Meet Mark Wright
Welcome to a new series of articles about Christian and Gospel Bass.
Overview
This will not pretend to be the ultimate guide to this amazing genre of
music, but rather a starting place where one can get a glimpse into
part of its history, the players and music. Along the way I'll provide
interviews, resources, video examples and quotes. The next article will
feature an interview with the legendary Abraham Laboriel.
These articles will focus on 2 forms of Christian music, Contemporary
Urban Gospel (Black Gospel), a sub genre of Gospel and Contemporary
Christian Music. This is because that's where the great bass players,
incredible grooves and wonderful music reside. How to begin? There are
so many preconceived notions of what these genres are that it makes
sense to start with a brief definition and peak at its history. After
all, the face of Christian music has spent the last 30+ years evolving
and growing. Pipe organs have been set aside for electric guitars, bass
and drums.
Although I don't want to offend anyone, the truth be told you cannot
take the Gospel out of Gospel music or Christ out of Christian music
anymore than you can take wetness out of water. In its simplest terms
it is music and lyrics that express a heart of praise, worship and
thanks to God in Jesus Christ. This is not a new phenomenon since you
see it demonstrated over three thousand years ago by King David in the
book of Psalms. And I'm not just talking about the words, the bass's
distant cousins of stringed instruments were a major part of worship as
well.
Beginnings
King David excelled at playing the lyre; whose Hebrew name is Kinnor
(????) and is first mentioned in the Bible in Gen. 4:21, where it is
commonly translated harp. The lyre was the chief instrument of the
orchestra of the Second Temple and was therefore held in particular
honor by the Levites. According to Josephus, the first-century CE
Jewish historian, it had ten strings sounded with a plectrum (used like
a pick & looks like a spoon). It was box-shaped at the bottom, with
two arms and a yoke, and of an approximate average height of 19 to 24
inches.
How serious were they about worship and musical instruments? In 1
Chronicles 23:5 King David commissioned a group of Levite musicians
that "four thousand are to praise the Lord with the musical instruments
I have provided for that purpose." Now that's some serious stuff!
1500's – 1700's
The Protestant Reformation yanked musical worship away from the
professionals and put it back in the pews. Martin Luther in the 1500's
composed hymns based on popular melodies, including drinking songs.
It's a common part of church history to bring contemporary style into
worship music. Hymnist Charles Wesley, one the founders of the
Methodist movement, took drinking songs of the era in the 1700's and
gave sanctified lyrics to them.
In the 1600's and 1700's, some of the world's greatest composers were
influencing kings, culture and history with their worship music. Bach
composed a Mass in all twenty-four keys! His most famous was the
"B-minor Mass." Monteverdi used dissonance while A. Scarlatti
introduced the cantata (a religious musical with five to eight
movements, soloists, ensembles, and choruses). Handel created the
oratorio (a sacred opera with a narrator). Everyone's familiar with
Handel's most famous religious work "The Messiah." Mozart wrote
eighteen masses. Mozart's masses were so lengthy, however, that only
portions of them can be used within the time constraints of a church
service. Haydn himself penned fourteen Masses.
