Let My People Go!

The Michael O’Neal Singers, along with the Tri-Cities High School Chorale, the Georgia Spiritual Ensemble, and professsional narrators and instrumentalists, will soon be presenting a profoundly moving tribute honoring the participants of the Underground Railroad.  The two performances will take place at 3 PM, May 6, at Roswell UMC in Roswell and 7 PM, May 7, at Tri-Cities High School in East Point.  Written by Donald McCullough (Music) and Denny Clark (Script), sprituals and spoken word are woven together in such a powerful way that the amazing story of a proud and determined people takes on new life and relevance.

The notes we will include in our printed program, written by Zach Patton, are so helpful in achieving a more complete understanding of the work and how it came about that I decided to include them in my blog.  Read below and learn more about this remarkable journey.

“Come on across and walk with me to a land where we are free!”

For slaves in 19th century America, those words held the sweet essence of life’s ultimate promise: freedom. The idea of crossing over into free territory meant nothing short of Heaven on Earth. And many slaves, of course, risked everything trying to get there. It was a journey burdened by fear and sadness and fraught with peril, but charged with hope and the faith that freedom, finally, would be delivered. For African-American slaves, spiritual songs not only became the embodiment of that journey, they evolved as a clandestine way to pass coded messages about the Underground Railroad.

Let My People Go! A Spiritual Journey Along the Underground Railroad is the creation of Composer/Conductor Donald McCullough and Scriptwriter Denny Clark. Written as a dramatic choral work, it weaves together spirituals, code songs and first and third-person texts to create a rich tapestry depicting the experience of the slaves’ quest for freedom. It’s a grand work, but also an intimate one, inspired by a small, red-brick vault inconspicuously situated in a little-known cemetery set aside for the burial of Blacks from the middle of the 19th century to the 1950’s. Known as the Old Methodist Burying Ground, the cemetery is located in Washington, DC’s prestigious Georgetown neighborhood. McCullough and Clark learned of the existence of the burial vault upon reading a 1998 Washington Post article which revealed that it had served as an important station along the Underground Railroad.

Speaking about their first visit to the cemetery, McCullough said, “As we stood before that unassuming, little brick building, we could picture slaves huddling inside, their minds running wild with both fear and excitement. And with Rock Creek just a stone’s throw below the vault, it was easy to imagine them sneaking down the hill in the dark of night to board a barge for the next leg of their journey.”  It was this first visit to the burial vault that inspired the idea for a choral work on the subject of the Underground Railroad that would feature slave spirituals. “Hearing spirituals in the usual concert setting is a nice experience, but that kind of setting does not provide the kind of context needed to fully experience their full depth and beauty,” says McCullough. “When you add a script to the mix, you create a way for the audience to glimpse the harrowing life of the slave, allowing the slave spiritual to take on a whole new meaning.”

The spirituals in Let My People Go! do, indeed, take on new meaning as Clark’s script weaves stories together that gently steer the audience as they make their own personal spiritual journey along the Underground Railroad. In describing some of the roles that his script takes on, Clark explained, “Throughout the course of the work, the audience gets a more personal, up-close look at the history of slavery in the United States and is introduced to a world full of secrets, signals, and symbols, including the hidden meanings buried within many of the spirituals’ texts – words that not only inspired slaves to run but also aided them in their escape to freedom.”  The musical journey of Let My People Go! is imbued with a richly expressive landscape of shape and color, moving from the plaintive, doleful spiritual “Soon-a Will Be Done” to the fear of the auction block, the dangers of the journey north, and, finally, the triumphant song of deliverance – “Go Down Moses.”  With a chorus of enthusiastic singers, four soloists, and two actors, all accompanied by piano, acoustic bass, and percussion, Let My People Go! triumphs both musically and textually in celebrating two of America’s most venerable cultural treasures — the African-American spiritual and the Underground Railroad — making it a must-experience journey that everyone should take.

The Joy of One on a Part

Chamber music is to many listeners an acquired taste, and it certainly demands from the audience member a proactive listening involvement. Not everyone is willing to “invest” that much effort into a concert, but the rewards can be tremendous. The most common defintion of chamber music is “instrumental ensemble music performed by one player for each part, as opposed to orchestral music in which there may be several players for each part,” (from the Harvard Dictionary of Music). Obviously, vocal chamber music can be defined the same way, although in most cases small vocal ensembles will still have at least three or four voices on a part. Chamber music (whether instrumental or vocal) is often enormously satisfying for the performer, because it allows an opportunity for complexity, virtuosity, collaboration and self-expression not always so common in music designed for orchestras and choruses.

