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Black Leaders in Sacred Music

Black musicians have contributed greatly to American religious music. This page gives a very brief background on black sacred music and lists some of the contributions of some key musicians.

If you have added information about these musicians or others, or even if you just wish to comment, please contact us.

General history

Africans forced into slavery and shipped to America brought with them polyrythymic songs from hundreds of ethnic groups in West and Sub-Saharan Africa. Work songs and the "call and response" pattern of that African music was integrated into American music and remains with us today.

The early 1800s saw the second great religious revival in the United States, the Second Great Awakening. With that came an evangelical fervor that resulted in the camp meeting as well as widespread attempts to convert plantation slaves to Christianity. This revival has been called the "central and defining event in the development of Afro-Christianity."[1]

It was during this period that spirituals arose. Major writers of spirituals include the black composers Harry Thacker Burleigh, William Dawson, and Hall Johnson. Black singers such as Marian Anderson, Roland Hayes, and William Warfield helped make spirituals popular. [2]

"Spirituals might have remained in local congregations to be replaced gradually with newer musical styles if it had not been for the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University." [3] The Fisk University Jubilee Singers have been inducted into the Music City Walk of Fame.

Thomas A. Dorsey

Thomas A. Dorsey(1899-1993), born in Villa Rica, Georgia, Thomas A. Dorsey is known as the "Father of Gospel Music". Dorsey was one of Gospel Music's earliest performers during the genre's transition from performance by guitar evangelists to large choruses. [4]

A former blues musician, he originated the style of music that combines Christian praise with the rhythms of jazz and blues.

After his wife died in childbirth (in 1932), along with their first son, he wrote one of the most famous gospel songs of all times, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord".

His music was a combination of the old hymn style of Isaac Watts and the West African "call and response" songs that were sung in country churches. He insisted that people call this unique style of religious music "Gospel", as he wanted to emphasize that his style was not the style sung during the days of slavery.

These songs, inspired by the Bible (mainly the Gospels), related to daily life. Though he called them Gospel songs, some people called them "Dorseys". [5]

Later, Dr. Dorsey became the choir director at Pilgrim Baptist Church, Chicago. He also opened the first black gospel music publishing company, Dorsey House of Music.

Rev. Herbert W. Brewster, Sr.

Rev. Herbert BrewsterAnother important black composer, Rev. Brewster, was pastor of the East Trigg Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, and a contemporary of Thomas Dorsey.

Rev. Brewster wrote many of the songs specifically for his church choir, the Brewster Singers. Two of his songs, though, gained wider popularity -- "Move on up a Little Higher" and "Surely, God is Able".

Teenager Elvis Presley liked the music that Rev. Brewster wrote so much that he would leave the service at his family's church and sneak into into East Tigg Baptist to listen. Much of the songs were written for Mahalia Jackson. [6]

Lucie E. Campbell

Lucie E. Campbell"Miss Lucie" Campbell greatly influenced the setting of music performance standards in the black Bapist church. Her songs became classics in the music published by the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A.

Her famous ones include "Something Within" and "Heavenly Sunshine".

Andrae Crouch

Andrae CrouchAndrae Crouch's music career includes composing for Michael Jackson and Madonna, working on The Lion King, and having his own gospel singing group. His contemporary gospel sound has crossed musical and racial boundaries, inspiring all who hear it.

Crouch has won several awards, including eight Grammy's. One of his most famous songs, "My Tribute", is included in the United Methodist Hymnal.

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