All music that tells the story of redemption through Jesus Christ is gospel music.  Yet in some circles "gospel music" is confined to a niche -- a certain style of music; a style of music associated with African-Americans. 

In that sense, components of "gospel music" are symbolized by two easily identifiable symbols: a choir and robes.  These symbols come from a powerful aesthetic in African-American heritage; yet there are dangers in defining gospel music and African-Americans by these two symbols alone.

One danger is that of co-opting the sound of gospel music for other messages.  Think, for instance, how often you have heard "gospel music" in a film, television program or commercial, none of which is associated with the gospel of Christ? Enjoyable as the sound may be, the listener must discern the context.

The other danger is underestimating the impact of other styles of music upon liberating Africans in America.  That liberation developed as the robed-choirs connected the music of the times with the lyrics from which they were rooted:  the Hebrew and New Testament scriptures those that professed good news gospel music of Jesus Christ as He intended -- to link man and God.

Exploring that link, and telling the story of how gospel music has developed in the United States is the purpose of "Freedom Song," one of the ensemble plays from the Kingdom Impact Theater Ministries history cycle.  The script was created in 2011 as reader's theater presentation in response to a  request for a church's African-American History month program.  Since then, "Freedom Song" has been presented annually as part of church and corporate commemorations in February.  Because of those performances, "Freedom Song" has received subsequent off-season productions - not just during African-American history month.  The  themes extend beyond just February and beyond the topic of physical slavery in the U.S.  The weaving of Scripture, song history and musical genres create a tale of liberation through Christ from an assortment of enslaving circumstances and behaviors.

Over 30 songs from America's colonial slavery to millennial technology bondage are sampled, dramatized and  in the program that is staged as an abbreviated one-act or movie-length  outreach complete with a post-performance talk-back.  In the course of the evening, the audience receives new insight into traditional, beloved gospel music, and is introduced to newer selections that don't have the gospel music sound, but deliver the gospel of Christ message.   

Researching the songs that inspired the script provided more insight than performance times allow.  Nevertheless, the insights and sounds are too important to NOT share.  And so, we compiled most of the songs that inspired the script's creation into a playlist, assembled on our KIT Ministries YouTube Channel, and have written short essays about each song or song sequence.  We will post those essays and the songs on these pages and our social media pages in coming days as our commemoration of  how Scriptures have shaped African-America.

For starters, we present the entire playlist here along with a brief introduction to the show.   By listening to the playlist, you'll find unlikely musical connections between  Czechoslovakian classical composer Anton Dvorak and American folk icon Paul Robeson; poet James Weldon Johnson and rappers Doughboy the Midwest Maestro and DJ Kool Rod;  Peter, Paul  & Mary, and Mavis Staples.  You'll also see rare performances by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mahalia Jackson and Richie Havens, and provocative movie clips the voice of African-Americans and  gospel music in film.

​ Visit our Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest pages for daily posts on individual songs.  Most of the songs will be posted during African-American History Month.  However, don't be surprised if posting continues into the days after Feb. 28.  Just as African-American history occurs beyond the end of February, the gospel of Christ cannot be contained to just 28 days.

Please consider adding the entire "Freedom Song" playlist to your YouTube channel.

As with Handel’s “Messiah,” the development of “Hark! The Herald Angel Sings” exemplifies  the ever-evolving collaboration (some say interference) of artist, patron and theologian.

The original poem which begat the song, written in 1739 by Methodist pastor and song writer Charles Wesley, was entitled “Hymn for Christmas Day.”  Wesley’s hymn was an epic with over 10 stanzas. It included words that showed Wesley’s intellect but left listeners scratching their heads.  Wesley’s pastor friend, George Whitfield, pointed this out and suggested revisions, simplifying the text.

Half of the Wesley-Whitfield stanzas survived into the next century and made an impression on English composter  William  Cummings. Cummings liked the lyrics, but not the slower, Easter-season tune Wesley had composed ("Christ  The Lord is Risen Today.") However, Cummings felt the words were compatible with the tune of the popular "Gutenberg Cantata" recently written by German composer Felix Mendelssohn.  Cummings believed Mendelssohn’s symphonic arrangement captured the implied awe and power of a sky full of “a multitude of the heavenly host praising God,” the passage in the Gospel of Luke that  inspired Wesley’s hymn.

In 1855 the Wesley-Whitfield-Cummings-Mendelssohn  composition debuted with  the structure changes familiar today, but maintaining the essence of the words first recorded centuries before in the gospel of Luke: 

“Glory to god in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

LEARN MORE:  Comparative lyrics.

Centuries later, these words and music created controversy when used in what is not one of the most iconic annual Christmas television programs, “Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown,” the 1965 TV special that almost didn’t occur.

