Music Performance Practice Research Articles

Willie Mae Ford Smith of St. Louis: A Shaping Influence upon Black Gospel Singing Style

This writing describes and analyzes the singing style of Willie Mae Ford Smith as a major influence upon gospel music performance practice. We take this approach because Smith's contributions, especially during the peak of her career in the 1940s, are not widely available and are preserved on a few 78 rpm recordings from the late 1940s and perhaps the early 1950s. Through the work of producer-author Anthony Heilbut, some of her songs have been re-recorded and some early releases are to be reissued.1 But for now, many questions remain about the nature and significance of her contributions to the form. Through the recordings and publications of Heilbut and through George Nierenberg's celebrated film Say Amen, Somebody, Mother Smith,2 as she is

Bach's G minor Sonata for viola da gamba and harpsichord BWV1029: A seventh Brandenburg Concerto?

Journal Article Bach's G minor Sonata for viola da gamba and harpsichord BWV1029: A seventh Brandenburg Concerto? Get access Peter Williams Peter Williams Professor of music (performance practice) in the University of Edinburgh, and director of the Russell Collection there. The third and final volume of his ‘The Organ Music of J. S Bach’ has recently been published by Cambridge University Press. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Early Music, Volume 12, Issue 3, August 1984, Pages 345–354, https://doi.org/10.1093/earlyj/12.3.345 Published: 01 August 1984

Revivalism, the Gospel Songs and Social Reform

n recent months there have been notable attempts to define and to establish it as a separate discipline. In a sense, this paper is presented with the same objective in mind. It is my belief that the subject will be defined and delineated by the nature of the studies which are made by its proponents in the early years of this society rather than by the resolution of certain polemics which have resulted from our discussions. In like manner, the claim of the ethnomusicologists to a separate existence will rest more upon the universality of our precepts than upon a predetermined restriction to particular areas, methodology, or values. My purpose, therefore, is to encourage the members of this society to extend their studies into the musics of those strata of Western society which have not been objectively documented and thereby to demonstrate the efficacy of ethnomusicology in areas often neglected by traditional musicologists. In the area of American music, the researcher is frequently confronted with harmonic and melodic elements of Western music employed in a context that subordinates musical values--as defined by traditional musicologists--to their function in a society. As has been pointed out by members of this organization, research in these neglected areas is the province of the ethnomusicologist, whose perspective allows him the freedom to seek out relationships other than those inherent in the music itself. As an illustration of a study in such an area, I have chosen the music of Protestant revivalism of the late nineteenth centurythe gospel songs--to show how a practice on the periphery of Western musical development may acquire significance only as it is related to the religious and social mores of a nation. We are fortunate that much of the music from this period of revivalism exists today in printed form as well as in actual practice among various evangelical groups. We are not to assume, however, that the taxonomic stages of this study may be by-passed; on the contrary, the separation of the songs from their original function in the revival service by those who wished to exploit them commercially, and the acculturation which occurred when the music was used by ethnic groups other than Anglo-Saxon Protestants, offer numerous opportunities for the field worker. For the purpose of this paper, discussion will be limited to the music used in revival services by Dwight L. Moody, Billy Sunday, and their followers between 1875 and 1930. I do not propose to present a description of these songs based on a musical analysis or performance practice except as these elements are related to our particular problem--the establishment of a triangular relationship; that is, the relationship between the gospel songs, the forces of social reform, and revivalism. A revival meeting may be described as a mass assembly of people of various ages who gather to hear the forceful preaching of an evangelist who