A study of meaning in three white gospel music traditions of central Pennsylvania.

This dissertation explores some of the meanings concerning gospel music that resonate among the members of the white gospel music traditions of central Pennsylvania. The author traces the history of gospel music in central Pennsylvania from the end of the nineteenth century into the 1980s. An extensive discography of gospel music in central Pennsylvania and a calendar of local gospel music events demonstrate the extent of the tradition in the region. A description of the histories, repertories, and performance practices of three gospel music groups provides the basis for an examination of the meanings of gospel music for late twentieth-century conservative Protestants. Each of the three groups represents a different stylistic stream of gospel music in central Pennsylvania: nineteenth-century gospel music is represented by a conservative mixed chorus, southern gospel music is represented by a male quartet, and contemporary gospel music is represented by a mixed trio. Special attention is given to the definitions of these three music styles, to the boundaries that separate them, and to the continuities that connect them. The interpretive framework of the dissertation is grounded in an ethnomusicological approach to music with special emphasis on the cultural dimensions of gospel music. Drawing on the ideas of anthropologists, literary critics, and ethnomusicologists such as Clifford Geertz, Kenneth Burke, Paul Ricouer, and Judith Becker, the author describes and analyzes specific music performances by each gospel music group and draws conclusions on the significance of those performances for conservative Protestants. Especially important for this study is the idea that action can serve as a text through which the observer can make interpretive conclusions. The author concludes that gospel music has meaning for conservative Protestants both because of its musical qualities and its various cultural qualities. Moreover, he suggests that the musical and cultural continuities and discontinuities that exist between gospel music traditions give added meaning to the music for conservative Protestants. He argues that although stylistic differences may tend to separate gospel music groups from each other, shared prior texts, shared performance contexts, and shared religio-aesthetic sensibilities serve to connect conservative Protestants to each other.Ph.D.American historyCommunication and the ArtsCultural anthropologyMusicSocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/129735/2/9610249.pd