A choral arts organization that is building community through choral music in Connecticut.
This February, let us celebrate the richness and variety choral music has to offer. Join us each Friday midday as we share recordings from Voices of Concinnity's live performance from last October. The music will energize the start of your weekend and maybe inspire music educators and choral directors to explore some new choral music.
Each Friday in February, we will add videos below that you can watch with background to each song and the composer. You can also watch on our YouTube channel
Friday, February 25
To watch the videos, place your mouse/cursor over the box with the title of the song
All Together We are Love
Katerina Gimon
Performed Live by:
Voices of Concinnity
Katerina Gimon
Text:
I am a dreamer
I am a song
I am a mountain - tall and strong
I am song
I am a warm breeze
I am the sky
I am a bluebird
Free to fly
I am a song for all hearts
and when our spirts soar
All together we are love
"This upbeat work relays a simple and important message — that all together we make the world a more beautiful place."
Friday, February 18
To watch the videos, place your mouse/cursor over the box with the title of the song
Psalm 23
Bobby McFerrin
Performed Live by:
Voices of Concinnity
More Waters Rising
Arranged by: Saunder Choi
Music by: Saro Lynch-Thomason
Performed Live by:
Voices of Concinnity
Text:
The Lord is my Shepard, I have all I need,
She makes me lie down in green meadows,
Beside the still waters, She will lead.
She restores my soul, She rights my wrongs,
She leads me in a path of good things,
And fills my heart with songs.
Even though I walk, through a dark & dreary land,
There is nothing that can shake me,
She has said She won't forsake me, I'm in her hand.
She sets a table before me, in the presence of my foes,
She anoints my head with oil,
And my cup overflows.
Surely, surely goodness & kindness will follow me,
All the days of my life,
And I will live in her house, Forever, forever & ever.
Glory be to our Mother, & Daughter,
And to the Holy of Holies,
As it was in the beginning, is now & ever shall be,
World, without end. Amen.
Bobbi McFerrin
This arrangement of Psalm 23 was written in the Anglican Chant style in honor of Bobbi McFerrin's mother, Sara McFerrin. Anglican chant is still sung in Episcopal churches, to which his mother was active. Sara McFerrin was an incredible musician (more info about Sara McFerrin here).
Text:
There are more waters rising this I know
There are more waters rising, they will find their way to me.
There are more fires burning this I know
There are more fires burning, they will find their way to me.
There are more mountains falling this I know
There are more mountains falling, they will find their way to me.
I will wade through the waters this I know
I will wade through the waters, they will find their way to me.
We will wade through the waters this I know
We will wade through the waters, they will find their way to me.
I will walk through the fire this I know
I will walk through the fire when they find their way to me.
I will rebuild the mountains this I know
I will rebuild the mountains when they find their way to me
I will rebuild the mountains this I know.
Saunder Choi
Saro Lynch-Thomason
"This is a song that I created back in March 2016 when the HB2 bill was passed here in North Carolina. Now in the early days of the Trump administration, this song feels deeply resonant. For me, this song is about seeing what's coming on the horizon: harder times that are inevitable and unavoidable. But the answer to the fear of what’s coming is resiliency and claiming a strength within ourselves that has been there all along."
-Saro Lynch Thomason (song-writer)
Friday, February 11
To watch the videos, place your mouse/cursor over the box with the title of the song
We shall walk through the valley in peace
Undine Smith Moore
Performed Live by:
Voices of Concinnity
Sweetheart of the Sun
Eric William Barnum
Performed Live by:
Voices of Concinnity
Text:
Lord, we shall walk in peace.
We shall walk through the valley in peace
If Jesus himself shall be our leader
We shall walk through the valley in peace.
There will be no more trials there
f Jesus himself shall be our leader
We shall walk through the valley in peace.
We shall walk through the valley in peace.
Lord, we shall walk in peace.
Text:
She stood so fair amid the corn
Clasped by the golden light of morn
Like the sweetheart of the sun
Who many a glowing kiss had won
On her cheek an autumn flush
Deeply ripened;—such a blush
In the midst of brown was born
Like red poppies grown with corn
Round her eyes her tresses fell
Which were blackest none could tell
But long lashes veiled a light
That had else been all too bright
-from the poem "Ruth" by Thomas Hood
And her hat, with shady brim
Made her tressy forehead dim;—
Thus she stood amid the stooks
Praising God with sweetest looks:—
Sure, I said, heaven did not mean
Where I reap thou shouldst but glean
Lay thy sheaf adown and come
Share my harvest and my home
"One of the most evil effects of racism in my time was the limits it placed upon the aspirations of blacks, so that though I have been 'making up' and creating music all my life, in my childhood or even in college I would not have thought of calling myself a composer or aspiring to be one…all liberation is connected… as long as any segment of the society is oppressed… the whole society must suffer."
-Undine Smith Moore
Friday, February 4
To watch the videos, place your mouse/cursor over the box with the title of the song
At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners
Willametta Spencer
Performed Live by:
Voices of Concinnity
Into a time
Adolphus Hailstork
Performed Live by:
Voices of Concinnity
Text:
At the round earth's imagined corners,
blow Your trumpets, angels, and arise,
arise From death, you numberless infinities
Of souls, and to your scattered bodies go,
All whom the flood did, and fire shall, o'erthrow,
All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies,
Despair, law, chance, hath slain, and you whose eyes,
Shall behold God, and never taste death's woe.
But let them sleep, Lord, and me mourn a space;
For, if above all these, my sins abound,
'Tis late to ask abundance of thy grace,
When we are there. Here on this lowly ground,
Teach me how to repent; for that's as good
As if thou'hadst seal'd my pardon with thy blood.
(text by John Donne)
This song was written in response to 9/11, with an optimistic and hopeful text. It is a testament to the power of singing.
Text:
Into a time of turmoil, we bring our sense of peace;
Into a time of doubt, we bring our gift of faith;
Into a time of fear, we bring our light of hope;
Into a time of loss, we bring our treasured memories;
Into a time of silence, we bring our uplifted voices;
Singing a song of wonder, awe, mystery, courage;
singing of life itself.
Into this time, we come singing life itself.
(text by Rev. Randolph W.B. Becker)
Choir Forward Fridays is supported in part by grants received from:
