In a lecture that invoked the spirit of jazz singer Mahalia Jackson, ethnomusicologist Mellonee Burnim brought the colorful world of gospel music to a crowd of more than 50 people at Music Hall Thursday night.

Burnim, an associate professor of African-American studies at Indiana University, outlined the three primary characteristics of gospel performance: tone quality, delivery style and technique.

“The voice must transmit intensity and fullness, thereby compelling the audience to respond,” she said.

Burnim explained her definition of tone with a video clip of the pioneering Jackson, whose percussive voice and dynamic intensity gave hymns new meaning for African Americans of the 1930s.

The style of delivery, Burnim said, was especially important, because “a visual image is projected before any auditory contact is made.” She added that both physical and behavioral mannerisms were integral to the performance.

Burnim told a story of how Jackson was ridiculed at 17 years of age for clapping and dancing during worship services. In response, the young diva quoted the Bible, saying God wanted her to clap.

“Oh, I got a witness out there,” Burnim replied, when her tale was greeted by scattered cries of “Amen!” from the audience.

“You gotta live what you’re saying,” Burnim said to illustrate the significance of text, one of the three elements of technique.

She said another part of technique was the flexible use of time, because “it’s impossible to gauge how long the song or church service will last.”

The call-and-response style, which encourages this kind of improvisation, is a hallmark of African-American spirituals, Burnim said.

Bends, slides and passing tones are ways in which pitch, the third segment of technique, is manipulated for maximum effect, Burnim said.

She portrayed this with an audio clip of a gospel choir singing “Soon I Will Be Done.”

Burnim concluded her lecture by discussing the three cultures which have influenced gospel music.

The first, indigenous African, manifests itself in the call-and-response method prevalent in many African religious tunes.

Burnim said the Western European customs of chorales and monorhythmic passages and the African-American traditions of synchronized movement and clapping on beats two and four are the other major traditions in today’s gospel music.