The transculturalisation of African American gospel music : the context and culture of gospel traditions in Australian gospel music

This research focuses on the effects of the transculturalisation of African American gospel music into an Australian context and has been conducted through a series of performances highlighting elements of this style and my skills in solo piano performance and interpretation and the vocal and instrumental direction of the University of Tasmania Southern Gospel Choir. These performances are contextualized by the accompanying exegesis which examines the culture and context of the development of African American gospel music and develops a comprehensive taxonomy of musical expression and inflection for gospel music, supported by a nomenclature system and recorded examples of the defining vocal performance practices of the African American gospel tradition. These analytical tools are then applied to the comparative analysis of two iconic gospel songs as rendered in performances by two African American gospel choirs and the Southern Gospel Choir. This in-depth analysis underpins an examination of the contexts and culture of African American gospel music within Australia and specifically in a Tasmanian setting, and has informed the developments of my musical direction of the choir and as a solo performer within this style. The success of this direction has been reflected in a 2005 ARIA nomination for the Southern Gospel Choir recording, Great Day.