Song Analysis: The Blessed Assurance Singers

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On Sunday, November 8, 2015, a gospel singing group called “Blessed Assurance Singers” came to my church, Liberty Baptist, in Kingston, Tennessee. The Blessed Assurance Singers has five members, and each one is a missionary. Two of the singers, Grace and Caroline Tom, are sisters who are missionaries from Papa New Guinea. Another singer, Roxanne Espinosa, along with guitarist and singer Kevin Santos and pianist Jejirah Ocampo (also called JJ), are from the Philippines. They have all been in the United States for the past few years and met in Ohio. Their motto is “different countries, same God.” It was fascinating to learn about their backgrounds and seeing and hearing them perform in my church was an incredible experience. I expected to enjoy …show more content…

It was called “I Have a Father Who Can”. Only three of the singers performed this song, and it was acapella. It began with Caroline Tom singing the first verse as a solo while Grace Tom and Kevin Santos sand “ah” in the background. At the end of the verse, the two used repetition by repeating Caroline. The chorus was sung by all three and it was fast. The change between slow and fast was a great effect. The second verse and chorus were sung the same way as the first. The chorus was repeated a third time, this time in a higher key. This song was my favorite because all these different effects made it very beautiful. The next song, “I Met the Master”, had similar effects. The pianist and guitarist joined once again. The second verse contained a solo with the remaining three singing “ooh” in the background, and there was also a key change in the last chorus of this song, much like the previous …show more content…

Every song had a major tonality, with occasional minor notes. The texture was monophonic for the most part, with the exception of the short increments of polyphony in the “I Call Him Lord” piece. One thing that stood out to me was the use of harmony. There was a four-part harmony consisting of a tenor lead, alto harmony, soprano lead, and soprano harmony. I especially loved hearing the alto harmony, since that is what I sing myself. The ones in the group from Papa New Guinea and the ones from the Philippines had different accents than each other, but when they all sang together, it blended perfectly. That is definitely not something I hear every day, and it was quite

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