Hymnals of the Black Church
by Eileen Southern
The Black Perspective in Music, Vol. 17, No. 1/2 (1989), pp. 153-170
Hymnals of the Black Church
BY EILEEN SOUTHERN [This article is reprinted from the Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center 14 (Fall 1986-Spring 1987): 127-140. Used by permission.]
THE FIRST HYMNAL compiled expressly for the use of a black congregation, entitled A Collection of Spiritual Songs and
Hymns, Selectedfrom Various Authors, was published in 1801 by Richard Allen, who is identified on the title page as "African Minister." Now Richard Allen is justly celebrated as one of the founders of the world's first black Christian denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Church (hereafter AME), which he served as the first bishop, and for his civil-rights activities in Philadelphia, but little attention has been given to his pioneering role in laying the foundation for black-American hymnody.
The story of the origin of Bethel AME Church of Philadelphia, which moved into its own building in July 1794, is so well known
that it does not require retelling here. Without any doubt, Bethel was a singing congregation from the beginning, and by 1801 would have developed a basic repertory of its favorite hymns. Allen himself would have introduced many hymns to his fledgling flock, hymns that he had picked up during his several years as an itinerant Methodist exhorter before settling in Philadelphia. On the road he came into contact not only with Methodist preachers but also those belonging to Baptist and other sects, and he tucked away in his memory things that later would prove to be useful to him as an "African minister."
We know from contemporary sources that the black Methodists were noted for their singing and exuberance in worship (Southern 1983, 77-79).[1] The novelty of the 1801 publication arises from the fact of the enterprising young minister's publishing his own hymnal instead of using the official Methodist hymnal. After all, Bethel was still under the governance of the Methodist Society in 1801. Allen's hymnal must have been well received, for within the same year a second edition appeared, A Collection of Hymns & Spiritual Songs, from Various Authors, this time identifying the compiler as "The Rev. Richard Allen, Minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church." The title page indicates that the hymnal could be purchased either at the printer's or at 150 Spruce Street, Allen's home address. Fortunately, there is extant a copy of each edition, thus making it possible for scholars to examine this landmark in the history of American hymnody and to assess its value.[2]
The fact that the hymnal ran into two editions within a year suggests not only its popularity among Allen's people but also that
more copies might have been published to accomodate the needs of Zoar, the other black Methodist congregation in Philadelphia at that time. It is certain that some white clergymen knew the hymnal, for the extant copy of the first edition belonged to Ezekiel Cooper, book steward of the Philadelphia Methodist Church with authority for approving all books published by members of the Society. We do not know whether Allen consulted Cooper before publishing his hymnal; it is doubtful that he did so. Cooper may have attempted to exert his authority, however, before the second edition was published, for in his copy, some words in the first hymn, "The Voice of Free Grace," have been scratched out and replaced with other, presumably
correct, words. But none of the other hymns presents such emendations, so it appears that Cooper's authority carried little
weight with Allen.
The first edition of Allen's hymnal contains fifty-four hymns; the second adds ten more texts, making a total of sixty-four. Some
of the hymns most certainly written by Allen himself, judging from their similarity to hymns he published in other places; others that have all the earmarks of folk hymns may have been penned by Allen's church associates.[3]
Like many other hymnals of the time, Allen's hymnal belongs to the genre of the "pocket hymnal," measuring slightly larger than 5 x 3 inches in size. Also like many other contemporaneous hymnals, Allen's collection contains only texts, without author attributions or references to melodies that would be appropriate for use in singing the hymns. (Later editions of the AME hymnal would include such references.) I have traced twenty-six hymns to authors by locating concordances in eighteenth-century sources.[4] While we may assume that Allen's congregation used the same tunes as did other congregations in singing the well-known hymns-such as those written by Isaac Watts, for example, or Charles seems Wesley-it obvious that in some instances the Bethelites must have composed their own melodies or adapted popular street tunes to their purposes.
