Close Harmony: A History of Southern Gospel

Abstract

Close Harmony: A History of Southern Gospel. By James R. Goff, Jr. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. Pp. xiv, 394. Preface, introduction, illustrations, conclusion, notes, index. $45.00, cloth; $24.95, paper.) As the author of Close Harmony says, and its predecessors, despite their enormous cultural influence in the United States, have received very little scholarly attention (treatments have mostly been by industry insiders and fans). It is Goff s contention that southern (which typically refers to white rather than black gospel) is a art form which deserves such attention for several reasons: its significant impact on conservative Protestantism in the United States; its uniquely powerful appeal to its followers (and the tension, unknown in other genres, that exists between moral/spiritual and entertainment value); and its great influence on American generally. He generally focuses on the latter two phenomena. The author's first chapter traces the roots of popular religious back to the eighteenth century and the first singing schools in America (which southern gospelers would adopt with great enthusiasm) through to the of the revivals and camp meetings of the nineteenth century. The chapter concludes with an account of the plethora of tunebooks and songwriters in the late nineteenth century, including the breakthrough shapenote teaching books and popular hymnists like Fanny Crosby. The developing genre of gospel music is also placed within its religious and historical context, with attention to the rise, for example, of the Holiness and Pentecostal movements, two religious groups that would welcome the new music. Goff's second chapter gives a more detailed account of the important development of shape notes in American musical history and practice, and their singular influence in the South. Leading entities such as the Ruebush-Kieffer Music Company of Virginia did seminal work in publishing and teaching, utilizing the popular religious that was the forerunner of gospel. The author chooses to showcase the enormous place of the early twentieth-century shape note songbook publishers in history with fairly detailed examinations of the two giants of the field, Vaughan Music Company of Tennessee and Stamps-Baxter of Texas. There is also a short account of the achievements of Arkansas's Hartford Music Company, clearly indicating the contributions of Arkansans to this distinct musical subgenre, most notably the nurturing of songwriting superstar Albert Brumley. …

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