A guide to the principal authors and composers of gospel song of the nineteenth century

Abstract

The purpose of the research project was to develop a practical reference tool or guide to the principal authors and composers of gospel song of the nineteenth century. Such a tool was necessitated as a result of the growing number of church personnel, educators, and researchers seeking information about the gospel song. The unique nature of the guide was its compilation of widely scattered and often unavailable literature of both a published and unpublished nature. The guide itself is found in chapters two and three. Chapter two is divided into twenty sections, with one section for each individual included in the guide. Each section is divided into five parts respectively titled Biographical Information, Contributions to the Gospel Song Movement, Significance to the Gospel Song Movement, Hymnal Location of Words and/or Music, and Annotated Bibliography. The part entitled Contributions to the Gospel Song Movement focuses upon a more objective statement of what each individual did, while the part entitled Significance to the Gospel Song Movement is more evaluative in nature. The fourth part contains a listing of texts and tunes in selected hymnals; and the fifth part consists of an annotated bibliography. Chapter three contains a cumulative indexing of all first lines and song titles included in the preceding sections.