This landmark hymnal is of historic importance for reasons other than its primacy among black-church hymnals, which in itself
is enough to insure the hymnnbook a secure place in history. In the first place, it serves as a folk-selected anthology, indicating the hymns that were popular among black Christians at the beginning of the nineteenth century, for Allen selected hymns freely from the hymn books of Baptists and other denominations for his hymnal. His main criterion apparently was whether or not the hymns had appeal for his congregation. In his writings he expresses concern about the "emotional natures" of his people, many of them exslaves, being swallowed up in cold, intellectual rituals (Allen [1833] 1960, 30).
Certainly the hymns in his collection have vivid imagery and highly personalized texts-the kind that would have attraction
for the newly converted ex-slaves who comprised his congregation. Another reason for the historic importance of Allen's hymnal is
that it seems to have been the earliest one to include hymns to
which "wandering" refrains and choruses are attached; that is, refrains
freely used with any hymn rather than affixed permanently
to specific hymns. Thus Allen's hymnal is a primary source for the
worship song later to be called the "camp-meeting hymn" and the
progenitor of the nineteenth-century gospel hymn. While the first
decade of the century is notable for its publication of campmeeting-
hymn collections, none is dated earlier than 1803-two
years after Allen's hymnal was published. Whether or not black
Methodists should be credited with inventing this form, as some
contemporary sources imply, certainly Allen must be credited with
being the first to publish examples of the form (Watson [1819]
1983, 63).
It should be observed that the term "spiritual song" in the titles
of Allen's collections does not have the meaning it would later have
as applying to the folk-composed Negro spiritual. Fine distinctions
cannot be drawn between the hymn and the spiritual song in this
period. Hymn compilers commonly used such titles as Allen used
as far back as 1651 with the edition of the Bay Psalm Book entitled
The Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs of the Old and New Testaments,
and Isaac Watts uses the term in the title of his landmark publication
of 1707, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, which was given an American
edition in 1739. The three terms of course point back to the
Scriptures, Col. 3:16, wherein Christians are instructed to teach
and admonish one another in "Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual
Songs."
Although Allen's collection contains no Negro spirituals, it does
indicate the kinds of source materials used by black Christians in
composing Negro spirituals, and thus throws light on the origin of
the spiritual. Obviously the black folk composers culled lines and
phrases from their favorite hymns and Scriptural passages, and
adapted motifs, images, and themes from such sources to compose
the texts of their spirituals, to which they then added verses of their
own invention. Such a process is revealed by analysis of the text
structures and documented in contemporary reports. One disapproving
church father complained: "the coloured people get
together, and sing for hours together, short scraps of disjointed
affirmations, pledges, or prayers, lengthened with long repetition
choruses (Watson [1819] 1983, 63).
A hymn beloved by a black congregation-say, for example,
"Behold the Awful Trumpet Sounds" (No. 10 in Allen's hymnal)-
might furnish the poetic tinder for any number of spirituals with
its theme of Christians preparing for Judgement Day and its vividly
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drawn motifs: of the trumpet sounding to raise "the sleeping dead"
and call "the nations underground"; of the "world in flames," "the
burning mountains," and rocks running "down in streams"; of the
"falling stars" and "moon turn'd into blood"; and of the wicked
turn'd "unto hell," while the Saints sit "at God's right hand." A list
of spirituals using this material would be long indeed, beginning
with the ancient "In Dat Day" and including such well-known examples
as "My Lord, What a Morning," "Steal Away," and "Rocks
and Mountains, Don't Fall on Me," among many others.
Now a word about the tunes used for singing the hymns in the
Allen hymnal. Clearly it would have been necessary to invent tunes
for singing the unorthodox items-that is, the hymns written by
Allen and the camp-meeting hymns-since newly invented texts
were involved. In addition there is ample evidence that the black
Christians were not averse to drawing upon "merry airs, adapted
from old songs" for their specially composed hymns (Southern
1983, 77-78).
Finally, a few statistics: twenty-six of Allen's hymns have concordances
in hymnals published by white compilers before 1801;
thirty, in collections published after 1801; and eight hymns
apparently are unique. Allen's collection undoubtedly includes
songs that circulated in oral traditions, which he would have picked
up during the period when he was an itinerant preacher traveling
the Methodist circuit. Was he the first to publish these songs, which
did not begin to appear in other collections until 1803? What contacts
did he have with the Great Revival movement that swept over
the nation, particularly in Kentucky, beginning in 1800? Was he
the first to publish the Revival movement's camp-meeting songs?
