Saturday, May 17th
8:00 PM
Civic Center Music Hall

Program:

Special Guests:

Edmond North High School Choir, Ralph Duncan, conductor

PROGRAM NOTES

I.  Canterbury’s Final Concert of the Season opens with arrangements of familiar hymn tunes by composer Alice Parker.  Folk music of any kind is passed on from generation to generation orally as opposed to being written down.  Generally, the origins of folk music are unknown except as it is associated with a particular cultural group such as Appalachian folk music, Irish folk music, etc.  The Appalachian region of the Eastern United states was settled by European immigrants as early as 1720. In several large waves from about 1776 to as late as 1920, various ethnic groups settled the most remote areas of the region.  Each group brought their culture and music with them.

Singing schools became popular throughout the United States from their inception in the 1700's through the 19th century. Itinerant singing school "masters" would travel from community to community organizing classes which would last from several weeks to a month. Many of the singing school masters compiled their own collections of music which they would pack with them and then sell to the attendees. Often the tunebook compilers would notate popular folk tunes of the day and then combine them with various texts by hymn writers such as Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, etc. Consequently, these singing school tunebooks have become an invaluable source for Early American folk music and the tunes and texts collectively have become known as "folk hymns."

People who sing hymns are literally lifted out of themselves in the act of singing. It is a clear demonstration of the true value of choral song: it may lead to transcendence for all of us. We lose for the moment the constraints that our existence places around us, and merge our voices and minds in the sound coming from our throats.  These singers possibly never sing with a perfectly focused tone, pure intonation or a balanced texture.  But it in the act of singing together, we become community!

II.  The Testament of Freedom is a four-movement work for chorus and piano composed in 1943 by Randall Thompson. It was premiered on April 13, 1943 to celebrate the bicentennial of the birth of Thomas Jefferson; consequently, the text for the work was taken from Jefferson's writings. The piece was soon seen as an opportunity to project an uplifting message about the United States in wartime; its premiere was recorded by CBS and quickly broadcast nationwide. It was also transmitted by shortwave radio to Allied servicemen stationed in Europe.  On April 14, 1945, it was performed at Carnegie Hall as part of a concert in memory of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had died two days earlier.

III.  Pulitzer Prize winner Howard Hanson was a major American composer and educator, founded the annual Festival of American Music and directed the Eastman School of Music for 40 years.  His Song of Democracy, on a Walt Whitman text, was performed at the inaugural concert for incoming U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1969, an event Hanson proudly described as the first inaugural concert featuring only American music.

IV.  Aaron Copland was an American composer of concert and film music, as well as an accomplished pianist. He set out to compose music that would be “uniquely American in character” and achieved a difficult balance between modern music and American folk styles.  His works are said to evoke the vast American landscape. He incorporated percussive orchestration as well as multiple and changing rhythms.  His Old American Songs are old favorites newly arranged in his characteristic Americana style.

V.  The Battle Hymn of the Republic was born dur­ing the Amer­i­can Ci­vil War, when Julia Ward Howe vis­it­ed a Un­ion Ar­my camp on the Po­to­mac Riv­er near Wash­ing­ton, D. C. There she saw the commotion of war, the bodies shattered, the lives sacrificed, and the stress and agony of the government in its mortal grapple with rebellion. These things lay heavy on her heart which throbbed in unison with the great heart of the nation.  She heard the sol­diers sing­ing the song “John Brown’s Body,” and was tak­en with the strong march­ing beat.  One night in December, in 1861, she sprang from her bed and wrote the expression of her soul in these words of dignity and power.

I awoke in the grey of the morn­ing, and as I lay wait­ing for dawn, the long lines of the de­sired po­em be­gan to en­twine them­selves in my mind, and I said to my­self, “I must get up and write these vers­es, lest I fall asleep and for­get them!” So I sprang out of bed and in the dim­ness found an old stump of a pen, which I re­mem­bered us­ing the day be­fore. I scrawled the vers­es al­most with­out look­ing at the p­aper.

The hymn ap­peared in the At­lant­ic Month­ly in 1862. It was sung at the fun­er­als of Brit­ish states­man Win­ston Church­ill, Amer­i­can sen­at­or Ro­bert Ken­ne­dy, and Am­er­i­can pre­si­dents Ron­ald Rea­gan and Ri­chard Nix­on.

The tune of “John Brown’s Bo­dy” was about John Brown, who was an Amer­i­can abo­li­tion­ist who led a short lived in­­sur­­rect­­ion to free the slaves.