GRE Reading Comprehension
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Source: XDF
This is not to deny that the Black gospel music of the early twentieth century differed in important ways from the slave spirituals. Whereas spirituals were created and disseminated in folk fashion, gospel music was composed, published, copyrighted, and sold by professionals. Nevertheless, improvisation remained central to gospel music. One has only to listen to the recorded repertoire of gospel songs to realize that Black gospel singers rarely sang a song precisely the same way twice and never according to its exact musical notation. They performed what jazz musicians call "head arrangements" proceeding from their own feelings and from the way "the spirit" moved them at the time. This improvisatory element was reflected in the manner in which gospel music was published.
Question List: 1 2
Of the following sentences, which is most likely to have immediately preceded the passage?
- A Few composers of gospel music drew on traditions such as the spiritual in creating their songs.
- B Spirituals and Black gospel music were derived from the same musical tradition.
- C The creation and singing of spirituals, practiced by Black Americans before the Civil War, continued after the war.
- D Spirituals and gospel music can be clearly distinguished from one another.
- E Improvisation was one of the primary characteristics of the gospel music created by Black musicians.