How Sweet the Sound

This book traces the development of gospel music, from its roots in the 1900s through its golden age in 1945-55. How Sweet the Sound takes the reader from African American churches in Los Angeles in 1906; to the Deep South Pentecostal churches; to Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, and St. Louis in the 1930s. Author Dr. Horace Boyer (1935-2009) was one of the foremost scholars in African American gospel music, a music historian, and a gospel singer himself. His book explains the various styles and stages of gospel music, and lists more than a hundred gospel greats, including Mahalia Jackson and Aretha Franklin. The book is full of black-and-white photographs and verses to gospel songs. The story examines four major eras of gospel music: 1755-1945, 1945-55, 1955-65, and 1965-95.