Sunday, April 01, 2012

EARTHTONES

EARTHTONES:  Songs from Many Cultures
A Program by the Goshen College Choirs
Saturday, March 31 - Sauder Concert Hall

I am always impressed by the talent and quality of performances by the college students at both Pepperdine University and Goshen College.  Th Earthtones Concert was no exception - an excellent performance of a variety of songs from J.S. Bach to Eric Whitacre to Traditional Iroquois.

The Program

Goshen College Chorale
Naiman Sharag (The Eight Chestnut Horses) - Se Enkhbayar
Bach (Again), Come Sweet Death - J.S. Bach
With a Lily in Your Hand - Eric Whitacre

Goshen College Chamber Choir
Yanaway Heyona - Traditional Iroquois
Sonaba from Poemas de Amor - Stephen Paulus
Deep River - Traditional African-American Spiritual
Dance of Zalongo - Greek Folksong

Goshen College Men's Chorus
Rubber Duckie -  Jeff Moss

Goshen College Women's World Music Choir
Wana Baraka - Kenyan Folk Song
Ave Maria - David MacIntyre
Motsikuli kristesagan - Eastern Orthodox Liturgy - Republic of Georgia
Stand in the River - Moira Smiley
Baba mi Mungu

Goshen College Men's Chorus
Walk in Jerusalem - Traditional Spiritual
The Finlandia Hymn:  This is My Song - Jean Sibelius
El Yivneh Hagalil - Hebrew Folk Song
Ya Mariam - Palestinian Folk Song

Goshen College Combined Choirs
Woyaya - Sol Amorfio [Ysaye M. Barnwell]
Audio Clip from KaiaSing 
Great Version at iTunes by Spirit of Gospel-O Happy Day

Here are a few of my favorites - put in your earbuds or hook up your speakers!

{this has a soundless duplicate after the piece}
This song honors the eight chestnut horses of Chinggis Khan, which have become a symbol of national identity for the Mongolian people.  Indigenous Mongolian music often uses rhythms patterned after the sounds of running horses.

These chestnut horses are a treasure to us, a valuable gift of nature.
Like a peaceful song, that surrounds everywhere, so is the true image
of the Mongolian horse worshiped by my nation.






7 comments:

Clair in Canberra said...

Wow, great stuff - and I really miss all that, Doug! Thanks for highlighting that program. We used to just walk a few blocks to get to see/hear sounds and performances like that at GC's Sauder Hall - a great treasure.

Do you know if videos (or a sound track) of such performances are ever made which one can buy from GC?

DES said...

Clair – you are welcome! A treasure indeed. The GC choirs do have a couple of CD’s available, and I noticed that there was video set up for the Earthtones concert. I too wondered about recordings, and thus if I learn anything, I will pass it along. Someone on this list may know a lot more than I.



Take care

Jean said...

What a marvelous blend of musical cultures! I am a bit confused, but I am thinking that you found video versions of some of the pieces, which you include here, but that what we see are not what was performed at Goshen. I was very moved by the variety of music, however it was presented. Will pass this on to some folks in our church choir who will appreciate these as well. Would really love to see a video of the Goshen choir performance.

Dr S said...

I heard that recordings of such concerts are usually available several months after the performance - so I will keep an eye out for anything re this one.

Bizzy Brain said...

My favorite was the one man choir. Speaking of choirs, anyone heard of the Goshen High School Crimsonaires? If you want to see them you can go to youtube.com and do a search on Crimsonaires and come up with some entertaining videos.

DES said...

The one-man-dude is rather amazing - he has many youtube videos. And indeed many of us know the Crimsonaires who are perennial award winners.

Clair in Canberra said...

Checked with the folks at GC and the video recording is only for archival purposes. No CD or such because of copyright issues - sad.