Southern gospel

==Origins==
The date of southern gospel's establishment, as a distinct genre, is generally considered to be 1910. The year the first professional quartet was formed for the purpose of selling songbooks for the [[James David Vaughan|James D. Vaughan]] Music Publishing Company in [[Lawrenceburg, Tennessee]]. Nonetheless, the style of the music itself had existed for at least 35 years prior—although the traditional wisdom that southern gospel was "invented" in the 1870s by circuit preacher Everett Beverly is spurious.

The existence of the genre prior to 1910 is evident in the work of [[Charles Davis Tillman]] (1861–1943), who popularized "The Old Time Religion", wrote "Life's Railway to Heaven" and published 22 songbooks.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gmahalloffame.org/inductee_bio.cfm?ID=253|title=Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame site on Tillman|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080501114721/http://www.gmahalloffame.org/inductee_bio.cfm?ID=253|archive-date=May 1, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{New Georgia Encyclopedia|id=m-1885|name=Charles Davis Tillman|author=|date=|accessdate=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/t/i/tillman_cd.htm|title=Cyberhymnal on Tillman}}</ref> Some of the genre's roots can be found in the publishing work and "normal schools" or [[singing school]]s of [[Aldine Silliman Kieffer|Aldine S. Kieffer]] and [[Ephraim Ruebush]]. Southern gospel was promoted by traveling singing school teachers, quartets, and [[shape note]] music publishing companies such as the [[Anthony Johnson Showalter|A. J. Showalter]] Company (1879) and the [[Stamps-Baxter Music Company|Stamps-Baxter Music and Printing Company]].

Over time, southern gospel came to be an eclectic musical form with groups singing traditional hymns, ''a capella'' (jazz-style singing with no instruments) songs, country, bluegrass, spirituals, and "convention songs". Because it grew out of the musical traditions of white musicians from the American South, the name Southern gospel was used to differentiate it from the [[Black Gospel music|black gospel]] tradition.<ref name="isbn1-57003-598-9">{{cite book|last=Edgar|first=Walter B.|title=The South Carolina Encyclopedia |publisher=University of South Carolina Press|location=Columbia, S.C.|year=2006|page=385|isbn=1-57003-598-9}}</ref><ref name="isbn0-8078-5346-1">{{cite book|last=Goff|first=James R.|title=Close Harmony: A History of Southern Gospel|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|location=Chapel Hill|year=2002|isbn=0-8078-5346-1}}</ref>

Convention songs typically have contrasting homophonic and contrapuntal sections. In the homophonic sections, the four parts sing the same words and rhythms. In the contrapuntal sections, each group member has a unique lyric and rhythm. These songs are called "convention songs" because various conventions were organized across the United States for the purpose of getting together regularly and singing songs in this style. Convention songs were employed by training centers like the Stamps-Baxter School Of Music as a way to teach quartet members how to concentrate on singing their own part. Examples of convention songs include "Heavenly Parade", "I'm Living In Canaan Now", "[[Give the World a Smile]]", and "Heaven's Jubilee".