These are intriguing questions, for which the present stage of research
will not permit immediate answers. But certainly when answers
are forthcoming, light will be thrown on the extent to which
black-hymnody practices influenced the development of white folk
hymnody at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
By the time the AME Church had won its independence in
1816, its membership numbered in the thousands, and it is highly
probable that the Allen-hymnal repertory had been adopted by
black Methodist congregations in both the North and the South.
Thus, the hymns would have been disseminated throughout the
nation, with blacks, whetherenslaved or free, sharing in a common
oral tradition of hymnody.
In 1818 the Church published a new hymnal, "designed to supersede
those heretofore used among us," which had been compiled
by a committee consisting of Daniel Coker, James Champion,
and Richard Allen as chairman (African 1818). It is an impressive
collection! Consisting of 314 hymns, it is beautifully organized into
appropriate sections according to the "various states of Christian
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experience," and shares some 244 concordances with the official
Methodist hymnal of the period.
Richard Allen obviously was concerned about meeting the high
standards of the Methodist hymnal in this new publication, although
he had no intention of abandoning his independent stance.
In the hymnal's preface he notes, "Having become a distinct and
separate body of people, there is no collection of hymns we could
with propriety adopt," but at the same time, he was careful to select
hymns that were held in high "estimation" by others.5 He concludes,
"We flatter ourselves, the present edition will not suffer by a
comparison with any collection of equal magnitude."
Gone are many of the vibrant and personalized hymns of the
1801 corpus; only fifteen hymns were carried over into this new
edition. Were the other hymns too humble for the proud, new,
AME denomination, which was determined to "exhibit to the
Christian world [that its] rules of government and articles of faith"
would measure up to the highest standards? The discarded hymns
were not forgotten, however, by black worshipers: some lived on in
oral tradition, and others were absorbed into the Negro spiritualif
not wholly, then in selected phrases and motifs.
AME hymnals were published periodically thereafter. In the
1837 edition, for each hymn there is a relevant Scriptural verse,
identification of its meter (that is, as short, long, common, etc.), and
indication of a melody appropriate for use in singing the hymn. In
1898 the AME Hymnal included music for the hymns for the first
time. In modern editions, hymnals have included didactic materials
along with the hymns, responsive readings, and the like. The 1954
edition, for example, carries a lengthy article on the history of
Methodist hymnody. Ever so often the Church has appointed a
committee to update its hymnal and improve the quality of its
music-most recently in 1972 when the General Conference
appointed a Committee on Worship and Liturgy to carry out its
directives in preparation for the edition of 1985.
Through all the years, AME hymn compilers included, along
with the standard Protestant hymns, a small number of hymns written
by black hymnists and composers as well as a few spirituals, but
they were careful to weed out songs they regarded as trashy. Again
and again, congregations were warned not to sing "hymns of their
own composing" Payne ca. 1866, 30; Payne [1888] 1983a, 68-70).
In 1883, for example, Minister Henry M. Turner (later Bishop)
wrote in the preface of the AME hymnal that he had compiled,
"We have a wide spread custom of singing on revival occasions,
especially, what is commonly called spiritual songs, most of which
are devoid of both sense and reason; and some are absolutely false
and vulgar" (Turner 1876).
Despite the fine work of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, the Hampton
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THE BLACK PERSPECTIVE IN MUSIC
Singers, and other similar groups, it would be a long time before
Negro spirituals were admitted to the ranks of acceptable church
music. The battles fought in the nineteenth century over the
"respectability" of the spiritual foreshadow similar confrontations
today between those who approve of contemporary gospel music
and those who regard it as unacceptable in the formal worship service.
Predictably, other black denominations followed the lead of the
AME Church in publishing their own hymnals. In 1822 Peter
Spencer published the Union African Hymn Book for his Ezion
Union African Church in Delaware, Maryland, and in 1838 the
Afrian Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (hereafter AMEZ) began
publishing its own hymnals, entitled Hymns for the Use of the African
Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. The AMEZ "Improved Edition" of
1869 consists of 582 hymns compiled under the direction of Christopher
Rush, Samuel M. Giles, and Joseph P. Thompson. Each
hymn carries an indication of its meter and the name of an appropriate
tune for singing it.
