Classes

Students in the classroom

The Musicality of Black Preaching

This semester’s course offering is entitled “The Musicality of Black Preaching.” The course is listed in both the Divinity School and ISM and has attracted graduate students from these divisions as well as the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS). In the course, students are working to develop a vocabulary for describing the form and function of this genre of religious speech. Among other highlights, students will engage the manuscript of Professor Shelley’s recently completed book on the musical afterlife of Bishop G. E. Patterson. The class will also feature several prominent guests, including Professor Maurice Wallace of Rutgers University, whose new book King’s Vibrato attends to the sonic life and afterlife of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and renowned gospel artist Richard Smallwood. Smallwood, who will be on campus in November for a series of events culminating in a concert, will help the students to think about the relationships between characteristically musical forms of Black preaching and his own compositions, many of which will be featured during the concert. 

An evening with the clark sisters

Women of the Gospel: Jackson, Clark, Franklin

The spring 2023  semester’s iteration of Professor Shelley’s gospel class is entitled, “Women of the Gospel: Jackson, Clark, Franklin.” The course builds on the lives and music of Mahalia Jackson, Mattie Moss Clark, and Aretha Franklin to gain a deeper appreciation of the transformation of Black sacred music throughout the twentieth century. As music ministers, institution builders, and world-famous artists both within the Church and beyond it, these voices and their songs were the grounds of innovation, influencing music-making in a host of other traditions.

The class will culminate in a spring residency by the Clark Sisters, which will coincide with a mini conference on April 13 entitled, “Eternal Gain: A Symposium with Dr. Mattie Moss Clark and the Clark Sisters.” The conference will feature presentations by Drs. Guthrie Ramsey, Henry Washington, Marla Frederick, Ashon Crawley, Deborah Smith Pollard, Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, Cory Hunter, Todne Thomas, and Almeda Wright, as well as by Ambre Dromgoole. A masterclass with the Clark Sisters will be offered on the same day. Read more here.

The Clark Sisters concert took place at 7:30 pm on Friday, April 14, at the College Street Music Hall in New Haven.