1. Why We Sing – The members of Williams College Gospel Choir answers questions about gospel music, being a member of gospel choir, and the impact it has had on them here at Williams. Because many members cited coming to Williams as a catalyst for their being a part of the choir, I tackle questions about migration and new environments as they relate to the evolution and role of gospel music for the black community. In what ways is the Williams College Gospel Choir continuing what Bernice J. Reagon calls the “sacred song tradition?”

THOUGHTS FROM “O”

“So back home I was in gospel choir and coming to Williams I knew that I wanted to find an environment where I could grow spiritually and still listen to the music I was accustomed to at home and be myself. I’m very goofy, I like to sing and play around I knew I wanted to find an outlet where that could be expressed…since I’m in gospel choir that means I am at the forefront of the school so I would not want to bring somebody down from my actions. For example, let’s say if I’m doing something I know I’m not supposed to be doing, if someone sees that and says “Hey, you’re in gospel choir! You’re up there singing this but you’re living a different life.” And I don’t want to be a hypocrite or live a double life so being in gospel choir helps me stay on the straight and narrow.” -“O”

-REFLECTION-

For O, being a member of the gospel choir is about a couple of things. O not only grew up in the church with a very religious family, but his religious denomination is the very one in which gospel music was born. O was raised in a southern Baptist church, one that most Americans correctly associate gospel music with. It was among Baptists in 1930 that Thomas Dorsey, who is considered the father of modern gospel music, incorporated the syncopated rhythms and vocal style of his Blues music into the religious music of the time and created a brand new sound, one that teetered right on the edge of secular music. O’s family lineage also traces all the way back to US slavery and to the negro spirituals that influenced gospel music both directly and indirectly. Directly, through characteristics like call-and-response, chanting, and powerful harmonies and indirectly through the sentiments eventually captured by styles such as Jazz and Rhythm & Blues which, of course, would later influence gospel music. O could not have deeper ties to the gospel music tradition, so it only made sense that moving to Williamstown would constitute a need to find an environment where that tradition might continue. Thus for O, being a member of the choir is about sustaining not only religion but tradition.

THOUGHTS FROM “Q”

“My life has been two different extremes, when I was growing up it was all church all the time, and there wasn’t really a choice and then when I got older and I started to separate from the church a little bit but I still felt strongly about my belief in Jesus and God…but then all my friends didn’t have religion in their lives, so it was like two extremes. But here I finally like—gospel music gave me that balance. Just participating with other people who feel how I do, to an extent, and aren’t like…crazy, you know what I mean. Like crazy old people who are just trying to control you, they’re just regular people that are your age and that was like a new experience for me in that I didn’t know how much I wanted that in my life until I got here.” -“Q”

-REFLECTON-

Q’s relationship with gospel, and indeed religion, is not as straightforward as O’s. Like many young people, Q went through a period where she turned away from the church but never shook off her faith. She went about her high school years believing that a personal relationship with God was all she needed, and, in fact, all she wanted. It was coming to Williams and joining the gospel choir that allowed her to conclude that she did need something more: balance and fellowship with likeminded individuals. She was not looking to join GC, but in a strange, yet oddly familiar way, the choir found her and fulfilled something she did not even realize was missing. A theme of migration to Williams and the implications of that is beginning to form. Even between O and Q who come from very different religious backgrounds, moving to Williams presented an opportunity to reclaim in this new environment something that was left behind at home.

THOUGHTS FROM “W”

“For a long time gospel music was considered noise in my house so coming to college and making my own playlists and stuff…I really came to appreciate it more in my daily listening. It gets me hype…I feel like I can fall deeper into the spirit sometimes when I listen to it. The repetition is very necessary for meditation on scripture and sometimes its what it takes to actually bring you into your feels kinda thing…in a way that CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) can’t do. Like it’s a verse chorus verse chorus and I’m like alright the words are beautiful, I can read it like a poem, but when it comes to gospel music, there’s something about the melody, there’s something about the simplicity, there’s something about the repetition that touches my heart like a psalm can. So yeah outside of the choir, I do listen to it…it’s a great way to get exposed to a part of something that I didn’t grow up with, a part of something that when people look at me they assume that I’m a part of it. And maybe I wasn’t a part of it growing up but now I understand a little bit what people associate me and my skin color with and my background with so that’s cool. But yeah like I said, it helps me get places.” – “W”

-REFLECTION-

For W, being a member of GC was an essential part of her simply surviving her first few years at Williams. “It pretty much saved me,” she says, describing a particularly difficult semester, “I felt better at GC than I felt anywhere else on campus.” In the passage above, W reflects on how gospel music both comforts and “hypes” her up, but surprisingly reveals that gospel is not the type of religious music she grew up with. Instead, her cultural religious background is rooted in hymns and contemporary christian music. Gospel music is new and different but moves her in ways more familiar types cannot. Why is that? What is it about gospel music? This is one of the first questions I asked my interviewees and they all answered in similar ways: its either because of what gospel music does or what it represents to them. For W, gospel not only carries her to new places spiritually, but, perhaps relatedly, it also allows her delve into a cultural background that she does not feel she is a part of. She even recognizes that others might assume she does have this cultural understanding simply on the basis of her skin color. Already we are seeing a dichotomy between reality and perception, between what members truly experience and how vs. what an audience might gather simply from listening or observing.

-FINAL ANALYSIS-

Students here at Williams are continuing what Bernice Johnson Reagon calls the “African American sacred song tradition” in their own way by participating in a Gospel Choir and performing songs and spirituals similar to the ones she reminisces about in her book. As black students leave the comfort of their homes, the protection of their families, and the embrace of their religious communities to come here, a whitewashed bubble in western Massachusetts, they must find new ways of surviving and thriving. Just as Reagon analyzes the place and function of sacred music as a source of spiritual and emotional strength in a new environment, I aim to take it a step further by adding in the performance aspect. CLICK on the “PRAISE IS WHAT I DO” tab to continue the discussion!