I experienced a tremendously satisfying and rewarding chamber music concert at my church yesterday. The Sounds of the Spirit Concert Series of Roswell United Methodist Church presented the Atlanta Chamber Players in a program featuring the Beethoven Quintet in E flat Major for Piano & Winds, Opus 16 and Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in C Minor, Opus 66. The Atlanta Chamber Players features some of Atlanta’s finest instrumentalists, many of whom are principals with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. All the players were in top form yesterday as they made the music “live” in a way that no recording could surpass, no matter how fine it might be. This is because the audience members were privy to musicians performing at the top of their form with skill, finesse, and enthusiasm. Being in the room and witnessing the “transformation” of the players as each “became” the music he or she played was a special experience. As someone who is usually involved in the music making, it was wonderful to sit back and be transported by the inspiration of others.

OK Maestro, just what is it you’re doing?

I recently had two experiences which reminded me that conducting musical ensembles is a rather unique way to earn a living.  The first occasion was when a member of my congregation approached me after our Easter service and said he had been watching my conducting for several weeks.  He mentioned that he had become interested in the different types of information I seemed to be imparting to my choir through my hand motions, e.g., entrances, tempo. dynamics, phrasing, articulation, and so on (he didn’t actually use all those terms, but still described rather clearly my actions).  He suggested that until recently it had not even crossed his mind what a conductor was actually doing in front of an ensemble, but had seen a concert on TV (my guess is that it must have been on PBS) and had wanted to learn more about these odd motions used by conductors!  First of all, I was impressed that he observed all these things I was trying to impart in my conducting gestures (I wonder if my singers would identify as many!), and it also reminded me what an odd thing it is we conductors do.  We are in charge of producing a beautiful musical sound from a group of individuals, yet we are the only one not making any sound at all!

The other occasion which led me to consider the role of the conductor was an interesting article I saw in the New York Times entitled “The Maestro’s Mojo.”  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/arts/music/breaking-conductors-down-by-gesture-and-body-part.html?_r=1&sudsredirect=true  The author of the article, Daniel J. Wakin, interviewed seven conductors who passed through New York in recent seasons and asked them to describe what it is they try to convey in their conducting.  A number of fascinating comments were made by the conductors.  One of my favorites, offered by James Conlon of the Los Angeles Opera was “You can do everything right and be of no interest at all, and you can be baffling and effective.”  I won’t give anything else away about what is said in the article.  It’s a fascinating article and I encourage you to click on the link above and read it for youself.

In the meantime, how about using this blog to suggest what it is you want to see from a conductor, and also what you don’t want to see?  I’m all ears, especially since I’m not allowed to make any sound!

Joy in the Congo = Kimbanguist Symphony Orchestra

I just viewed a very inspiring segment about an amateur orchestra and chorus from the Congo – the Kimbanguist Symphony Orchestra.  It is the only orchestra in Central Africa, and the only all-black one in the world.  First broadcast on Easter Sunday on the CBS News show 60 Minutes, the story is one that shares in a most remarkable way the joy that come from making music together.  I couldn’t even begin to do justice to the tale of the amazing conductor and 200 instrumentalists and singers who rehearse six days a week for the love of music.  Many of the participants tell how the experience of playing or singing together transports them to another place – a place of joy.

Here is a link that should take you to the 60 Minutes website – http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57410920/joy-in-the-congo-a-musical-miracle/  I don’t know how long the story will be on 60 Minutes site, so I urge you to visit it soon.  I think your heart will be touched, as was mine.

Glorious, Everlasting (for over 60 years)

M. Thomas Cousins (1914-1972), was an excellent band and choral composer who wrote a number of fine pieces during the mid-20th century.  One of his finest, and most long-lasting pieces is “Glorious, Everlasting,” published in 1950.  My fine church choir from Roswell UMC will be performing it on Easter Sunday, along with “Glory” by N. Rimsky-Korsakov and “Hallelujah” by G.F. Handel.  ”Glorious, Everlasting” has long been one of my favorite “big” church anthems and I’m looking forward to opening the Service with it this Easter.

One of my choir members just sent me an e-mail she received from her sister, sharing a lovely personal reflection about M. Thomas Cousins. Here is what her sister said:

“…..One of the highlights of the weekend was our visit Thursday afternoon with Brent Cousins, son of Thomas Cousins, who wrote –among many other things — “Glorious Everlasting”.  We had a wonderful, intimate visit with Brent during which he brought out many newspaper clippings, concert programs, etc. that his mother had saved.  But I was overwhelmed with emotion when I picked up the original penciled manuscript of “Glorious Everlasting” complete with his erasures to make changes.  Brent said he watched his father sit at the piano that he, Brent, has inherited, and watched him create music.  After his father put to paper — with pencil — his composition and perfected it, he would make the final copy in ink.  Of course, this was before the computer age when music is now entered into the computer and edited with ease.  I feel honored to have had this intimate association with Thomas Cousins through his son.”

 

I hope Brent Cousins is pleased to know his Dad’s music is still being performed today.