Reimagining Gospel

Abstract

After using Richard Smallwood’s “It’s Working (Romans 8:28)” to reconstruct the sound world of a single gospel performance, this introductory chapter defines the broader historical, theoretical, and music-analytic contexts of the book, taking up each of its principal foci—Richard Smallwood, the vamp, and the Gospel Imagination. The first section offers a critical biographical sketch that positions Richard Smallwood in the gospel tradition. The second section outlines the centrality of the gospel choir to this musical tradition, and the particular importance of the vamp to choral expressions of contemporary gospel. The third section defines the Gospel Imagination, showing how gospel’s central conviction—that sound affords intimacy with the divine—motivates the intensive grammar of gospel songs, sermons, and prayers.