Chapter 5: American Religious Music

reading: chapter 5, Hacker 7 & 8

listening: CD 1, tracks 7-11

Study questions

  1. Why does the chapter focus on American Protestant religious music?
  2. What are the two main branches of American religious music?
  3. What is psalm singing? In what two ways were psalms sung?
  4. What is a psalter? What was the first book printed in British North America?
  5. What is lining out?
  6. What is a singing school? What needs did they meet?
  7. What are the fasola and shape-note systems of notation?
  8. Read about three important composers of hymns: William Billings, Isaac Watts, and Charles Wesley
  9. What is a fuging tune? What texture does it have that other hymns do not?
  10. What was the mid-eighteenth century Great Awakening? When was the second Great Awakening?
  11. What did gospel music originally refer to? What did it come to mean later?
  12. What are the musical roots of black gospel? What musical styles did it incorporate later?
  13. What topics do black gospel songs deal with?
  14. Who was Thomas A. Dorsey? Who are some popular gospel artists today?
  15. Describe the growth of contemporary Christian popular music. How does the text describe the relationship between white and black styles of religious music?

Listening Exercises

As for all listening exercises, read the description of each selection in the textbook as you do these. The main point of these exercises is to help you focus on specific sections of each song.

"Sherburne," by Daniel Read, an early American fuging tune

track 7 on CD 1
This hymn is in two parts. The first is sung in homophonic choral texture, the second in polyphonic texture.

The first time through, the hymn is sung with fa-so-la syllables, which the singers use to learn the hymn tune. The words are sung the second time.

fa-so-la
first section (00:05-00:13)
second section (00:13-00:33)
repeat of second section (00:33-00:53)

with lyrics
first section (00:53-01:01)
second section (01:01-01:21)
repeat of second section (01:21-01:43)

entire track

"I'm Headed for the Promised Land," Southern or country gospel tune by the Chuck Wagon Gang, track 8 on CD1

intro (00:00-00:02)
verse 1 (quartet)
8-bar phrase with open cadence (00:02-00:21)
8-bar phrase with closed cadence (00:20-00:39)
verse 2 (solo with quartet)
8-bar phrase with open cadence (00:38-00:57)
8-bar phrase with closed cadence (00:56-01:14)
verse 3 (quartet)
8-bar phrase with open cadence (01:13-01:31)
8-bar phrase with closed cadence (01:31-01:49)
verse 4 (solo with quartet)
8-bar phrase with open cadence (01:48-02:07)
8-bar phrase with closed cadence (02:06-02:28)

entire track

"Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen," a spiritual sung by Mahalia Jackson, tracks 9-10 on CD 1

This version of the well-known spiritual begins with a nonmetrical (out of tempo) introduction, followed by three choruses of an energetic interpretation of the lyrics that shares much stylistically with rhythm and blues: piano and guitar fills, walking bass, background vocal chorus, and especially Mahalia Jackson's vocal quality.

slow introduction, track 9
six 8-bar phrases in a faster tempo (track 10)
phrase 1, open cadence (00:00-00:17)
phrase 2, closed (final) cadence (00:17-00:34)
phrase 3, open cadence (00:33-00:49)
phrase 4, closed cadence (00:48-01:05)
phrase 5, open cadence (01:04-01:21)
phrase 6, closed cadence, final held notes (01:21-01:50)

entire track

"Love in Any Language," by Sandi Patti, track 11

A contemporary Christian song.

Intro (00:00-00:05)
verse 1, two phrases (00:04-00:38)
chorus (00:37-01:09)
verse 2 phrases 1 & 2 (01:08-01:41)
phrase 3 (01:41-01:58)
now all together, phrases 1-2-3, so you can listen for the modulation between phrases 2 and 3 (01:08-01:58)
chorus (01:57-02:29)
transition (02:28-02:48)
chorus, extended (02:47-04:49)

entire track

Hacker handbook topics

This week's Hacker topics are no. 7, repair misplaced and dangling modifiers, and no. 8, provide some variety.

Of the types of misplaced words described in no. 7, I see dangling modifiers most often in student papers. When you start a sentence with a phrase that modifies something, the thing that it modifies should come next, right after the comma. If it doesn't, it can create confusion:

When he raises his baton, the orchestra gives
its complete attention to the conductor.

The orchestra doesn't have a baton, the conductor does. While it may seem OK, it reads more clearly like this:

When he raises his baton, the conductor has
the orchestra's complete attention.

Topic 8 gives suggestions for creating better flow in your writing by combining short sentences and varying your sentence openings. These short sentences:

Elvis still has many fans. 
Two decades have passed since his death. 
They collect his recordings and trade all kinds of memorabilia.
...are better combined: 

Two decades after his death, 
Elvis still has many fans, who collect 
his recordings and trade memorabilia.

If you find yourself starting lots of sentences with "it," "there are," or the subject you're writing about, try moving a modifier phrase to the beginning of the sentence for variety (keeping in mind no. 7's suggestions about modifiers).

Quiz

Take the week 5 quiz.

Music 190W page
This file was last modified on 16 May 2000.