Gospel: 灵歌？圣歌？
众所周知，美国黑人占全国人数约12%。黑人为建立和建设美国做出了不可忽视的功劳，包括对美国文化上的重要贡献。在十九世纪中下旬，Gospel 就介绍到欧洲去，从那时起到现在，每年有一个至数个Gospel合唱团在欧洲巡回演出。现在正值二月份的"Black History Month". 我手边有一份从新英格兰音乐学院举办的Gospel音乐会上拿回来的资料，现输入一部分，供参考，或刷新记忆。
Gospel: Its Form and Essence
Excerpts from "Gospel Music" written by Dennis L. Slaughter
At its most basic level, gospel music is sacred music. It is a unique phenomenon of Americana which had its earliest iterations toward the end of the nineteenth century. It is folk music which suggests that it and its secular counterparts are greatly influenced by each other. Just as much of the contemporary gospel music of today sounds like R&B and Hip-Hop, so did most of the early gospel music sound like the Blues.
Gospel, meaning "good news," derived its name from its close connection with the gospels (books in the New Testment). As we look at the common themes in the gospels of St. Matthew, St. Luke, and St. John, we find many references to God's goodness and mercy. Additonally, we are encouraged, through these gospel writers, to believe and appreciate the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Cheist. It is through the sacrifice of Christ's life that the sins of those who believe will be put into remission. These themes are notoriously highlighted in gospel music and serve to inspire believers to grow stronger in the faith.
“Gospel: A Black Religious and Declamatory Style"
written by Calvin Hicks
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Although its techniques are not usually taught formally, it is an art which is as complete and of even older origin than jazz. It is an art which depends on the full expressive resources of the human voice -- from the rough growls employed by blues singers; the intermediate souds, half cry, half recitative which are common to Eastern music; the shouts and hollers of African/American folk cries; the rough-edged tones and the broad vibrators, the high, shrill grating trombone fund its human source. It is an art which employs half humming and moaning. It calls upon the most lyrical sound; a pronunciation which is almost of the academy one instant and of the broadest cotton-field dealect the next. It is most eclectic in its use of the other musical idioms; indeed it borrows any effect which will aid in the arousing and control of emotion. Most of all it is an art which swings, and in the South there are many crudely trained groups who use it naturally for the expression of religious feeling who could teach jazz modernists a bit about polyrhymic and polytonality.