Happy 4th of July! We're celebrating the American Spirit through music! Here are a few great recordings for your celebrations!
American Masterpieces
Seattle Pro Musica
Karen P. Thomas, conductor
Beloved American choral music from Seattle Pro Musica s American Masterpieces Choral Festival at Benaroya Hall, and other 2006-2007 American Masterpieces Season concerts. Enjoy the best of American choral music on this new CD, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts as part of American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius. Includes works by Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, Moses Hogan, and Morten Lauridsen.
Illustrates the vitality and excellence of the best contemporary North American vocal ensembles. --Jean-Marie Marchal, International Choral Bulletin, 4th Quarter, 2008
1. Spring Song
2. Sa Nuit D'Ete
3. To Mistress Margaret Hussey
4. The Battle of Jericho
5. Io Piango
6. Amor, Io senta L'alma
7. Se per havervi, oime
8. Io Son la Primavera
9. Mary Hynes
10. Anthony O Daly
11. The Coolin
12. Da Pacem
13. Winter
14. Lux Aurumque
15. How Can I Keep from Singing
16. McKay
17. Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal
18. Chichester Psalms, Movement
The American Spirit
St. Martin's Chamber Choir
Timothy Krueger, director
The American Spirit is St. Martin's Chamber Choir's celebration of American composers, and includes Cecil Effinger's "Four Pastorales" with oboe, Terry Schlenker's Kyrie, Randall Thompson's "Alleluia", a new setting of "The Lamentations of Jeremiah" by Timothy Krueger, Jean Berger's "Skelton Poems" with piano and Tim Sarsany's Salve Mater misericordiæ.
"A gratifyingly wide range of both subject matter and style . . . warmly recommended." --Fanfare Magazine
Four Pastorales - Cecil Effinger (1914-1990)
Texts by Thomas Hornsby Ferril
1. No Mark
2. Noon
3. Basket
4. Wood
To a Wild Rose - Edward MacDowell (1869-1908)
Kyrie - arr. Arthur Somervell
Salve Mater misericordiæ - Terry Schlenker (b. 1957)
The Lamentations of Jeremiah - Tim Sarsany (b. 1966)
The Lessons for Tenebrae in Holy Week - Timothy J. Krueger (b. 1964)
Alleluia - Randall Thompson (1899-1984)
The Eyes of All - Jean Berger (1909-2002)
Skelton Poems - Jean Berger
Texts by John Skelton (1460-1529)
All noblemen of this take heed
The Manner of the World Nowadays
Falconer, thou art to blame
Justice et mort
Upon a dead man's head
Shenandoah: Songs of the American Spirit
Mindy Ball, harp
David Clemensen and Lisa Sylvester, piano
Tim Emmons and James Garafalo, bass
David Montoya, harmonica
Robert Slack, drums and percussion
Pacific Chorale's John Alexander Singers
John Alexander, conductor
Conductor John Alexander takes the listener on a musical tour of American historical touchstones, celebrating the diverse folk culture of the United States, as well as the emotions and experiences of pioneer life.
The John Alexander Singers, one of America's rising professional choirs, captures the essence of the American Spirit in this inspirational recording.
The history of our country is written in our song, and what a variety of song it is! Our ancestors brought with them from abroad the music of their homelands, and over time many of these songs were set to English texts and found their way into our national repertoire.
Then there is the cornucopia of songs that sprang from the American experience itself, but for which no composer or librettist is known, music often called “folk” or “traditional.” The wars we have fought, the slave experience, the conquering of the West, our loves, and our tragedies are all recorded here.
And few other countries can match the diversity of native songs written by identified composers of every ethnicity and national origin. The period from 1850 to 1940 saw an explosion of popular song, starting notably with the music of Stephen Foster, and culminating with the prolific songsmiths of Tin Pan Alley in New York.
The music on this recording is chosen from this great body of music and takes us on a tour of American historical touchstones as well as the emotions and experiences of everyday people.
