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Books > Music > Other types of music
In the late 1920s, Reverend A. W. Nix (1880-1949), an African
American Baptist minister born in Texas, made fifty-four commercial
recordings of his sermons on phonographs in Chicago. On these
recordings, Nix presented vocal traditions and styles long
associated with the southern, rural Black church as he preached
about self-help, racial uplift, thrift, and Christian values. As
southerners like Nix fled into cities in the North to escape the
rampant racism in the South, they contested whether or not African
American vocal styles of singing and preaching that had emerged
during the slavery era were appropriate for uplifting the race.
Specific vocal characteristics, like those on Nix's recordings,
were linked to the image of the "Old Negro" by many African
American leaders who favored adopting Europeanized vocal
characteristics and musical repertoires into African American
churches in order to uplift the modern "New Negro" citizen. Through
interviews with family members, musical analyses of the sounds on
Nix's recordings, and examination of historical documents and
relevant scholarship, Terri Brinegar argues that the development of
the phonograph in the 1920s afforded preachers like Nix the
opportunity to present traditional Black vocal styles of the
southern Black church as modern Black voices. These vocal styles
also influenced musical styles. The "moaning voice" used by Nix and
other ministers was a direct connection to the "blues moan"
employed by many blues singers including Blind Willie, Blind Lemon,
and Ma Rainey. Both Reverend A. W. Nix and his brother, W. M. Nix,
were an influence on the "Father of Gospel Music," Thomas A.
Dorsey. The success of Nix's recorded sermons demonstrates the
enduring values African Americans placed on traditional vocal
practices.
Estos son los himnarios mas populares, utilizados por millones de
creyentes, por sus himnos tradicionales de alabanza y adoracion.
Los himnarios incluyen la musica."
In Jewish Religious Music in Nineteenth-Century America: Restoring
the Synagogue Soundtrack, Judah M. Cohen demonstrates that Jews
constructed a robust religious musical conversation in the United
States during the mid- to late-19th century. While previous studies
of American Jewish music history have looked to Europe as a source
of innovation during this time, Cohen's careful analysis of primary
archival sources tells a different story. Far from seeing a fallow
musical landscape, Cohen finds that Central European Jews in the
United States spearheaded a major revision of the sounds and
traditions of synagogue music during this period of rapid
liturgical change. Focusing on the influences of both individuals
and texts, Cohen demonstrates how American Jewish musicians sought
to balance artistry and group singing, rather than "progressing"
from solo chant to choir and organ. Congregations shifted between
musical genres and practices during this period in response to such
factors as finances, personnel, and communal cohesiveness. Cohen
concludes that the "soundtrack" of 19th-century Jewish American
music heavily shapes how we look at Jewish American music and life
in the first part of the 21st-century, arguing that how we see, and
especially hear, history plays a key role in our understanding of
the contemporary world around us. Supplemented with an interactive
website that includes the primary source materials, recordings of
the music discussed, and a map that highlights the movement of key
individuals, Cohen's research defines more clearly the sound of
19th-century American Jewry.
Assist Our Song combines accessible teaching about the theology and
shape of worship with essential information about the forms of
music used, including congregational hymns, songs, canticles and
psalm chant, and music performed by choirs and musicians. It
explores the range of resources available, how to extend
repertoire, blending the old with the new, changing patterns of
church life, and other practical issues. Its aims are the
heightening of the profile of music within the church, increasing
the skills and understanding on the part of musicians and choirs,
assisting leaders of worship and empowering congregations to see
themselves also as 'ministers of music' It offers practical
assistance for the 'delivery' of music - choosing music, making the
most of choirs and working with musicians. It will be welcomed by
all who lead, provide or curate music in worship, as well as clergy
and ordinands who lack musical expertise or confidence.
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