> Using both a socio-cultural and a historical perspective, this course
> explores the major forms of African American religious music indigenous to
> the United States, (Negro Spirituals and gospel music), as well as those
> Euro-American musical expressions that have emerged as integral parts of
> the
> African American worship experience.  Students are engaged in
> multi-layered
> experiences of history, aesthetics and ethnography through the frequent
> utilization of audio and video recordings, as well as participant
> observation in African American churches.  The course format is both
> diachronic and synchronic, so designed to assist students in recognizing
> relationships between different forms of African American musical
> expression, despite their differing time frames and contexts of origin.
>
> Required Textbooks:
> Bernice Reagon.  We'll Understand It Better By and By: Pioneering African
>         American Gospel Composers. Washington & London:  Smithsonian
>         Institution Press, 1992.
> Southern Eileen, ed.  Readings in Black American Music.  New York: Norton,
>         1983.
> Collated Xeroxed reading packet.
>
> Recommended:
> Horace Boyer.  How Sweet the Sound:  The Golden Age of Gospel. Washington,
>         D.C.:  Elliott & Clark, 1995.
> Jacqueline DjeDje and Eddie Meadows.  California Soul: Music of African
>         Americans in the West. Berkeley: University of
> California,
> 1998.
> Kirk Franklin.  Church Boy: My Music and My Life. Nashville: Word, 1998.
> Michael Harris. The Rise of Gospel Blues:  The Music of Thomas A. Dorsey
> in
>         the Urban Church. New York:  Oxford, 1992.
> William B. McClain.  Come Sunday:  The Liturgy of Zion.  Nashville:
>         Abingdon, 1990.
> Kip Lornell.  Afro-American Gospel Quartets in Memphis. Urbana and
> Chicago:
>         University of Illinois, 1988.
> Willa Ward-Royster. How I Got Over: Clara Ward and the World Famous Ward
>         Singers. Philadelphia: Temple. 1997.
> Daniel Wolf.  You Send Me: The Life and Times of Sam Cooke. New York:
> Quill,
>         1995.
> Alan Young.  Woke Me Up This Morning:  Black Gospel Singers and the Gospel
>         Life.  Jackson:  University Press of Mississippi, 1997.
>
> Evaluation:  (365 points plus 20 points bonus)
>
> 200 points - Exams: Two equally weighted exams will be given, one at the
> end
> of Segment II, the other at the end of Segment IV.  Questions will be
> multiple choice, which will include both questions related to video and
> audio examples from classroom discussion.  There is NO FINAL EXAM!
>
> 130 points - Analysis of a Black Religious Music Event: This   assignment
> will require attendance at a Black worship service, documentation of the
> service with  an audio recording and with field notes, generating an oral
> and written analysis of some dimension of music in worship/ritual.
> Detailed
> guidance will be provided for the execution of this assignment.
>
> 20 points - Assignments:  Based on field trips to churches of various
> denominations, students will evaluate the role of religious affiliation,
> race, culture and class in defining the character of worship and its
> accompanying musical expression.  Observations will be conducted in teams
> of
> three.  Students will observe in a minimum of two settings.
>
> 15 points - Attendance: 0-2 absences   15 points
>                         3   absences    10 points
>                         5   absences      5 points
>                         6+  absences     0 points
>
> 20 points - Bonus:  Various opportunities for earning extra points will be
> given during the semester by submitting a one page analysis of a
> designated
> Black musical/cultural event.
>
> Fulfills a COAS Arts and Humanities, Traditions and Ideas distribution
> requirement and is on List A of the COAS Culture Studies requirement.