|
Feel the Spirit
African-American spirituals
comprise one of the world’s greatest and best loved bodies of music,
appealing to performers and audiences across all boundaries. In turn, they
have spawned jazz and the blues,
and have been
the inspiration
for many composers to arrange these traditional songs into glorious choral music
-
composers such as John Rutter and Moses Hogan
John Rutter
|
John Rutter was born in London in 1945 and studied music at Clare College,
Cambridge. His compositions include choral, orchestral, and instrumental
music, and he has co-edited various choral anthologies including four Carols
for Choirs volumes with Sir David Willcocks and the Oxford Choral Classics
series. From 1975-9 he was Director of Music at Clare College, and in 1981
formed his own choir, the Cambridge Singers as a professional chamber choir
primarily dedicated to recording.
He now divides
his time between composition and conducting, and has guest-conducted or
lectured at many concert halls, universities, churches, music festivals, and
conferences in Europe, Scandinavia, and North America. |
|
|
He is an
honorary Fellow of Westminster Choir College, Princeton, a Fellow of the
Guild of Church Musicians, and in 1996 was awarded a Lambeth Doctorate of
Music. In 2002, his setting of Psalm 150, commissioned for the Queen's
Golden Jubilee, was performed at the Service of Thanksgiving in St Paul's
Cathedral, London. He also composed the Anthem This is the day which the
Lord hath made for the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in
2011. He was awarded a CBE in the 2007 New Year’s Honours List, in
recognition of his outstanding services to music.
Feel the Spirit
is a setting of seven Negro spirituals:
Joshua fit the battle of
Jericho
Steal away
I got a robe
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Ev'ry time I feel the spirit
Deep river
When the saints go marching in |
Moses
Hogan
|
 |
Moses George Hogan (1957 New Orleans - 2003)
was an acclaimed African-American pianist, conductor and arranger of the
American spirituals. He was one of the most celebrated directors and masters
of spirituals who created dozens of original arrangements of classic
spirituals, and formed several choirs that performed them with new vitality.
He is recognised as a leading force in promoting and preserving the
African-American musical experience. Unfortunately, he died of a brain
tumour at the early age of 45. With over 70 published works, Hogan's
arrangements have become staples in the repertoires of high school, college,
church, community and professional choirs worldwide. |
|
For this concert, we will be
performing three of his arrangements:
Over in the Gloryland
Walk Together, Children
Didn't my Lord Deliver Daniel |
|
