the LBC choir does not have a professional director, the student directors work on the technical aspects of the music with the members. As the group learns and practices a song, the directors ensure the precision of notes and the key of the music.
Even as the rehearsals become more about worship, the members maintain the composure of a formal choir. Tenors, altos and sopranos sit in sections, and they are encouraged to sit on the edge of their chairs to improve posture.
After significant practice, the musical aspects of a song become more natural to the members. As they sing, they are able to focus their energies on a worshipful experience.
A couple of times a semester, in the middle of singing during rehearsal, the choir enters into unscripted "worship moments," which Murphy describes as a time when everyone is "giving praise straight to God," with no attention to their surroundings.
“Whatever we’re going through will come out while we’re singing a song," she says. "And if a song ministers to us, it will definitely spark some worship. It’s great to come together and not just sing about it but to be about it, to feel it with other believers.”
At the weekly rehearsal, prayer is a key component. The executive board prays before rehearsal, and one of the leaders opens rehearsal with prayer while an instrumentalist plays the keyboard softly.
It is this prayer that sets the atmosphere for the rehearsal, reminding the members to concentrate on God and his goodness. “It puts people in the mode of worshiping God and not just singing just to sing and not just playing an instrument just to play,” Simon says. “It allows people to cast their burdens on the Lord before they sing. It’s a time to get refreshed and get your mind focused on worshiping the Lord."
Rehearsals also include elements of worship found in a traditional church setting: a testimony, or sharing of spiritual experiences; and devotions, or words of spiritual teaching and encouragement.
Williams concludes rehearsal by beseeching the choir to make the spiritual experience last through the week, meditating on the words they just sang. “Surrender everything to the Lord,” he says. “Thank God. Take it seriously. It’s a lifestyle.”
Simon notes that this individual prayer and time with God are the most important aspects of a spiritual life. “(That devotion) enables us to bring something more to the choir,” he says.

A spiritual community

The most vigorous experience of the choir’s year is the annual Missouri Statewide Gospel Conference, or "MO-State." The event is a gathering of college and university gospel choirs from across the state that usually happens one weekend late in the fall semester.
Choir members speak of the event with an energy and excitement often reserved for their music. Many recall an extraordinary worship setting that led to life-altering spiritual development.
The weekend also provides an opportunity for the choir members to hone their musical craft and to meet other students seeking to express their faith through gospel music.
“There’s just an excitement and zeal that comes with singing in a mass choir because you’re with 100 different students. It’s a whole new dynamic,” Simon says.
Generally, a large number of freshmen join the LBC choir in the fall. The choir has a Facebook group announcing its weekly meeting times, but most new members come after receiving a personal invitation from a friend or classmate from their hometown.
However, the freshmen often leave after that first semester. Hoping to build retention, the choir's leaders have been trying to meet and mentor the younger students outside of rehearsal time. With the black population at MU hovering at around 6 percent of the student body, according to the university registrar, the choir’s leadership recognizes the importance of forming relationships within their small community.
Older students initiate meetings with younger students over lunch, on the volleyball court or by playing video games together. At first, conversation might not center on spiritual topics, but as relationships develop, “somehow it always happens that that we end up having a spiritual conversation,” Williams says.
Murphy returned to the choir her sophomore year because she had developed relationships with older students the year before. She knew those people would keep her accountable to staying plugged in to their Christian community.
In her junior and senior years, she has initiated similar friendships with the underclassmen. As a result of these connections that she and other older choir members have built, more freshmen have returned to rehearsals this semester.
“The LBC Gospel Choir is filled with very talented individuals with beautiful hearts and souls,” says Ebone Moore, a freshman. “I've learned a lot spiritually singing with them, and I truly feel as time keeps passing we are growing closer, like a family.”