Gospel Music

Costen’s In spirit and in truth: the music of African American worship basically explains how African Traditional Religions are the anchor for music in African American Liturgy. Costen starts her book by explicitly describing the ways of life of the African people. Africans live segregated within their respective clans or tribes, and each tribe has its own religious values and traditions. Although there is diversity within and between African communities, Africans remain united in terms of both their monotheistic beliefs and their love for music. In traditional African cultures, life is not compartmentalized into sacred or religious realms. Life is viewed and lived holistically, with music functioning in a variety of ways( 8). Music and
The genre developed in urban areas where blacks had moved from rural communities (76). Also, gospel musicians became very popular during the 1950s, and gospel music was clearly recognized as a form of entertainment. Gospel music includes both sacred and secular aspects, and appeals to people outside of the church. Unfortunately, this genre poses lots of problems in the African American liturgy. Often when gospel music is led by choirs or soloists, the congregation is relegated into the status of audience rather than as active participants. This shifts the focus of worship from God to the performers. Nonetheless, gospel music still persists within African American worship due to vital role it played, and continues to play in the 21st
Costen acknowledges the fact that when enslaved Africans were translocated to America, as converted Christians, their ideas of worship were shaped by the culture of African traditional religions. Therefore they played their traditional African drums and incorporated the ideas of musical liberty in their communal worship. She further notes that slave masters seized African instruments that the slaves used in their worship, because to these slave masters, the playing of drums was not sacred for liturgical purposes. Nonetheless, certain gifts of the African culture survived the slave trade and ultimately shaped African American spirituals. Such gifts include extemporaneous singing, embellishing of melodies and rhythms, and call-and response dialogical