2. Praise is What I Do – The choir members answers questions about performance as it compares to personal interaction with gospel music. What are the unique challenges of learning gospel music with the intent to perform it? Is praise complicated by the element of performance? With the answers to these questions, I introduce performance theory in Africana and address my own questions as the director of this choir. Namely, what aspects of gospel performance are most important? Why, and who makes that decision? How is a “good performance” judged by me as director? By the choir?

The choir considers what it is means to perform gospel music. Many of them consider praising a very personal experience and a very vulnerable part of their relationship to God. Instead of putting on a performance of praise, most members attempt to bring their personal praise up on stage and invite the audience into that space with them. For many members, that is an especially difficult task.

Performative art of any kind, for it to truly impact an audience and have meaning for a performer, must come from a personal and vulnerable place. The best performers are the ones who bare their souls to the audience and allow themselves, not only to be a performer, but a participant in the experience being shared. Gospel performance is no different, but because it is rooted in faith, there are even more dimensions to this relationship and the members had interesting things to say about that interaction in their latest concert.

“Throughout the whole concert,” a member said, “my goal was to make sure I put all my passion so that when people heard me sing they could tell that I believed what I was singing and that through my singing, they realize that I am being blessed as I am blessing them.” For “O,” it was important that the audience believe that his praise was authentic, not only so that it could benefit the audience and truly move them but so that he, himself would be blessed by the experience.

For other members, like “Q,” the audience only plays a role up to a certain point, “…you focus so much on the crowd in the beginning, like who came and who didn’t come, but the deeper you get into it the more it’s like about you and your experience with the music than it is about who came and who didn’t come.” Q felt that the crowd eventually fell away, leaving space for her to truly connect with the music and let it impact her. Some might argue that ability to do this made her performance even more palpable and enjoyable to the audience.

But being able to get into “praise zone” doesn’t come easily to all of the members. “W” recognizes just how difficult it is share that personal praise with an audience, admitting that in her years at Williams, she truly had to learn how to even do it. At this last concert, as she found herself struggling to get past being on stage and performing, she reflects, “I drew my hands back in because they were shaking, I could see them shaking. I was like ‘this isn’t practice where you’re comfortable with everyone, you’re a little vulnerable right now’ so I had to bring the song—I don’t know how to say it—like into me..”

Internalizing a song and making it relevant to yourself is one of the tools, or perhaps I should say “coping mechanisms,” I give the choir to get them over their nerves or the preoccupation of a performance and into the gospel sharing mode. But, of course, because it isn’t “just church” but also a performance, I expect more out of them than simply connecting to the song. They need to sing it right, too.

Gospel choir spends 5 hours a week (and almost 12 hours during tech week!) practicing and preparing for their performances. Not only are they learning words, notes, harmonies and dynamics, they are also learning affect. My directions are less often “crescendo here…that last part needs to be loud!” and more often “This part is a declaration, to the audience and to God, it needs to sound like one!” As the director, I congratulate them regardless of how well the harmonies sounded or how into it they were because it’s difficult to get up on any stage and sing. But the choir and I both know when they’ve had a good performance. A good performance is not only when the harmonies and dynamics are impeccable but when their entire souls would are committed to the song.

But almost as important is the audience’s reaction to our singing. There have been times when we messed up terribly but because the audience appreciated us so much, we walk away smiling. At Williams, however, it is sometimes difficult to place just where that appreciation comes from. Yes, there are many people on this campus that believe and God and thus come out to see us because they need that musical blessing but for those who don’t or even those who didn’t grow up with this type of music regardless of religious affiliation…why do they come? “Q” attributes it to the fact that GC is so diverse and thus unintimidating, even for students who have never experienced this music: “I think it says a lot that we attract so many different types of people. I think it gives the choir a very welcoming appeal. And when I hear people talk about us they’re like ‘you guys definitely look like you have the most fun on stage than any other group,’ and I couldn’t really not agree because it’s obviously true.” “A” agrees that how GC performs and what we perform plays a big role in why we have such a huge fan base on campus: “I could tell that they had never been exposed to gospel music and the beauty of it and how pure and great gospel music can be. And I think we got that same reaction at the concert in the sense that people didn’t understand—like it’s one thing to hear gospel music, it’s another thing to see it performed.”

There is some skepticism within the choir though, especially for the upperclassmen members, as to why this very black singing group is so popular on such a white campus.”W” admits, “Sometimes I feel like it can be a cultural spectacle…there is somehow that a link between black music and entertainment…and that can be a struggle sometimes on this campus…to know that we are often the token.” While she hopes that one day, Gospel choir and more broadly, black music, can move on from that place, she is “almost okay with it” here at Williams. Having the music heard, even under flawed intentions is better than not having that voice at all. Furthermore, as “O” concluded, if people are being touched and uplifted by our music, then Gospel Choir is doing “its job.”

Now, we could get into why the Gospel Choir feels they have this responsibility and why they school literally expects this of them (the Williams wikipedia page says that our concerts serve as a comfort to students near finals period) but…let’s get into black history and the significance of singing music that has such deep yet dark roots. CLICK ON “THE SPIRITUALS” tab!