Is Gospel a church song or a modern style of music?

At the moment there are many different genres of music that can be interesting. But as everyone knows, they come from the depths of the centuries and all developed in their own way. Everyone will be able to find something new, interesting and fascinating for his hearing.

Definition: What is gospel music?

Gospel - a popular, modern trend in music, which began its development in the XVIII century. At first, such a direction had a basic feature in the form of repetition of syllables, words and sentences. After all, African Americans who performed this kind of music in the church were mostly uneducated and could not read the correct full text that was needed for the chant. Today, this direction is mainly used in the genres of hip-hop, jazz and even blues. But to this day the churches of the believers sing songs that are aimed at the glorification of God.

As we often see in films, gospel is singing in an African American church. It was these people who came up with jazz and blues, and this kind of music is closely related to these styles. It is worth noting that gospel can have both instrumental accompaniment and choral. In one way or another the hymn can sound differently: incendiary, calm and even sad.

It is due to such diversity that gospel at the moment is quite popular not only in countries where there is a large percentage of the Negroid race.

Times of the Great Depression

As we have already explained, gospel is the direction in church music. In order to understand how it originated, it is worth going a little deeper into the story. During the Great Depression, many singers sang gospel songs with mourning and sad themes. Still, these were hard times. It is worth noting that they are remembered by many people precisely as a reflection of the hardships in art that have beenfall the inhabitants of the country. Different genres of music reflected this, not just gospel music. This was a manifestation of some emotional depression, which, of course, affected the condition and inner well-being of people.

That is why blues versions of gospel music, in which the poor state of people, the world and the environment could be described, gained popularity. Of course, such compositions brought negativity and depression.

Today the days of the Great Depression are long gone, and mostly performers play church gospel, which may be different in character, but more often it is still incendiary and inspiring.

How are gospel bands perceived today and which performers play it?

Who ever listened to this direction, he, undoubtedly, noticed that the songs sound very unusual. So the question arises: how do you perform gospel, is it really that difficult?

Everything is connected with the fact that there are several choral voices that know how to keep a "clean" note. But this is not a simple choir, which can charm you with your singing. The fact is that the voices in this collective are arranged so as to create a chain breath. Chain breathing is a technique in choral singing, which allows you not to interrupt the melody and consonant sound. In this case, it is worth noting that for long notes you need good breathing and endurance, but even the strongest choral singers will not be able to hold the entire melody and sound on one exhalation.

In case of using chain breathing, the melody can last a long time. The best gospels also differ in that their motives are not simply related to church classical singing, but they also add notes of blues, jive and jazz. In this case, they glorify the name of the Lord, but do so as they see fit.

Gospel music of the modern church

Gospel is also mentioned as an element of modern music: jazz and blues. It is worth saying that the use of such a direction is quite popular. But this is not such a musical style that unprepared people can discern. For example, each of us can probably say that the directions of rock, punk, jazz and classics are significantly different, but gospel music is not so easy to hear.

He is played by such jazz performers as Blind Willie Johnson, Reverend Gary Davis. These performers are popular in many ways because of their religious motives in one way or another. They sing that God helps people.

Performers of this style also have a close relationship with the church, because in any case singing gospel accompanied by a musical or choral introduction. They often perform together with the church choir.

The result

As can be understood from the above, gospel is a manifestation in music, which, in fact, is a religious anthem. It should be noted that different kinds of instruments can be used in the performance of this musical work. But mostly at the moment, these are choral performances that use chain breathing, and instrumental music, which is performed in the style of blues. Guitar, saxophone, synthesizer and others sound.