Playing the worship: building community through music in a Black church

Abstract

A research over the processes of musical production of Gospel and Spiritual genre and their interaction with practices of community-building , within the environment of Ebenezer Baptist Church – a black church in Atlanta, Georgia. While considering the functioning and characteristics of a climax/anti-climax structure perpetrated throughout the progress of worship service at Ebenezer Baptist Church, this research investigates the precise and detailed role of specific musical practices within the context of black churches, and the possible ties to an observed notion of necessity of attendance to service, to which members of the congregation are subjected to, and that is accomplished through the production and re-production of empathy throughout the worshipping and musical experience of service – which facilitates what is necessary but not automatic.