PVCC Learns the History of Gospel
It was 7:25 p.m. on a Saturday night, and the line was out the door of Dickinson and then some. Groups of music fans and life-long learners chatted while waiting for their tickets to be collected. The crowd shuffled into and eventually packed the auditorium. It was a full house. Despite the variety of people attending, there was an atmosphere of familiarity and shared interest. The house lights dimmed and the crowd erupted into applause as Horace Scruggs and his band took the stage.
“We’re gonna talk tonight about the history of gospel,” said Scruggs, as the band took up their positions, “and it might not be as straight and narrow as you may think.” The band – with Scruggs on the piano – played an upbeat tune, “Oh Happy Day!”
Scruggs then went on to give a half-hour presentation on the evolution of the genre. The lecture covered everyone from Sam Cooke to Big Mama Thornton and explained how over time Gospel came to be influenced by the contemporary music surrounding it. Despite some technical difficulties, Scruggs had members of the audience clapping along, singing, and even, at points, dancing.
In one video demonstrating the difference between sacred and secular blues, a group of women performed a choreography that could have been taken straight from a modern music video. “Hey, I guess we know where Beyoncé got her moves from,” Scruggs joked. After concluding the lecture, Scruggs and the band performed several more pieces including a South African piece called “Siam.” The audience received the music with an air of newfound appreciation.
“I hope people come away from this with an idea of the living history of Gospel. It’s one thing to study the history, but to hear the music you’re studying live is just a different experience. I’m also trying to break down some of the stereotypes people may have about Gospel. There’s this idea that Gospel has sort of always been on the straight and narrow, and that’s not true. Gospel, like any other genre, has influenced and been influenced by the music around it,” said Scruggs. Horace Scruggs is a music teacher in Fluvanna County and a professor of Jazz history and piano at PVCC.