To my knowledge, only the three black denominations discussed
above published their own hymnals during the antebellum
period. Presumably, other black churches used hymnals published
by the white mother churches. Except for Allen's landmark hymnal
of 1801, the hymnals published by the black church in the
nineteenth century were hardly distinguishable from those of the
white church in regard to repertory items, except for their inclusion
of a relatively small number of black-authored hymns. Over
the years, they increased markedly in size: an AMEZ hymnal of
1872, for example, contained 1129 hymns, while an AME hymnal
of 1880 had 1089 hymns. Such huge volumes of course proved to
be too unwieldly, and later editions appeared in more convenient
sizes.
After Emancipation, hymn books began to appear that obviously
were not intended for use in the formal worship service, but
rather for revival meetings, Sunday Schools, and informal gatherings.
In 1883 the minister Marshall W. Taylor published a collection,
entitled A Collection of Revival Hymns and Plantation Melodies,
intended primarily for use by black congregations of the white
Methodist Episcopal Church. Consisting of 170 songs, of which
twenty have only texts, the collection includes traditional hymns,
camp-meeting hymns, spirituals, and religious songs-the lastnamed
apparently written especially for publication in the hymnal.
Some of the standard hymns were turned into gospel hymns
through the addition of choruses to time-honored texts of Watts,
Wesley, and others. Few of the songs seem appropriate for use in
the formal worship services (ackson-Brown 1976, 22-38).
Charles A. Tindley, celebrated for his pioneering work with the
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black gospel hymn, undoubtedly originally intended his music for
performance in the Bainbridge Street Methodist Episcopal Church
of Philadelphia, where he was pastor from 1902 until his death in
1933. But his music proved to have universal appeal, and in 1905
he began to publish collections of his songs. The first, entitled Soul
Echoes, was published in two editions (1905, 1909); the second, New
Songs of Paradise, appeared in six editions during the years 1916-
1941. Tindley clearly states his songs were intended for singing in
"Sunday Schools, Prayer Meetings, Epworth League Meetings, and
Social Gatherings" (Boyer 1983, 103).
A Baptist publication of the early twentieth century, entitled
NationalJubilee Melodies (ca. 1916), also belongs to the informal category
of black-church music. The copy I examined carries no date,
but the title page identifies the book as the "twenty-third" edition.
Now that's evidence of genuine popularity! Published by the National
Baptist Publishing Board, the collection consists of old
plantation songs, which, the preface informs us, have been kept
alive by tradition and should be preserved in "book form." K. D.
Reddick of Americus, Georgia, and Phil V. S. Lindsley of Nashville,
Tennessee, are credited with having collected the songs "from the
various rice, cane, and cotton plantations of the South" (Reddick
and Lindsley 1916, i).
The collection of 142 songs includes a wide variety of typesmostly
spirituals, both arranged and traditional, but also standard
Protestant hymns and gospel hymns. None of the hymns carries
the name of author or composer, and some have new titles, but the
well-known hymns, such as those of Watts or Wesley, can be identified.
As in the Taylor collection, some of the gospel hymns were
"made" simply by adding choruses to standard hymns.
Although the Baptists and Methodists pioneered in publishing
hymnals for their congregations after Emancipation, it was the
Holiness (or Pentecostal) church that was the direct heir of the
plantation-church spirituals, jubilees, and shouts. Charles Price
Jones, founder of the Church of Christ (Holiness) in 1895, gave
music high priority in the Church and was himself a prolific
hymnwriter, having written over a thousand sacred songs during
his long life. His first songs date from his pre-Holiness days, when
he was still a Baptist minister. He is credited with having published
two songbooks, His Fulness and Sweet Selections, and two editions of
the official hymnal of the Church, Jesus Only Standard Hymnal.
None of these publications was available to me, but I did examine
the ten hymns published in the Church's History, which indicate
Jones's style to be similar to that of other gospel hymnwriters of his
time (Cobbins 1966).
