Frederick A. Binkholder, Artistic Director


Rivers of Delight Program Notes

by Frederick Binkholder, Artistic Director

When I can no longer sing Sacred Harp, I hope to listen. When I can no longer hear, I want to see it. When I can no longer sing, hear, or see, please wheel me in and prop me up against some old singer so I can feel it. (Robert L. Vaughn, Texas)

In this Kindred Voices season, the Chorale is singing music from different parts of the world that wasn’t created originally for concert performance, but instead was sung by people with each other as part of their everyday lives. In December, we performed traditional songs from communities in other countries that celebrated finding joy in the darkness of winter. In this March concert, I looked for traditional choral music from America that ordinary 18th and 19th century Americans sang. I was drawn to two of the earliest types of traditional music in America – shape note and Shaker tunes.

What are the elements that attracted me to this music? First, for me, this music has a raw emotional power and immediacy. Compared to European choral music of this period, it perhaps feels quaint, rough, and unsophisticated. It doesn’t always follow the European music composition and voice leading rules we know. But in its place I hear the energy of people finding new ways of making music. Part of the energy comes from the texts that express the patriotic fervor and strong religious convictions of these early Americans. We don’t have to share their beliefs to feel the power these words had for the first people who sang them.

A second element that attracted me is the inspiration that later composers have found in shape note and Shaker traditional music, which confirms for me the power of this music. The most famous example, of course, is “Simple Gifts”, Aaron Copland’s setting of the Shaker tune in Appalachian Spring, and certainly one of the most iconic expressions of American music there is. I’m thrilled to include works by Alice Parker, Kevin Siegfried, Virgil Thompson, and Aaron Copland that demonstrate how this music has inspired them. We are particularly lucky to have a new piece by Kevin to premiere at these concerts, an example of how modern composers are continuing to write new works in the style of traditional music.

A third element that attracted me is that shape note music is a continuing living tradition in America that extends from before the Revolution to today. It is still being printed in the traditional notation, and is still being sung in the same traditional group singing style. I know this living tradition personally -- growing up in St. Louis, the hymns in the hymnal at my church were in shapes. My principal music mentor in college was an expert on this music and engaged his students with it. Peggy Rainwater remembers in her first job as a music teacher outside of Atlanta teaching kids who grew up with shape note singing as part of their religious practice. I am attracted by the connection this gives us with an American musical heritage that is as old as the country.

We open the concert with one of the most famous early tunes from the New England roots of shape note singing, “Chester” by William Billings, with the patriotic text he composed in sympathy with the Patriot cause. I’ve included a second version of “Chester” from a mid-19th century Southern tunebook in which a more religious text has replaced Billings’ original. The next four tunes all come from New England, where shape note singing was active until dying out in the early 19th century as it grew in popularity in the south and west.

The next section of the program includes four Shaker tunes. Shape note music and the Shaker movement are roughly parallel, rising from the mid-18th century through the mid-19th century followed by a slow decline, but unlike shape note music, the Shakers only existed in the northeastern United States. Both are religious music, although shape note music also was intended to increase musical literacy and serves for secular group sings. Shakers worshiped on their feet, dancing and moving, and their music conveys the simplicity at the heart of Shaker belief. I am thrilled to be performing these pieces by Kevin Siegfried, who is recognized as one of the leading arranger/interpreters of Shaker music writing today, in addition to his interest in other forms of music.

The final portion of the first half of the program is devoted to tunes from the southern United States that were published in the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. Many of these were published first in Southern Harmony, and later in The Sacred Harp, two famous tunebooks from this region.

The second half of the concert is devoted to modern arrangements of traditional music, paired with the shape note tunes that inspired them. Americans are often less aware of their own musical heritage than of European musical traditions. I hope these arrangements will help our audience appreciate the inherent interest and beauty in our traditional music if framed in a more recognizable way. The concert ends with the shape note melody “New Britain”, probably the most iconic of all traditional American songs under its more familiar name, “Amazing Grace”.

This concert presents unique challenges to a choir made up of classically oriented and classically trained singers who are more used to singing Mozart than Jezaniah Sumner (great name!). The music requires a convincing authentic sound. At the same time, trained singers are trained to sing artfully, with nuance, sensitivity and expression, and to create moving musical experiences, from this music as from any other. It’s not a matter of finding a compromise, but of doing both at the same time.