Choral Notes: December 2024
Grooving
Around the World (on a Sunday afternoon)
We can’t predict what the weather will be, but we can predict some “grooving” opportunities on February 23rd in Wayland when the Chorale performs its 2025 Pops Concert. But before we dive into the world of Carribean music…
Join us for the Chorale’s Online Music Academy.
Experience musical story-telling—from Rimsky-Korsakov’s dramatic symphonic poem Scheherazade (based on the collection of Middle Eastern folktales known more popularly as the Arabian Nights) to Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture, and from Smetana’s river trip through his beloved Czech countryside to Saint-Saëns’ night of whimsical dancing skeletons.
Enjoy online sessions from your home. Registration is open to all, wherever you live. The instructor is Elke Jahns-Harms, a professional flutist and amateur singer, who holds a Master’s in Music and a PhD in International Relations.
Wednesday evenings in January 2025 via Zoom.
Samba and Jazz
Is there a better time and place than winter in New England to enjoy the rhythms and melodies of sunny beaches and the cool sounds of jazz? Here’s a wonderful video lecture by Adam Neely all about The Girl from Ipanema, a Grammy-winning Brazilian bossa nova and jazz song with music by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Portuguese lyrics by Vinícius de Moraes. English lyrics were written later by Norman Gimbel. The video has multiple segments, but it’s easy to navigate to its various parts.
Guantánamera
"Guantánamera," Spanish for “the woman from Guantánamo,” is a Cuban song with lyrics taken from a poem by José Martí. Though its writing credits have been disputed, its popularity has survived for almost a hundred years. We in the United States may be familiar with the song as popularized in 1966 by the Sandpipers, who recorded an arrangement of it by the Weavers from their May 1963 Carnegie Hall Reunion concert. Similarly inspired by the Weavers version, Pete Seeger included the song on his 1963 album We Shall Overcome. (Link to English lyrics)
Island In the Sun
Harry Belafonte and Irving Burgie, a prominent composer of Caribbean music and frequent music collaborator with Belafonte, created the title song "Island in the Sun" for the 1957 film produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and directed by Robert Rossen. Its ensemble cast included James Mason, Harry Belafonte, Joan Fontaine, Joan Collins, Dorothy Dandridge, Michael Rennie, Stephen Boyd, Patricia Owens, John Justin, Diana Wynyard, John Williams, and Basil Sydney. The movie was based on the 1955 novel by Alec Waugh, and the fictitious island of Santa Marta was based on the Caribbean islands of Barbados and Grenada. The movie was quite controversial for its time because of its themes of race relations and interracial romance. (Link to lyrics)
Africa
A song about love and location, "Africa" was written in 1981 by David Paich and Jeff Porcaro, members of the American rock band Toto whose version of the piece attained a number one ranking on the United States' Billboard Hot 100 chart. Most recently, in the mid to late 2010s, it was covered by the American rock band Weezer, reaching number 51 on the Billboard Hot 100 and subsequently certified quadruple platinum. (Link to lyrics)
December “Spreading Joy”
A winter gift from the Heritage Chorale… Listen/watch the entire video or enjoy the easily accessible time-line segments.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL