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Article: This house, this music: exploring the interdependent interpretive relationship between the contemporary black church and contemporary gospel music.
- Article from:
- Black Music Research Journal
- Article date:
- March 22, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Center For Black Music Research. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In his groundbreaking work Somebody's Calling My Name: Black Sacred Music and Social Change, the Rev. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker (1979, 17) sets forth the thesis that "what black people are singing religiously will provide a clue to what is happening to them sociologically." (1) Tracing the African and European cultural influences in slave songs, spirituals, and traditional gospel favorites, Walker establishes a clear correlation between lyrical content in black sacred music and the social circumstances of black life. In the same way this was true of the African-American spiritual, for example, Walker concludes that it is no less true of gospel music. Furthermore, in the case ...