Sacred Symphony: The Chanted Sermon of the Black Preacher

The first and only collection of its kind, Sacred Symphony contains 100 transcriptions of muscial excerpts from the chanted sermons of contemporary black preachers. In his introduction to the pieces that follow, author John Michael Spencer argues that there is an observable correlation between the chanted sermons of today’s black preachers and the antebellum spiritual. He shows that the pieces collected here, each of which spontaneously evolved during the course of a sermon or prayer service, are themselves spirituals containing similar musical components–melody, rhythm, call and response, counterpoint, harmony, form, and improvisation.