Music Ministry Update from Dr. Sarah England Baab, Minister of Music
On Thursday November 20th, members of St. Matthew’s choir had the opportunity to participate in a community Thanksgiving service at the Second Baptist Church in Moorestown. The service featured music performed by a mass choir of members from our own choir alongside choir members from Second Baptist and Bethel AME music ministries. This was an incredible opportunity not only for us to sing in harmony with our neighbors, but also to experience new styles of music making.
The music performed included works by contemporary Gospel composers Walter Hawkins, “Thank You Lord (For All You’ve Done)” and Hezekiah Walker “Every Praise,” as well as “Thank You,” written by Leon Washington and popularized by vocalist Benita Washington. These songs reflect the vitality and rich history of Gospel music, which has its roots the nineteenth-century revival movements of the United States. The song texts, written from a first-person perspective, center on evangelical themes such as praise and thanksgiving for the promise of salvation. These themes are emphasized through repetition, typically between a soloist and choir, and often feels meditative or enrapturing. Musically, the contemporary style of gospel heard in these pieces first emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, particularly in northern cities including Chicago, a city whose history and music were both heavily impacted by the Great Migration. Between 1910–1970, 6 million African Americans left the South in search of greater economic opportunities and social freedoms promised in the North. There, the sounds of southern Gospel hymnody and spirituals fused with the urban sounds of worship, as well as those of Blues and Jazz, creating a new and exciting sound for worship.
While plenty of Gospel hymns and contemporary pieces exist as published sheet music, Gospel is often performed and learned as an oral/aural tradition, meaning that performers learn music by ear through repetition. This style of learning music was less familiar to our choir and provided an opportunity for us to stretch our ears and experience worshiping through music in a new way. It requires less focus on performing the notes as they are written on the page and more on performing with feeling. It also requires great presence in the moment as you listen and respond to soloists, and make in-the-moment choices such as how many repetitions of a chorus you might perform. Vocally, the approach to performance is also quite different to the technique we use most frequently, which emphasizes achieving a homogonous blended choral sound wherein the individual voice is subsumed in the whole. In Gospel, the focus is on creating a joyful and powerful sound in which individual voices are each heard coming together in a more heterogeneous texture.
We are happy to have spent time worshipping and learning with our neighbors and look forward to more experiences together. In particular, we looked forward to the upcoming MLK day celebration at Bethel AME, which will also feature a community of Moorestown singers.
If you are interested in joining the choir or just curious, there are plenty of opportunities to join See & Sing during choir practice. Contact Dr. Sarah England Baab.