The year 1921 brought a milestone in the history of blackchurch
hymnody. In my opinion, Gospel Pearls, published that year
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THE BLACK PERSPECTIVE IN MUSIC
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160
BLACK-CHURCH HYMNALS
Preface
Notwithstanding the large number of song books in circulation,
no apology is offered for the advent of "Gospel
Pearls"; for its name tells the story, coming as it does to
supply the present day needs of the Sunday school, Church,
Conventions and other religious gatherings, with "Pearls"
of song suitable for Worship and Devotion, Evangelistic
services, Funeral, Patriotic and other special occasions.
"Gospel Pearls" contains more than half an hundred familiar
hymns and tunes that cling so closely to the heart,
that try as you may, you can not get away from them;
then comes a collection of the Standard old songs, gathered
with great care and especially adapted for soul-winning, as
well as the very latest and popular works of the very best
composers of sacred song, and a collection of Jubilee songs
known as Spirituals-the rarest and prime favorites-the
result of long hours of research and hard work, collecting
and making popular throughout the land by Professor John
Work, Prof. F. J. Work, Dr. J. D. Bushell, and others
of musical ability and experience.
These songs may be used in every phase of public worship
and will prove to be of untold value in Revivals and Evangelistic
Services. They are tried and true.
"Gospel Pearls" is a boon to Gospel singers, for it contains
the songs that have been sung most effectively by
Prof. Britt, Mrs. J. D. Bushell, Prof. Smiley, Prof. Nix,
Mrs. Williams, and other prominent singers, telling of His
wondrous love. through song.
It is a tnbute to Christ we bring and it is our fondest
hope that "Gospel Pearls" may enjoy the widest possible circulatien
and use, inspire the believer, convict the sinner, and
cheer many a weary traveller.
MUSIC COMMITTEE,
Sunday School Publishing Board,
National Baptist Convention, U. S. A
Nashville, Tennessee.
I
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THE BLACK PERSPECTIVE IN MUSIC
by the Sunday School Publishing Board of the National Baptist
Convention, U.S.A., ranks with Richard Allen's hymnal of 1801 in
terms of its historic importance. Like the Allen hymnal, it is an
anthology of the most popular black-church music of its time. The
Music Committee that compiled the hymnal, under the direction of
Willa Townsend, included some of the nation's outstanding composers
and performers of religious music-among them, John W.
Work, Frederick J. Work, Lucie Campbell, and W. M. Nix-and
the resulting product was truly a "soul-stirring, message-bearing
song-book" (Gospel 1921, iii).
The publisher notes that the hymnal was born "out of an urgent
demand for real inspiring and adaptable music in all of our Sunday
Schools, Churches, Conventions, and other religious gatherings"
(Gospel 1921, ii). Were black church people becoming increasingly
bored with the staid, standard Protestant hymns that filled their
denominational hymnals? At any rate, the diminutive hymnal-it
contains only 164 songs-found a welcome place in the sanctuaries
of many churches other than those of the Baptists.
Despite its size, Gospel Pearls was capable of meeting the needs
of the black church of its time. It contains the old, revered Protestant
hymns, including those associated by tradition with liningout
practice; the gospel hymns of such white writers as Moody and
Sankey, Charles Gabriel, Philip P. Bliss, and Homer Rodeheaver,
among others; the gospel hymns of the black writers Charles Tindley,
Lucie Campbell, Thomas Dorsey, and others; jubilee songs and
arranged spirituals; and the essential service music. The popularity
of the "Pearls" took them into "every phrase of public worship," as
the compilers had hoped for, and as well into thousands of private
homes. It would be more than fifty years before the black church
would produce a hymnal of equal power, musical worth, and emotional
appeal to black Christians.
Although the hymnals used by Four-Shape Note Singers have
had negligible impact upon the development of mainstream, blackchurch
music, their existence should be noted. The basic book is W.
