Scotland Cathedral Hosts Unique Worship Service Featuring Gaelic Psalm Singing with African-American Gospel Music
"The theory is that emigrants from the Highlands and Islands took their psalm singing tradition with them when they crossed to the New World, where that tradition fused with the imported African musical traditions to produce a distinctive new hybrid." There is evidence that "ancient call-and-response services from the Scottish Highlands were still chanted by both congregations of the descendants of African slaves whose Scots owners had introduced them to the service, and white descendants of Scots settlers in the Kentucky hills."
(Inverness, Scotland)—Scotland's Inverness Cathedral is hosting a unique worship presentation this week, featuring the historic integration of Gaelic psalm singing with African-American Gospel music, performed by the Gaelic Psalm Singers of Lewis and the London Adventist Chorale. As reported in the Inverness Courier, the concert is dedicated to the premise that there is a solid historical and musical connection running between the two genres.
"The idea that we want to explore...is the musicological connection between the Gaelic psalm singing tradition and its subsequent development in the United States," said Alex Gordon, the Provost of Inverness Cathedral. "The tradition was obviously taken over with the Scottish immigrants, and we are interested in the way that music then influenced the development of the gospel tradition, particularly in black communities over there."
Gordon is quoted as saying the theory is that emigrants from the Highlands and Islands took their psalm singing tradition with them when they crossed to the New World, where that tradition fused with the imported African musical traditions to produce a distinctive new hybrid.
Prompted by jazz great Dizzy Gillespie's recollection of congregations in the deep south singing in Gaelic, Professor Willie Ruff—a jazz musician and Professor of Music at Yale University—uncovered evidence that ancient call-and-response services from the Scottish Highlands were still chanted by both congregations of the descendants of African slaves whose Scots owners had introduced them to the service, and white descendants of Scots settlers in the Kentucky hills.
According to the report, because many Scottish traders intermarried with native populations in America, Professor Ruff was also able to document a traditional Scottish service sung in the language of the Creek Indian tribe in Oklahoma.
