GREATER FREEPORT COMMUNITY CHORUS
The Greater Freeport Community Chorus will perform “And The Glory Shone Around: Original and Modern Settings of Early American Hymns, Spirituals and Carols” on Saturday and Sunday in Brunswick and Yarmouth.
Directed by Virgil Bozeman and accompanied by pianist Kellie Moody, the singers will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Universalist Unitarian Church of Brunswick, 1 Middle St., and 2:30 p.m. Sunday at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, 396 Gilman Road, Yarmouth.
The program will include several shape-note pieces. It will also feature songs that celebrate the Native American Huron and Wichita cultures, traditional Christmas spirituals and a jazz arrangement.
Shape notes, a simplified form of music notation used in American singing schools during the 1800s, are associated with sacred music. Shape-note singing began in New England but for many years survived primarily in the South.
“Huron Carol” is an arrangement of a Canadian Christmas hymn that refers to hunters, rather than shepherds, and uses the Algonquian name Gitchi Manitou for God. GFCC sopranos and altos will perform “Morning Star Lullaby” in the Wichita language.
A celebration of American music wouldn’t be complete without jazz. Accordingly, the chorus will perform a Dave Brubeck arrangement of “We Three Kings.” The group will sing several traditional African-American spirituals: a Philip Kern arrangement that combines “Rise Up Shepherd, and Follow” with “Behold That Star!” plus an arrangement by Moses and Edwin B. Hogan of “God’s Gonna Set This World on Fire.” Also on the program are works adapted or arranged by Americans Aaron Copland and Alice Parker.
Nearly 70 singers from 15 Midcoast towns make up the Greater Freeport Community Chorus. Concert admission is $10 for adults, with a per-family maximum of $25 and free admission to anyone younger than 18. Tickets may be purchased at the door. Go to gfccsings.org for more information.
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