M. Cooper's The Sacred Harp, but often black communities have
their own hymnals, generally entitled The Colored Sacred Harp. A
copy in my possession was compiled and published by J. Jackson
(Ozark, Alabama, 1934), under the auspices of the Dale County
Colored Musical Institute and the Alabama and Florida Union
State Convention on Composition. It contains the old, familiar,
Protestant-hymn texts (but set to unfamiliar melodies) and hymns
written by laymen of the community. Conspicuously absent are
spirituals and gospel songs. It should be observed that Seven-Note
Shape Singing belongs to the gospel-song tradition, and thus differs
from Four-Note Shape singing.
Beginning in the late 1970s, the largely black denominations
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seem to have awakened to the necessity for publishing hymnals that
would confront the demands of the radically changing lifestyles of
black Christians in the last quarter of the twentieth century. The
Baptists were the first, in 1977, with their denominational hymnal,
The New National Baptist Hymnal. Then followed in 1981 the Songs of
Zion, published by the United Methodist Church, and Lift Every
Voice and Sing, by the Episcopal Church. In 1982 came Yes, Lord!,
the first hymnal ever to be published by the Church of God in
Christ (hereafter COGIC), and in 1985 there appeared a new edition
of the AME hymnal, The African Methodist Episcopal Church
Bicentennial Hymnal.
Songs of Zion, along with the Richard Allen hymnal of 1801 and
the Gospel Pearls of 1921, must be counted among the great monuments
of black-church music. Like its two predecessors, it is an anthology
of church music popular among black Christians of its
time, but even more, it is a history of black-church music presented
through the music itself. Published under the auspices of the National
Advisory Task Force on the Hymnbook Project of the United
Methodist Church, the hymnal's genesis was in a conference
held at Atlanta, Georgia, in 1973, when it was discovered that the
official Methodist Hymnal included only one hymn by a black composer
and only five Negro spirituals (Cleveland and Nix 1981, ix).
The thirteen-member committee, chaired by William B.
McClain with J. Jefferson Cleveland and Verolga Nix as editors,
affirming that the black religious experience in the United States is
unique and, moreover, has made a great impact on the development
of the Christian church in general, aimed "to offer the whole
church [i.e., not only black congregations] a volume of songs that
can enrich the worship of the whole church" (Cleveland and Nix
1981, xi). The hymnal is successful even beyond the compilers' lofty
ambitions, particularly in making available to the public a repertory
of gospel music that hitherto has been generally accessible only
through oral dissemination-that is, the live performance or recordings.
Divided into three main sections, each of which begins with a
historical introduction, the hymnbook deals with, respectively,
hymns, spirituals, and gospel songs. In addition, there is an extremely
useful introduction that offers suggestions on how to perform
the music to the music director, accompanist, and congregation.
A small fourth section gathers together thirty-three liturgical
pieces, most of them written by contemporary black composers, but
also including some standard texts, such as the Doxology and
hymns of Watts and Wesley, fitted with new melodies and arranged
to serve as offertories, responsories, and the like.
Few of the standard hymns are included among the seventy-two
hymns in the first section; most are gospel hymns. The tradition of
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164 THE BLACK PERSPECTIVE IN MUSIC
S1YID~~~~~~p
BLACK-CHURCH HYMNALS 165
Contents
Acknowledgments................................................................................ vii
Preface............................................................................................... ix
Keys to Musical Interpretation,
Performancea, nd MeaningfulW orship ................................ ........ . xiii
A Historical Account of the
Hymn in the Black Worship Experience ................................................ 1
Hymns... ........................................................................................ 2-72
A Historical Account of the Negro Spiritual.............................................73
Negro Spirituals............................................................................. 74-171
A Historical Account of the Black Gospel..............................................172
Black Gospel .............................................................................. 173-203
Songs for Special Occasions............................................................204-216
Service Music............................................................................... 217-250
Indexes
Indexb y Classification.. ...................................................................251
Index of First Lines and Common Titles ............................................. 252
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THE BLACK PERSPECTIVE IN MUSIC
adding choruses to standard hymns to produce gospel hymns is
well observed, and there are also contemporary hymns, which employ
the standard four-line form but have gospel-style texts.
A novel inclusion is a "lined" version of the Charles Wesley
hymn (using the Martrydom tune) "Father, I Stretch My Hands to
Thee." This may well be the first time anyone has attempted to
present a notated "lined" hymn in a hymn book, and the fact of its
inclusion reflects the importance given by the compilers to the validity
of oral traditions.
