**11. Conclusions**

The essential presence of music in African American religious services goes well beyond the desire for participation in joyous worship, as important as that may be. The intersection of the physical and spiritual worlds, facilitated by music, occurs almost exclusively in the context of music and, most clearly and generally, perhaps, in the chanted sermon In a tradition where the interaction of the Holy Spirit is expected, and where that interaction is facilitated by music, the constancy of a musical presence (as in the tonal consistency mentioned at the beginning of this article) mirrors, as it were, the breath of the Holy Spirit. Musical constancy calls forth and sustains the presence of the Holy Spirit. The musical and tonal system underpins the service, and allows for both spiritual insight (as explicated in the chanted sermon, in particular) and evocation of the divine.
