ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the use of European-influenced hymns, hymn lining, Negro spirituals, camp meeting hymns, and the shout within black sacred music, specifically within the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) Church since its founding in 1816. It focuses on the political and social factors that influenced the retentions of both black folk music and a very different white written tradition. The Methodist Episcopal and Baptist churches were the two dominant white evangelical organizations during the Second Awakening revivals in the early part of the nineteenth century. While Baptist churches are certainly more prevalent in the South, it brings equal attention to the vital contributions of the AME Church's musical traditions to the black religious experience. In AME churches, musical instruments influence greatly the emotionalism in morning church services, especially the culminating act of spirit possession—the shout—which is no longer relegated to evening services. The black and white musical traditions of the AME Church are complex and often multilayered.
