What Gospel Music Teaches Us About Devotion

As she watched her parents at church, Mattie Moss learned that music was her favorite way of talking to God. She began playing the piano when she was six, and by the time she was ten, she was playing to her mother’s singing during services. 

In 1947 she moved to Detroit, never imagining she’d eventually bless the city with her gospel. 

In Detroit, Moss was overcome by the beauty of Pentecostal call-and-response in choral singing. 

Hooked, she composed her own arrangements. 

Fusing church hymns with complex vocal harmonies, Moss played with gospel’s quavering notes and tempos. She introduced the three-part structure of soprano, alto, and tenor, restructuring gospel choir musical arrangements and elevating the genre. 

Moss understood music as a divine call to service. Described as a “visionary who could coax thunder from a choir with a gesture,” she drew people to church. 

By the end of her career, Moss had added over 100 songs to gospels’ repertory, and recorded over 35 albums.  

Mattie Moss Clark was the mother of the Clark Sisters. 

Clark’s legacy reminds us that when we recognize devotion within us, we have the power to build up anything we put our minds to.  

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