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Black Church Resources

This guide provides resources to support the Black Church Studies program at the Duke Divinity School. Guide created by Karen Jean Hunt.

Recordings

Music Online: American Music
Search for and listen to streaming music providing coverage of American music, including recordings of African American music, gospel, and spirituals.
Music Online: Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries
Find and listen to streaming folk and related music, including gospel music under "Genres."

Introductions & overviews

Music Online: The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music

Search for encyclopedic entries on topics related to world music
Oxford Music Online

Search encyclopedia entries on all aspects of music, including composers, performers, terminology, musical genres and forms, orchestras, and institutions

Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music by W. K. McNeil (Editor)
Publication Date: 2010
African American Good News (Gospel) Music by Sherry S. DuPree; Herbert C. DuPree
Publication Date: 1993
Gospel Music Encyclopedia by Gail North; Bob Anderson; Don Butler (Introduction by)
Publication Date: 1979
Encyclopedia of African American Music by Emmett G. Price (Editor); Tammy Kernodle (Editor); Horace Maxille (Editor)
Publication Date: 2010

Music traditions

Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919 by Tim Brooks; Richard K. Spottswood
Publication Date: 2004

Sound recording available on CD in the Music Library, call number CD 12627

Related Subject Searches in the Library Catalog

African Americans -- Music
Gospel music
Hymns, English
Spirituals (Songs)
Vocal quartets, Unaccompanied

Gospel music

Blues and Gospel Records, 1890-1943 by Robert M. Dixon (Compiled by, Editor); John Godrich (Compiled by, Editor); Howard W. Rye (Compiled by, Editor)
Publication Date: 1997
Ev'ry Time I Feel the Spirit: 101 Best-Loved Psalms, Gospel Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the African-American Church by Gwendolin S. Warren; Gwendolyn Sims Warren
Publication Date: 1998
To Do This, You Must Know How: Music Pedagogy in the Black Gospel Quartet Tradition by Lynn Abbot; Doug Seroff
Publication Date: 2013
The Spirituals and the Blues: An Interpretation by James H. Cone
Publication Date: 1992

Related Subject Searches in the Library Catalog

African Americans -- Music
Gospel music
Spirituals (Songs)
Hymns, English
African Americans -- Music -- History and criticism

Worship

African American Heritage Hymnal by Delores Carpenter (Editor); Nolan E. Williams (Editor)
Publication Date: 2001
Readings in African American Church Music and Worship Volume 2 by James Abbington; John D. Witvliet (Foreword by)
Publication Date: 2014
Soul Pearls: Worship Resources for the Black Church by Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan
Publication Date: 2003
Soul Sanctuary: Images of the African American Worship Experience by Jason Johnson; Gordon Parks (Contribution by); Barbranda Lumpkins Walls (Contribution by); Cain Hope Felder (Contribution by); H. Beecher Hicks (Contribution by)
Publication Date: 2006
Trumpet in Zion: Black Church Worship Resources by Linda H. Hollies
Publication Date: 2001

Last Updated: Jul 11, 2025 11:38 AM
URL: https://guides.library.duke.edu/blackchurchresources
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