Sunday, January 15, 2012

RockyMountTelegram.com: Music of Florence Price, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor & Fela Sowande in Rocky Mount Jan. 22


[Fela Sowande]

Rocky Mount Telegram


By Laura McFarland
Thursday, January 12, 2012
The songs were born under oppression, but they endured. When Maureen Kroncke sings spirituals such as 'His Name So Sweet' and 'Sinner, Please Don’t Let This Harvest Pass,' it is an emotional experience. It is not only that she is performing beautiful music, though that in itself always is powerful. What moves Kroncke is knowing that the religious folk songs are a testament to the hopes and fears, faith and doubt of men, women and children who lived as slaves more than 150 years ago. It is a joy and honor to sing their music, she said.


“'It passes over the limits of religion and covers a whole range of emotion. The range of emotion in the music really helps to enhance that spiritual feeling. People go away feeling strengthened and moved and blessed by it,' said Kroncke of Rocky Mount. That is the reaction Kroncke, a mezzo-soprano, and organist Lawrence Goering are hoping for with their upcoming concert, 'Great Day! Spirituals and Music by African-American Composers.' The free concert is at 5 p.m. Jan. 22 at Church of the Good Shepherd in Rocky Mount. There will be free child care provided and a reception following the concert.”

“The concert will include arrangements of spirituals and organ works by 19th- and 20th-century black composers, Goering said. He will accompany Kroncke on the piano when she sings and also perform several organ pieces.” “The organ pieces that Goering will perform are by composers whom the average audience has never heard of, but they are brilliant composers whose works should be performed, he said. Some of the songs he will perform are Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s 'Arietta' and 'Elegy'; Florence Price’s 'Adoration' and 'A Pleasant Thought'; and Fela Sowande’s 'Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho.'” [Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Florence B. Price and Fela Sowande are profiled at AfriClassical.com, which features a comprehensive Works List for Florence B. Price by Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma, http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com]

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