Different individuals have various definitions of gospel music. But, for those who believe, this is a way for all to come together as one, honor the times of yore, look ahead to the future, and refurbish our faith. For those who believe, gospel music is a blissful noise for the Lord. It has also been said that gospel music can stir different emotions with its lyrics and tunes; hence, there is an increasing number of gospel music audiences around the world.

But when did gospel music really start? According to some studies, the history of gospel music dates back to the 18th Century. This was an era where hymns were usually lined and repeated in a call and response fashion. On the other hand, the spiritual and work songs of the African slaves came along. These slaves were prohibited from many things and were punished for offending their masters. Such situations did not hinder them from worshipping and learning to create their own worship hymns, however.

During the early 1930s, Thomas Dorsey created gospel music - the African American religious music which married secular blues to a sacred text. Under the name “Georgia Tom” he performed with blues artist Ma Rainey and her Wild Cats Jazz Band. He wrote over 400 compositions, but it is for “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” that he is best known.

Dorsey was the son of a Baptist preacher; his mother was the church organist. Throughout his early years he felt torn between the sacred and the secular. At eleven, he left school to take a

job at a local vaudeville theater. Six years later, Dorsey left Atlanta for Chicago. He was part of the Great Migration north. In Chicago, Dorsey found success almost immediately. He was known as the “whispering piano player,” called to perform at after-hours parties where the pianist had to play quietly enough to avoid drawing police attention.

At twenty-one, his hectic and unhealthy schedule led to a nervous breakdown. He convalesced back home in Atlanta. There, his mother admonished him to stop playing the blues and “ serve the

"I've been thrown out of some of the best churches in America."

Thomas Dorsey on his difficult rise to becoming the father of Gospel Music.

Thomas Dorsey

The Father of Gospel

Lord.” He ignored her and returned to Chicago, playing with Ma Rainey. He married his sweetheart, Nettie Harper. But in 1925, a second breakdown left Dorsey unable to play music.

After his recovery three years later, Dorsey committed himself to composing sacred music. However, mainstream churches rejected his songs calling it the devils music. Then, in August 1932, Dorsey’s life was thrown into crisis when his wife and son died during childbirth. In his grief, he turned to the piano for comfort. The tune he wrote, “Take My Hand, Precious Lord,” came, he says, direct from God. Dorsey co-founded the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses in 1933. Six years later, he teamed with Mahalia Jackson, and the team ushered in what was known as the “Golden Age of Gospel Music.” Dorsey himself became known as the father of gospel music. He died in 1993.

Thomas Dorsey

A Legacy of great Gospel Music

Soul music has its roots in gospel music and rhythm and blues. The hard gospel vocal quartets of the 1940s and 1950s were big influences on nearly all the major soul singers of the 1960s.[citation needed] Some of those groups include The Soul Stirrers, The Dixie Hummingbirds, The Sensational Nightingales and The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi. Other forerunners of soul include Mahalia Jackson, Louis Jordan, Big Joe Turner, Rev. Julius Cheeks, and Archie Brownlee.

Ray Charles is often cited as inventing the soul genre with his string of hits starting with 1954's "I Got A Woman". Charles was open in acknowledging the influence of Pilgrim Travelers vocalist Jesse Whitaker on his singing style. Another view has it that a decade would transpire until Solomon Burke's early recordings for Atlantic Records codified the soul style; his early 1960s songs "Cry to Me", "Just Out of Reach" and "Down in the Valley" are considered classics of the genre and served to stabilize Soul music in the music industry.

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