A Joyful Noise
The coming weekend promises “a joyful noise” to celebrate the holiday season as Crescendo presents Resonet In Laudibus – Resounding Joyful Praises, Saturday, December 10th, in Stockbridge MA and Sunday, December 11th, in Lakeville CT.
Founded by Artistic Director Christine Gevert and local supporters, Crescendo offers an ongoing program of music performance and education for the communities of Connecticut’s Northwest Corner, the Berkshires and the Mid-Hudson Valley.
This concert of Renaissance and Baroque music for chorus and brass will be multi-sensory event as the Crescendo Chorus and soloists blend their voices with the Berkshire Brass and a free light show highlights in the Stockbridge performance. The light show by the Berkshire-based artist Joe Wheaton will feature imagery from the historic St. Paul’s Church and a video feed of the performance. Wheaton’s joyous illuminations will be complemented by hot beverage and food outside the Red Lion Inn.
In case of bad weather, the light show will be canceled. St. Paul’s church is asking for donations to the Lee Food Pantry, PO Box 335, Lee MA 01238-0335.
This program features some of the most festive music for the holiday season by Italian, German Renaissance and Baroque composers—the basis for some of today’s beloved Christmas carols. Some of the popular melodies originated in medieval times, while other familiar chorales are from the Christmas Oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Performing will be the Crescendo Chorus, with solo soprano Jordan Rose Lee and the Berkshire Brass. They will be conducted by Gevert as she plays the organ.
Performances are Saturday, at 6PM at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 29 Main Street in Stockbridge and Sunday at 4PM at Trinity Church, 484 Lime Rock Road in Lakeville.
The weekend’s performances will not end Crescendo’s celebration of the season and its aspirations to educate and expand the region’s musical experience. On December 30th, it will present A Story of Hope in the Voice of the New World with four soloists from Latin America, Europe, the US and an ensemble of period and folk instrument players.
The musicians will give voice to forgotten Latin American music, both sacred and secular, from two early manuscripts from Guatemala and Peru. The music is a mixture of native folk music and European-style compositions, probably created by indigenous composers. The sources are manuscripts found in convents of Northwest Guatemala and the Martinez Compañón Codex of Northern Peru.
“We chose the title A Story of Hope in the Voice of the New World to convey to our audiences the sheer joy that emanates from this repertoire,” said Gevert. “Similar to what happened in the US, early Latin America became a fusion of cultures through the new society created by the enslavement of indigenous people and African slaves. Despite this tragic circumstance, the unique voice of these musical creations is one of hope and of a vibrant new identity.”
Chilean musicologist Paul Gustaf Feller, who is collaborating with Crescendo for the program, explains that the Huehuetenango Collection from Northwest Guatamala “is a historical puzzle that we are just beginning to unravel.”
He said Mayan natives from one of the most secluded areas of Guatemala preserved the 16th- and 17th-century manuscripts until the 1960s when they were taken by Maryknoll missionaries. The documents contain devotional music performed at three villages in which only natives were allowed to live. “Although these manuscripts include musical pieces of European origin, composed by some of the best-known musicians of the early 1500s, it is the unique works that fascinate us today,” he said, adding that evidence suggests a series of Mayan native composers created the “villancicos” or devotional pieces.
Some were written in native languages and represent the earliest—perhaps the only—music made by and for Mayan communities in the early modern world. The indigenous composers not only mastered the European style but also transformed it, infusing it with their own stories and customs, integrating their musical and poetic elements, he said,
Performing the works will be sopranos Rebecca Palmer and Jayne Segedy, tenor José Ignacio Lagos, and baritone José Sacín. Period violinist and percussionist Job Salazar will perform as will charango, ronroco and viola player Carlos Boltes and period harpist Christa Patton. All will be directed by Gevert who will perform on historic keyboards.
Concerts are Thursday, December 29th at 5:30PM at Trinity Church, 484 Lime Rock Road in Lakeville; Friday, December 30th also at 5:30PM at Saint James Place, 352 Main Street, Great Barrington MA. Tickets for all the concerts are $40 general admission, $75 premium (preferential seating) and $10 for youth under 18 years. For more information and tickets please click on the link below or call 860-435-4866.