Gospel Gold-"All to the Glory of God"

All to the Glory of God

Africa is where it all began. Of all the lavish gifts Africa has given the world, the richest and most unique combination of music and religion: religion with rhythm. With the first African slaves landing on American shores around 1619 came African rhythm, work songs and field hollers - the basic elements for the spirituals. It is rhythm that drives American music: the spirituals, and by extension gospel, the blues, jazz, ragtime and rock n'roll.At the time of the slave trade, singing was virtually continual in Africa. The lyrics Africans sang concerned every facet of their lives, of events hundreds of years ago, of the mundane tasks of daily life, of the glories of their natural world. The physical and spiritual worlds were interchangeable—all songs were sacred, all songs were profane, all were important. And if the goal of African music “has always been to translate the experiences of life and of the spiritual worlds into sound, enhancing and celebrating life,” as Samuel A. Floyd writes, then how could the continually resisting African-American slave not sing of a loss as elemental as freedom?

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