The second section of the hymnal, which comprises ninety-six
songs, is given over to spirituals. Here are all the old favorites of
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, most with simple accompaniments
that do not overpower the melodies, and some consisting
solely of melodies.
It is the third section of the hymnal that is unique: it contains
fifty-one gospel songs of every conceivable variety. Included along
with well-known contemporary gospel songs are other types arranged
as gospel-for example, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic,"
"Amazing Grace," and "My Faith Looks up to Thee," among
others. The accompaniments are not elaborate, but enough of the
style is caught so that a good church pianist with some knowledge
of the gospel tradition can perform acceptably from the music.
All the major gospel composers are represented, from Charles
Tindley to the young Andrae Crouch and Walter Hawkins, and all
the classics of the genre are included, from Tindley's "I'll Overcome
Some Day" and Dorsey's "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" to
the Walter Hawkins perennially popular "Goin' Up Yonder."
Finally, the collection is distinctive because songwriters of the Holiness
churches are represented along with the Baptist and Methodist
songwriters, and this gives proper recognition to one of the important
sources of the black gospel tradition.
For scholars of black-church music, perhaps the biggest event
of the 1980s was the publication, for the first time, of an official
COGIC hymnal. According to a brief introductory note, the title of
the hymnal, Yes, Lord!, reflects a practice of Charles H. Mason,
founder of COGIC, Inc., in 1896: when Bishop Mason wanted "to
pull the congregation together in commitment and spiritual communion,"
he would begin the singing of a dynamic, tuneful chant,
the text of which repeated the phrase "Yes, Lord" a number of
times.
Before discussing this amazing musical document, I should like
to take a brief detour to comment on the congregational song as a
genre. Traditionally, it has had simple melodies and uncomplicated
rhythms, and is sung in unison, often without instrumental
accompaniment. The unobtrusive four-part harmonizations
usually given the songs in hymnals are for the benefit of
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the keyboard accompanist and are intended to support, not compete
with, congregational singing. Texts may be dramatic or highly
personalized, but they are memorable. If hymnals are not available,
"lining out" helps the congregation recall the texts, as does also the
inclusion of refrains and choruses in the texts.
Yes, Lord! makes a sharp break with the traditional past. In its
collection of 506 songs, the handling of the accompaniment, in particular,
reflects the importance given to instruments and polyphonic
textures in the pentecostal tradition. Except for the old standard
hymns (which retain their conventional, four-part harmonizations)
the accompaniments are lively and imaginative, promising an extra
dimension of richness and excitement to the performance of the
songs.
The major gospel composers of three generations are represented
in the hymnal, from Tindley to the generation of Roberta
Martin, Kenneth Morris, Dorsey, and others, to the generation of
Andrae Crouch. In addition there are numerous songs written by
pentecostal composers whose names are not familiar outside the
Church, such as Mattie Moss Clark and Iris Stevenson, among others.
The collection includes a wide variety of texts: standard hymns
are interspersed with gospel hymns, spirituals, patriotic songs, gospel
songs, and religious songs in the classical European traditionfor
example, St. Francis of Assisi's "All Creatures of Our God and
King" and songs of Beethoven, Mozart, and Handel. Turning the
pages, one comes across delightful surprises, such as a charming
three-part round written by Terrye Coelho, and occasionally a
shocker-such as the full, four-part arrangement of the "Hallelujah
Chorus" from Handel's Messiah (covering six pages).
I became aware several years ago that the black folk-church had
adopted this work, that members of the congregation sang along
with the choir when it was performed as naturally as if they were
singing a hymn or spiritual, taking whichever voice-part they preferred
and missing not a single note. The inclusion of the "Hallelujah
Chorus" in a hymnal legitimizes the establishing of yet another
black-church-music tradition.Finally, I call attention to the closing section, which consists of
fifteen traditional chants, each in the form of a call-and-response,
and four "Amens." Three keyboard "Call and Response Accompaniments"
are included, with instructions given for choosing
the appropriate accompaniment for each chant.
It is significant, as the black-church hymnal approaches its
200th anniversary, that its publishers include white, mainstream
denominations as well as black denominations, and that sects
formerly regarded as outside the mainstream-particularly the
pentecostal sects-have begun to publish hymnals, thereby making
167
THE BLACK PERSPECTIVE IN MUSIC
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168
BLACK-CHURCH HYMNALS
their congregational songs available to a wide public. The future of
congregational singing in the black church looks bright, indeed, if
the hymnals published in the last few years are predictors of things
to come.
NOTES
1. See, for example, statements of William Colbert, John F. Watson, and
William Faux, quoted in Southern (1983, 77-79).
2. An extant copy of the first edition is deposited in the Garrett Seabury
Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois; a copy of the second edition is
at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts. Microprint
copies are availablei n the Shaw-ShoemakerE arlyA mericanIm prints,
Series No. 2 [1801-20], Nos. 38 and 39.
3. Two hymns written by Allen are published in his autobiography ([1833]
1960): "The God of Bethel Heard Her Cries" and "Ye Ministers That Are
Called to Preaching," and a third, entitled "Spiritual Songs," is published
in Porter (1971, 559).
4. The Table of Contents for the second, enlarged edition of Allen's hymnal
is reprinted in Southern (1983a, 53-54). There the author identifications
I obtained through concordances are bracketed. Six additional author
identifications were kindly communicated to me by Roland J. Braithwaite,
professor of music at Talladega College, who presently is engaged in
an intensive investigation of the Allen hymnals.
5. The preface of the hymnal of 1818 is reprinted in Southern (1983, 86).
REFERENCE LIST
African Methodist Episcopal Pocket Hymn Book, Selected from Different Authors.
1818. Philadelphia: J. H. Cunningham.
Allen, Richard. [1833] 1960. The Life Experience and Gospel Labours of the
Right Reverend Richard Allen.... Written by Himself and Published by His
RequestN. ew York: Abingdon Press.
, ed. 1801. A Collection of Spiritual Songs and Hymns.... Philadelphia:
John Ormrod.
. 180 la. A Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs from Various Authors.
. . Philadelphia: T. L. Plowman.
Boyer, Horace C. 1983. "Charles Albert Tindley: Progenitor of Black-
American Gospel Music." The Black Perspective in Music 11 (Fall): 103-
132.
Cleveland, J. Jefferson, and Verolga Nix, eds. 1981. Songs of Zion. Nashville,
Tennessee: Abingdon Press.
169
THE BLACK PERSPECTIVE IN MUSIC
Cobbins, Otho B., ed. 1966. History of the Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A.,
1895-1965. New York: Vantage Press.
GospePl earls.1 921. Nashville,T ennessee: Sunday School PublishingB oard
of the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A.
Jackson,J . 1934. The ColoredS acredH arp. Ozark, Alabama:n .p.
Jackson-Brown, Irene. 1976. "Afro-American Song in the Nineteenth
Century: A Neglected Source." The Black Perspective in Music 4 (Spring):
22-38.
Payne, Daniel. [1888] 1983a. Reprinto f selected pages from Recollectionosf
SeventyY earsi n Southern (1983a, 65-70).
. ca. 1866. The Semi-Centenary and the Retrospection of the A. M. E.
Church in the United States of America. Baltimore, MD: Published by the
Author.
Reddick, K. D., and Phil V. Lindsley, comps. 1916. NationalJubileeM elodies.
Nashville, Tennessee: National Baptist Publishing Board.
Porter, Dorothy. 1971. Early Negro Writing, 1760-1837. Boston: Beacon
Press.
Southern, Eileen. [1971] 1983. The Music of Black Americans: A History. New
York: W. W. Norton.
. [1971] 1983a. Readings in Black American Music. New York: W. W.
Norton.
Turner, Henry M. 1876. Hymn Book of the African Methodist Episcopal
Church.... Philadelphia: Publication Department, A. M. E. Church.
Watson, John Fanning. [1819] 1983a. Reprint of selected pages from
Methodist Error ... in Southern (1983a, 62-64).
Yes, Lord! Church of God in Christ Hymnal. 1982. Memphis, Tennessee:
Church of God in Christ Publishing Board.
Harvard University