African American Religious Music from a Theomusicological Perspective

This chapter lays out a complex framework for a theomusicology of African American sacred music. Sacred practices provide common denominators for styles and practices from black preaching to spirituals to the blues to gospel songs. Drawing upon critical theory in African American studies from the 1980s and 1990s, the chapter makes a case for a much deeper level of religious experience in the historical and modern styles of African American music. As a discipline theomusicology is expansive and inclusive, and it serves to connect the diverse elements of black religious experience. The theology...

This chapter lays out a complex framework for a theomusicology of African American sacred music. Sacred practices provide common denominators for styles and practices from black preaching to spirituals to the blues to gospel songs. Drawing upon critical theory in African American studies from the 1980s and 1990s, the chapter makes a case for a much deeper level of religious experience in the historical and modern styles of African American music. As a discipline theomusicology is expansive and inclusive, and it serves to connect the diverse elements of black religious experience. The theology of William C. Turner Jr joins that of James Cone, laying the groundwork for new approaches to music from the varied theological premises of African and African American religion.