Gospel Choir
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A large ensemble of massed voices arranged in soprano, alto and tenor sections that answers a lead singer or director in surging call-and-response, driven by Hammond B-3 organ, piano, electric bass and a hard-swinging drum kit. The music builds from a stated hymn or verse into repeated 'vamp' tags, dramatic key-change modulations that lift the whole choir a half or whole step, and cathartic 'shout' choruses at double time. Voices are full-throated and gritty, blending trained diction with blue-note bends, melisma and improvised ad-libs from the lead. The mood swings from tender devotion to explosive corporate praise, with the director's cues shaping dynamics live.
History
Modern gospel-choir singing grew out of Thomas A. Dorsey's gospel choruses at Chicago's Pilgrim Baptist Church and the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses he co-founded in 1932, which spread the blues-inflected sacred style across Black Baptist and Pentecostal churches. Rev. James Cleveland, the pivotal figure, turned the choir into a recording force with landmark live albums in the 1960s and founded the Gospel Music Workshop of America in 1968, mentoring a generation of directors; the Edwin Hawkins Singers' 1969 crossover 'Oh Happy Day' proved the sound could top pop charts worldwide. The 1970s brought Andraé Crouch and Walter Hawkins' Bay Area sound, the 1980s and 90s the great community mass choirs (Mississippi, Georgia, Brooklyn Tabernacle), and Kirk Franklin's 1990s hits fused the choir with hip-hop and R&B, carrying the tradition to platinum sales and into film, television and worship the world over.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- Oh Happy Day(1969) — Edwin Hawkins SingersSpotifyYouTube
- Goin' Up Yonder(1976) — Walter HawkinsSpotifyYouTube
- Peace Be Still(1963) — James ClevelandSpotifyYouTube
- Total Praise(1996) — Richard SmallwoodSpotifyYouTube
- Near the Cross(1989) — Mississippi Mass ChoirSpotifyYouTube
- I Need You to Survive(2002) — Hezekiah WalkerSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Anthony Heilbut, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times (1971)
- Robert Darden, People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music (2004)
- Horace Clarence Boyer, How Sweet the Sound: The Golden Age of Gospel (1995)