—Dr. Gordon Paine
1. Shenandoah
The end of the Civil War marked the beginning of the great westward migration: millions of pioneers in search of riches or simply a new life set out in endless wagon trains, pushing the frontier ever closer to the Pacific. With them they took precious few belongings, but many memories of the land they loved and left behind. “Shenandoah,” the words of a wistful Virginia settler transplanted west of the Missouri river, is an expression of his homesickness. Not only is “Shenandoah” one of the greatest American songs; James Erb’s arrangement stands as one of the most unforgettable folksong arrangements in the repertoire.
arr. James Erb
2. Sourwood Mountain
Aaron Mosley, tenor
Carver Cossey, bass
The words to “Sourwood Mountain,” an Appalachian folksong, exist in a great variety of versions, owing to its popularity and wide dispersal over time. The nonsense syllables of the refrain, “hi-ho, hi-ho diddle-um a-day,” may well be an imitation of the banjo, the characteristic instrument of the Appalachians.
arr. John Rutter
3. She’ll Be Comin’ ‘Round the Mountain
“She’ll Be Comin’ ‘Round the Mountain” serves as a wonderful example of how “traditional” music can morph into different genres. It appears to have been adapted after the Civil War from a Negro spiritual entitled “When the Chariot Comes,” then converted by Appalachian whites into a folksong, and finally transformed into a railroad work-gang song. American composer Emma Lou Diemer takes the evolution a step further in her light, jazz-influenced, art-music arrangement.
arr. Emma Lou Diemer
4. Down to the River to Pray
Aaron Mosley, tenor
Thomas Ringland, bass
Kellee King, soprano
“Down to the River to Pray,” an African-American spiritual, has been around for perhaps two centuries. In songs like “Shenandoah,” rivers were important geographic and spiritual landmarks to white pioneers, and to slaves they were metaphoric borders between freedom and slavery, heaven and earth. Here the poet calls on all mankind — sisters, brothers, fathers, mothers, and sinners — to “come down to the river to pray,” and on the way to contemplate who is to be saved.
arr. Philip Lawson
5. Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
Zanaida Robles, soprano
The plaintive words of the African-American spiritual “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” can be interpreted literally as the lament of a young slave sold away from his parents, but they were likely metaphoric. The “motherless child” could be a slave separated from and yearning for his African homeland, a slave suffering “a long way from home” — home being heaven — or most likely both. “Sometimes I Feel” was a repertoire piece for the Fisk Jubilee Singers, the first post-Civil-War choir of African-Americans to sing the music of their people in public concerts.
arr. Robert Fountain
6. Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier
Kellee King, soprano
Laura Harrison, alto
American conductor and arranger Robert De Cormier introduces his interpretation of “Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier,” a song of the American Revolution, by writing, “The heartbreak and tears that accompany every war when a young soldier leaves his home is the eternal theme expressed in this gentle, haunting song. Probably the most beautiful song sung by Washington’s men is an American version of an Irish ballad, ‘Shule Aroon,’ which goes back to 1700, when Irishmen were leaving home to fight in the armies of France.” In another fascinating example of musical cross-pollination, “Shule Aroon” found its way in adapted fashion into the nineteenth-century African-American folksong repertoire.
arr. Robert De Cormier
7. Aura Lee
Daniel Babcock, tenor
The cultured poetry of “Aura Lee” betrays the fact that the song is composed rather than of folk origin. Written by W.W. Fosdick and George R. Poulton around the start of the Civil War, “Aura Lee” expresses the yearning of a young soldier for his “maid of golden hair.”
George R. Poulton, arr. Ralph Hunter, Alice Parker and Robert Shaw
8. Goober Peas
Aram Barsamian, baritone
David Clemensen, piano
Mark Hayes describes “Goober Peas” as “a Civil War song” and “a favorite of Confederate soldiers.” “With food in short supply, the soldiers joked that they had to survive on peanuts (goober peas), which grew easily in the South.” The song was first published in 1866, immediately after the Civil War.
arr. Mark Hayes
9. He’s Gone Away
Like “Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier,” the tender North Carolina ballad “He’s Gone Away” presents the lament of a girl for her soldier gone to war. Neither the specifics of its origins nor its age are known. But unlike “Johnny,” “He’s Gone Away” is filled with hope for the young man’s return as the lass who sings it continually looks for a familiar silhouette on the horizon, “over yondro” (yonder).
