Music is a fundamental aspect of culture and similarities in music exist across societies and continents. This holds true even in drastically different cultures. This website explores two disparate musical cultures: 17th century Italian music and traditional African American Gospel music of the U.S.

A piece from each of these cultures will be looked at in detail. “La Primavera”, by Antonio Vivaldi, is a famous Italian Baroque piece and is representative of its era. “Go Tell it on the Mountain”, a traditional African American spiritual, also typifies its genre.

Despite originating from two distinctly different musical cultures, “La Primavera” and “Go Tell it on the Mountain” share musical elements of harmony and form.