Choral Treasures – November 2020
Enjoy previous versions!
Choral Treasures – October 2020
Choral Treasures – September 2020
Choral Treasures – August 2020
HELLO OCC FANS!
We hope you will treat yourself to this Thanksgiving mini-choral-concert! Sit back and relax and enjoy the performance links below – simply click on the photos!
We also hope you will enjoy meeting some of our amazing OCC folks as well as our beloved sponsors who, with you and your contributions, make the Outer Cape Chorale possible!
Thanks in advance for joining us! We are thankful for you! (Join our mailing list here.)
Enjoy these Choral Treasures of Gratitude for this month of Thanksgiving!
McKay (one hymn of three from An American Thanksgiving – take note of the middle section and its energy!)
O the transporting, rapturous scene
That rises to my sight!
Sweet fields arrayed in living green,
And rivers of delight.
There gen’rous fruits that never fail
On trees immortal grow,
There rocks and hills and brooks and vales
With milk and honey flow.
by Samuel Stennett, 1787
“An American Thanksgiving was commissioned by the Dale Warland Singers for their final season, and premiered on November 1, 2003. The concert had a Thanksgiving theme, so I picked three hymns for their compatible texts and above all their compelling melodies. I have tried to stay close to the wonderful spirited rhythms and elemental, forthright harmonies of the original settings found in the Sacred Harp collection.” Carol Barnett
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This song was made famous by Josh Groban and seems especially pertinent today. Make sure you can see the video while listening. The expression-filled faces of these children are a gift to behold!
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Beware you purists…. This is not the entire movement from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony – but it certainly is an example of exuberant, thankful choral joy!
Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee
God of glory, Lord of love
Hearts unfold like flow’rs before Thee
Op’ning to the Sun above
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness
drive the dark of doubt away
Giver of immortal gladness
fill us with the light of day
All Thy works with joy surround Thee
Earth and heav’n reflect Thy rays
Stars and angels sing around Thee
center of unbroken praise
Field and forest, vale and mountain
Flow’ry meadow, flashing sea
chanting bird and flowing fountain
call us to rejoice in Thee
Thou art giving and forgiving
ever blessing, ever blest
well-spring of the joy of living
ocean-depth of happy rest
Thou the Father, Christ our Brother—
all who live in love are Thine
Teach us how to love each other
lift us to the Joy Divine
Mortals join the mighty chorus
which the morning stars began
Father-love is reigning o’er us
brother-love binds man to man
Ever singing, march we onward
victors in the midst of strife
joyful music lifts us sunward
in the triumph song of life!
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Here’s a bonus 17 minutes of fascinating listening!
Monteverdi’s “Mass of Thanksgiving”
Composer Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi was an Italian composer, string player, choirmaster, and priest. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considered a crucial transitional figure between the Renaissance and Baroque periods of music history.
OCC Singer Spotlight!
Bill Carlson, Bass
I recently came across a 1932 directory for a church in Brooklyn. It had somehow survived nearly ninety years of moves and disruptions. In it, I found that my grandmother was listed as the “Directress” of the Junior Choir. My mother was their accompanist; she was fourteen. So it runs in the family. My own earliest musical performance recollection is of accompanying my friend Rachel singing the “Ballad of Little Mohee” for our third grade assembly. We must have been eight.
Singing, for me, came later, about thirty years later in fact. So my loyalties are divided. I cannot imagine life without music, or life without a piano, though at this point I am also missing singing terribly. I listen to that inexhaustible source of new (to me) music, YouTube. Current favorites are Voces8 and my new, but not for long, favorite composer Guillaume Lekeu. (Who? you might very well ask. Check it out.)
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Carol Etzold, Soprano
Every day now is a new normal, but I know that on some future Thursday we will all sing together again as the OCC in the Truro Community Center. I do miss being with all of you once a week, sharing our camaraderie, sense of purpose, and all the just plain fun that we have when we’re together. And I miss the special experience of being surrounded by the energy we create with our sound. There’s really nothing like the feeling that comes from making live music with our large group.
While no activity can fill the OCC’s void, I have managed to stay reasonably sane, filling my days with other kinds of satisfying activities. I’ve busied myself with common pandemic activities. I walked–on the beach, on the back roads in my Orleans ‘hood, on the bike trails and out on the CCNS paths. I completed projects that had been languishing in my knitting basket. We knitters refer to these as UFOs–Un Finished Objects. And since I couldn’t enjoy singing in the OCC, I also retreated into my kitchen and cooked, and then cooked some more.
OCC Sponsor Spotlight!
A very special thank you to everyone at Cape Cod Five
for keeping the Outer Cape Chorale mission alive!
Please visit all of our sponsors and say “thank you” from OCC!
Sue Peters, Broker Associate
UNTIL NEXT MONTH…Happy Thanksgiving from OCC!
Contributions are gratefully accepted!
Click here to visit our Donate page
or by mail: Outer Cape Chorale,PO Box 474, South Wellfleet, MA 02663
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Small things add up!