The overt gospel presentation that author Charles Schulz included in the script had CBS network offices and sponsors concerned.  They were okay with the “Peanuts” gang rendering one of the most poignant versions ever of “Hark! The Herald…” as they caroled at Snoopy’s house with Charlie Brown’s revived tree to end the show. 

What scared the executives was an earlier scene when Linus explains the true meaning of Christmas by reciting the gospel of Luke in the pageant rehearsal. This makes Charlie Brown one of the  few programs that directly speaks the gospel of Christ for a non-church audience.  There was the rub.  Fearing a public backlash about show including the story of Christ in Christmas, CBS wanted the scene cut. Schulz stood firm.  No gospel; no “Peanuts.”  And unto us, a franchise was born.

LEARN MORE:  Linus recites what Christmas is all about.

LEARN MORE:  Glenn McDonald, CBS & Linus' security blanket.

Many wonder if – or how – the should could be created and aired today.  Nevertheless, the evolution of “Hark! The Herald…” from lengthy, erudite poem, to symphonic anthem, to simple children’s song, to uncomfortable gospel message, point out the enduring strength of the essay researched by Luke the historian.

Poetically, the visuals of the lyrics as presented in #CarolStory starts a sequence of dialogue between the shepherds and the angels.  "Do You Hear What I Hear?," another carol more recently associated with a children's cinema favorite ("Gremlins"), is added to the conversation to  begin the evening's journey.  First , hearing, then seeing the angels,  the shepherds are moved from fear to comfort as they interpret the angels' mission and  instructions to begin  a Pied-Piperesque journey to Bethlehem, picking up a drummer boy and others as they go away to the manger.

The videos here -- the  majesty of Mendelssohn’s  anthem in  Alan Silvestri's arrangement of "Hark! The Herald...," contrasted with its  quiet message to Charlie Brown and connected by the intimacy of Johnny Mathis asking, "Do You Hear What I Hear?" -- allow us to experience various ways the Lord speaks:  with herald trumpets and a sweet, still voice.

LEARN MORE:  How Handel's Messiah Came About

LEARN MORE:  Micah's Bethlehem Prophecy

"Silent Night" is the quintessential Christmas song. It's virtually impossible for any artist to record a Christmas album and not have a rendition.  In this 200th anniversary of the song's creation, we thought  it fun to expand the variety of recordings of the song to show its durability and to underscore the need to not let musicality overshadow the message of the lyrics.

Sis. Vanetta Pinn, who curated our Carol Story YouTube Playlist, included versions by Mariah Carey, Justin Bieber and Boyz II Men for our re-posting consideration.  We've linked these videos to give a glimpse of vocal variations, musical arranging and technical production growth through the years. 

LEARN MORE:  "Silent Night" 200th anniversary observations

We've also included a medley by KIT Ministries co-founder Vikki J. Myers as a sample of how Christmas music can be merged with non-seasonal worship selections to give a sense of how the Christmas message lasts beyond the holidays.

However, for the purposes of our #CarolStory live presentation, the renditions that best  reflect the backstory nuances are by Andrea Bocelli and Mahalia Jackson . 

In the context of #CarolStory,  the 10-minute worship play, “Silent Night" is woven with five other standard carols — “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," "O Holy Night,” “Hark! The Herald,” “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” and “The Hallelujah Chorus” to establish the atmosphere of fear, awe and respect that the shepherds experienced when the Heavenly Host appeared on “The Night” when Christ was born. (The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 2, verses 8-15)

LEARN MORE:  "Carol Story" The Script

Bocelli, singing in Italian, brings to mind the European feel of the original German carol written by Franz Gruber.  We wonder how Gruber may respond to the variety of arrangements of the song, especially considering the urgent and somewhat controversial circumstances  under which he wrote the piece for Christmas Eve 1818.

LEARN MORE:  History of "Silent Night"

There's a nostalgic prejudice for Mahalia Jackson's version.  It was among the first "church" Christmas songs Michael heard and was a family favorite.  His mother,  not a singer, would sing along whenever the record  (as in vinyl) played , or when the Spirit moved her to burst into song  while baking cookies  thinking she was alone in the kitchen in the middle of the night.

As with other selections in this piece, the lyrics of "Silent Night" are woven throughout the play to move the story along and work effectively as scene exposition transitioning between scenes.

​LEARN MORE:  "Carol Story" Live

Andrea Bocelli is an Italian singer, songwriter, and record producer. Celin Dion, with whom he recorded "The Prayer,"  has said that "if God would have a singing voice, he must sound a lot like Andrea Bocelli."

Bocelli has recorded 15 solo studio albums of both pop and classical music, three greatest hits albums, and nine complete operas, selling over 90 million records worldwide. He has had success as a crossover performer, bringing classical music to the top of international pop charts.

