A collection of talent will come together to bring over 200 years of Gospel music to the stage. Three groups, the Gospel Choir, the Black Underground Theater and Arts Association and Ujima dance ensemble will join drummers for a show that will trace Gospel music from its beginnings and explore the power it holds today.
In the concert, tittled "The Journey: Then and Now," the music will be the center of the performance, but the theater pieces will surround it and bring to life the periods of each song. The show will highlight and showcase six distinct eras of Gospel.
The performance will move chronologically, starting with the time before the advent of slavery, where gospel music had its roots in Africa. To re-enact that age, an opening consisting of a song, a dance and drum combination will kick the evening off.
This combination highlights the African-inspired tradition of drumming and songs, Gospel Choir leader Nini Johnston '99 said.
The next era of gospel includes the time of slavery and the birth of spirituals. BUTA will perform an act about the lives and conditions of slaves during this time, and how, through hardship,they found a means to cope through song.
They will also focus on other periods like: Post-slavery to World War I, the 1950s and 60s, the 70s and 80s and finally the present.
The different eras show the "subtle influence from all types of music ... that demonstrates the circumstances behind the evolution in gospel," Johnston said.
Along the way, they will sing songs from artists renown in the gospel world, like "Goin' Up Yonder" by Walter Hawkins and "Precious Lord Take My Hand" by Thomas Dorsey.
The concert will also feature a song titled "God Gave Me a Song" by the Gospel Choir's own artistic director, Bishop J.C. White. White visits Dartmouth about six times per term to help coordinate the Gospel Choir with its student leaders.
The presence of religious themes and figures in gospel music is evident, but the spiritual and religious links go back far beyond Christianity to the African traditions.
"Some sense of someone who can not be heard or seen physically but is known to be there has always been part of [gospel] tradition," Johnston said.
The African side of the spirituality is brought into the performance through the dancing and the drums.
"African percussion was developed to accentuate the dancing. It goes beyond just the drums and dancing. It becomes spiritual," drummer Jasson Walker '98 said. "I am very excited about it."
The combination of the different groups to make one large performance is something somewhat new to the Gospel Choir. The architect of the concert, Olivia Carpenter '00, saw the program as a chance to expand the knowledge and understanding of gospel music.
"We almost always have sold-out concerts, and people enjoy what they hear, but we think it is important to understand what you are enjoying," Carpenter said.
In many African tribes there is no difference between music and dancing. They always went together, and so it made sense to combine them in concert, Carpenter said.
The inclusion of BUTA was important because their role in the performance is instrumental in understanding the transition of the traditional African music to the spirituals of the age of slavery, Carpenter said.
"I think that the collaboration brings a certain type of strength to the work because its not only the Gospel Choir ... it's the entire black community... in a performance that demonstrates their history," Johnston said.
The concert comes at a particularly appropriate time because February is Black History Month, and the concert certainly celebrates the history surrounding gospel music.
This journey of gospel is Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. in Rollins Chapel.