arr. Ron Nelson
10. Cindy
Daniel Babcock, tenor
Aram Barsamian, baritone
Aaron Mosley, tenor
Dennis Houser, bass
Folksongs typically consist of just a melody, and for choral performance, composers have to “arrange” them, adding harmony, additional parts for the choral voices, changes of texture, and so on. Whereas most folksong arrangements are rather simple in keeping with the original material, Mack Wilberg’s “Cindy” is truly “symphonic.” The text comes in endless variations, from innocent to downright raunchy, and the twelve verses Wilberg chose are among the more polite.
arr. Mack Wilberg
11. Billy Boy
Katharin Rundus, soprano
Daniel Cardwell, tenor
David Clemensen, piano
Of his version of “Billy Boy,” a sweet song in which a boy chats with his mother about his maternally dominated girlfriend, arranger Mark Hayes writes, “Dating to at least the early nineteenth century in the United States, ‘Billy Boy’ is one of the more popular ‘courting songs.’ Its lively comic banter inspired numerous improvisations over the years, including ‘She can make a loaf of bread with her nightcap on her head,’ and the ever popular ‘Yes, she took my hat and she threw it at the cat!’”
arr. Mark Hayes
12. Buffalo Gals
Nicholas Preston, tenor
“Buffalo Gals” is a rollicking piece that celebrates the joy of dancing under the night sky. Its roots are in the years before the Civil War, but the composer is unknown. John Hodges, a minstrel who performed in blackface under the stage name “Cool White,” published the first printed version in 1844. The words could change according to where it was sung, and so it might be known in Buffalo as “Buffalo Gals” but in California as “California Gals.”
arr. John Alexander and Ryan McSweeney
13. The Erie Canal
James Martin Schaefer, baritone
David Clemensen, piano
It is hard for us today to think of western New York as “the frontier,” but it was just that at the turn of the nineteenth century. To reach the Great Lakes with goods from the East required painfully slow oxcarts and vast amounts of time. That changed in 1825 when “The Erie Canal” opened, permitting barges of up to seventy-five tons to make the trip via water. Late in the nineteenth century, the mules that had pulled the loads fifteen miles a day were replaced by steam engines, and with their demise, an era came to an end. In 1906 Tin Pan Alley composer Thomas S. Allen mourned that lost age in this wistful song.
Thomas S. Allen, arr. Mark Hayes
14. Home on the Range
Familiar to every Boy Scout, Girl Scout, and most other Americans, “Home on the Range” is one of those tunes that sounds like a folksong but was actually written by an identified composer. It appeared in print in 1873 with words by Kansas doctor Brewster M. Higley and music by Daniel Kelly. Its popularity spread far and wide, and it became the state song of Kansas in 1947.
Daniel Kelly, arr. Mark Hayes
15. Colorado Trail
Colorado was a critical juncture for American pioneers: either they would stay on the eastern plains to farm or ranch, or they would journey across the Rockies, where many would die of cold or exhaustion. At first only hearty miners and cowboys lived in the mountains, where the latter drove cattle to market. “Colorado Trail” is a cowboy love song of unknown origin, but one writer reports that it was likely the work of “a cowboy from Duluth, Minnesota, whose name is unknown. He was brought to the hospital after being thrown and trampled by what he called ‘a terribly bad hoss. . . .’ As the unknown cowboy convalesced and his strength returned, he sang across the hospital ward in a mellowed tenor voice, and the other patients always called for more. One of the songs he sang was ‘Colorado Trail.’”
arr. Norman Luboff
16. Sacramento ~Sis Joe
Composer Jackson Berkey writes that his “Sacramento ~ Sis Joe” “is a joyous, eclectic mix of Americana at its best! It is a combination of [Stephen Foster’s 1850 song] ‘Camptown Races’ (with text about the Sacramento Gold rush) and ‘Sis Joe,’ a railroad work song used by Aaron Copland in his famous ‘Rodeo!’”
Jackson Berkey
17. How Can I Keep From Singing?
Lorraine Joy Welling, soprano
I-Chin Feinblatt, alto
“How Can I Keep from Singing?” That is the question Baptist minister Robert Wadsworth Lowry (1826–1899) poses as a refrain in his hymn of the same title. It appeared and still is found in many hymnals with his lyrics, which folk singer Pete Seeger rewrote to soften their Christian focus and widen the song’s audience. It is in this form that most people know the piece and it is Seeger’s text that Ron Staheli used in this gentle, radiant arrangement.
arr. Ronald Staheli