He was born with poor eyesight and became completely blind at age 12, following a football accident.
 "The Prayer," his duet with Celine Dion for the animated film Quest for Camelot ,  won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1999. -- Source:  Wikipedia
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LEARN MORE:  Andre Bocelli Today

Mahalia Jackson was an American gospel singer. Possessing a powerful contralto voice, she was referred to as "The Queen of Gospel."  She became one of the most influential gospel singers in the world and was heralded internationally as a singer and civil rights activist. She was described by entertainer Harry Belafonte as "the single most powerful black woman in the United States". She recorded about 30 albums (mostly for Columbia Records) during her career, and her 45 rpm records included a dozen "golds"—million-sellers.

"I sing God's music because it makes me feel free,"  Jackson once said about her choice of gospel, adding, "It gives me hope. With the blues, when you finish, you still have the blues." -- Source:  Wikipedia.

Mahalia Jackson is also one of the individuals whose story is included in  the Kingdom Impact Theater production, "Faith, Hope & Love:  History-Making Women of Faith," a one-woman performance by Vikki J.  Myers

LEARN MORE:  Mahalia Jackson Biography

LEARN MORE:  Original French Lyrics

LEARN MORE:  Beloved Carols with non-American Origins

To catch the full impact of the full gospel messagei in traditional Christmas carols -- those which tell the story of Jesus from birth through the anticipated second Christmas -- it's important to listen to all the stanzas.

The first five selections of "Carol Story" do so primarily by setting the atmosphere of the night Jesus was born to his earthly parents.  The selection which best establishes the setting, like a screenplay stage directions, is "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear."

 "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" is a paradox in that its author, Edmond  Sears, was a Unitarian pastor who believed and preached the Divinity of Jesus.  Unitarians may or may not believe in God; those who do believe do not necessarily accept The Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) belief. Sears was intrigued by the role of the angels in the account of Christ's birth recorded in the Gospel of Luke (Chapter 2).  Nevertheless, the song is a standard in many Methodist Church hymnals.

The musical version on #TheCarolStoryPlaylist by Anne Murray embodies the simplicity of the lyric and the clarity of the angelic tone.  Murray's arrangement leaves little question why Elvis Presley called her his favorite singer.   (Incidentally, as of this writing, Anne Murray has not passed away, despite recent Internet condolences claiming otherwise.)

Sears' poem providing recurring exposition for our #CarolStory narrative.  Its subsequent stanzas, not always sung, are a sterling example of why reading lyrics is as important as recording the tune.  Perhaps moreso.

LEARN MORE: Edmund Sears -- Unitarian seminarian, Methodist author.

"The First Noel" is based mostly in Luke's Chapter 2 account of the heavenly host of angels announcing the birth of Christ to shepherds. (Enjoy the story.)

To get a good grasp of what happened, put yourself in place of the shepherds: You and some close pals are out camping, in your suburban backyard, or, like, hiding out on the rooftop of a parking garage. Where ever you are the sky is pretty black except for a few twinkle, twinkle little stars, because you're away from city-lights distortion. Then:​

The sky lights up! Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden face appears in the super moon -- and STARTS TALKING!  YOU KNOW you have not ingested any foreign, mind-altering substances. What emotions do you feel?

THAT'S why Luke wrote verses 9-10 in his history report to the Gentile academic Theophilus. YOUR emotions are why the angels said, "Do not be afraid." This sentiment is captured in the lyric, The first noel was to certain poor shepherds." To "certain." Meaning, to “calm.” To reassure them attack is not imminent.

Among the many meanings of the word "noel" are joy, joyous song, birth, good news. “Noel” is also “Christmas” in French, and is derived from "Nowell," in old English, the language in which "The First Noel" was originally written around 1820.
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The video here captures the sensibility of the angels attempting to chill the shepherds and the power of the moment.  In our #CarolStory the lyrics allow the actors to adapt new characters and take the audience on the journey to Bethlehem physically and emotionally.

​"God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen" is among the many carols with cryptic meaning and origins. It's a 16th century English tune that has evoked commentaries about the lyricists' commentary on the state of the Church in England, warrior soldiers, uninspiring worship music, bar culture and punctuation.

The word merry is open to interpretation: Does it mean "happy" or does it mean "mighty." Depending on your take, the gentlemen could be barflies partying all night, or warriors preparing for battle.
There's also room for spoken interpretation based upon punctuation. Move the comma around. How does the title change with the comma after ye (as above), after merry; or with merry set off by commas?

We like it because the opening line struck us as the start of a powerful actor's monologue in the classical, Shakespearean tradition that, in script form, propels action. So much so that our writing of #CarolStory began when we spoke the lyrics and began improvising a scene. We were also struck how the song introduces the Gospel of Christ right away...even if in a bar.

We're thankful to our daughter for introducing us to the #Pentatonix and our sister Vanetta Pinn for unearthing this version.

#CarolStoryKIT #ChristmasCarols #Song