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Words and Music of Hope and Inspiration Sunday, November 2, 2014 3:30 p.m. St. John’s Episcopal Church 405 N. Saginaw Road Midland, MI 48640 The Reverend Michael Wilson, Vicar The Reverend Mary J. Schuetz, Vicar “In Song And Verse” Welcome………………………………………………….…The Rev. Mary J. Schuetz The Rev. Michael Wilson History of the Spiritual…………………………………..……...…Kevin Kendrick Selection Title Author/ Composer Reader/Performer(s) Blessed Hope………………………...……………………….…………Frances Harper Anita Jenkins Children Don’t Get Weary……………….……..…arr. William Henry Smith Listen to the Lambs…………………………….…………………R. Nathaniel Dett Lauralean Beatty, soloist Ride the Chariot…………………….…………….…….arr. William Henry Smith Gezelle Myers, Mary McDonald, soloists Heritage Singers The Creation…………………………………………...……James Weldon Johnson Betty Jones I Want to Walk As A Child of the Light …………… Kathleen Thomerson Lynn Haiducek, flutist arr. Cathy Moklebust It Is Well With My Soul ……………………………..……….. arr. Phillip P. Bliss (based on “Ville Du Havre”) St. John’s Episcopal Bell Choir 2 Selection Title Author/ Composer Reader/Performer(s) Sympathy………………………………...….. Paul Laurence Dunbar Ernest Carter Deep River…………………………………………..…………. Harry T. Burleigh Warren Holmon, soloist Rise Up Early in the Morning ……………………..Susan Naylor Callaway Stop By, Lord …………………………………………..……Doris Wesley Bettis St. John’s Episcopal Choir Give Me Jesus…………………………………..…………… ..arr. Roland Carter St. John’s Episcopal Choir and Heritage Singers Hymn…………………………………………………………Paul Laurence Dunbar Smallwood Holoman Ain’t Got Time to Die…………………………………………......Hall Johnson Guy Buford, soloist Son of Mary……………………...………………………………R. Nathaniel Dett Walk Together Children…………..…………... arr. William Henry Smith Heritage Singers Closing Prayer……………………………………….. The Rev. Mary J. Schuetz Please join us for fellowship and light refreshments in Williams Hall immediately following the program. 3 The Poet’s Page Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the first African–American poets to gain national recognition. Born in Dayton, Ohio in 1872 to freed slaves who separated shortly after his birth, Dunbar drew on their stories of plantation life throughout his writing career. He was the first African –American poet to garner national critical acclaim. Dunbar penned a large body of dialect poems, standard English poems, essays, novels and short stories before he died at the age of 33. His work often addressed the difficulties encountered by members of his race and the efforts of African–Americans to achieve equality in America. He was praised both by the prominent literary critics of his time and his literary contemporaries. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, poet, journalist, fiction writer, activist, was born in 1825 in Baltimore, Maryland, to free African– American parents. Harper was raised by her uncle, William Watkins, a teacher at the Academy for Negro Youth and a radical political figure in civil rights. Watkins was a major influence on Harper's political, religious, and social views. Harper attended the Academy for Negro Youth until the age of 13 and the rigorous education she received, along with the political activism of her uncle, affected and influenced her poetry. After teaching for two years, she began a career as a traveling speaker on the abolitionist circuit. She helped slaves escape through the Underground Railroad and wrote frequently for anti-slavery newspapers earning her the reputation as the mother of African–American journalism. Her short story The Two Offers was the first short story published by an African American. Her poetry has been collected in Complete Poems of Frances E.W. Harper (1988, ed. Maryemma Graham), and her prose in A Brighter Coming Day (1990, ed. Frances Smith Foster). She died February 22, 1911. 4 James Mercer Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. He began writing poetry in the 8th grade after his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio. Hughes, who attributed Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman as his primary influences, is particularly known for his insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through the sixties. He wrote novels, short stories and plays, as well as poetry, and is also known for his engagement with the world of jazz and the influence it had on his writing. His first published poem and one of his most famous, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, was written in 1921. His life and work were enormously important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. He died May 22, 1967. James Weldon Johnson was a civil rights activist, writer, composer, politician, educator and lawyer, as well as one of the leading figures in the creation and development of the Harlem Renaissance. Born on June 17, 1871, in Jacksonville, Florida, He is best known as being a poet, diplomat, and anthologist of black culture. After graduating from Atlanta University, Johnson worked as a principal in a grammar school, founded a newspaper, The Daily American, and became the first African American to pass the Florida Bar. His published works include The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912) and God's Trombones (1927). One of his most famous poems was Lift Every Voice and Sing. His brother later added music to the poem. It was a bold piece of work that spoke of the struggle of the African–American in America and his optimistic hope for a better future. Johnson died on June 26, 1938, in Wiscasset, Maine. 5 Composers/Arrangers Corner Harry T. Burleigh, was the first African–American composer acclaimed for his concert songs as well as for his adaptations of African-American spirituals. Born in Erie, Pennsylvania, on December 2, 1866, Burleigh received his first music training from his mother. He played an important role in the development of American art song and composed more than two hundred works in the genre. In 1892, at the age of twenty-six, Burleigh received a scholarship to the National Conservatory of Music in New York where he developed and association and friendship with the conservatory’s director, Antonin Dvorak. In 1900, Burleigh was the first African-American chosen as soloist at Temple Emanu-El, a New York synagogue, and by 1911 was working as an editor for music publisher G. Ricordi. His success was enhanced through the publication of several of his compositions, including Ethiopia Saluting the Colors (1915), a collection entitled Jubilee Songs of the USA (1916), and his arrangement of Deep River (1917), for which he is best remembered. Roland M. Carter, Professor Emeritus, University of Tennessee- Chattanooga is a distinguished composer-arranger and conductor. Prior to returning home to Tennessee, he served as chairman of the music department at Hampton University for three years and director of its internationally acclaimed choirs for nearly twenty-five years. His compositions and arrangements are performed by music organizations throughout the world. Critics have hailed his excellence in the choral arts, and he has received numerous awards and honors for his outstanding achievement in choral music. He is founder and CEO of MAR-VEL, a publisher specializing in the music of African–American composers and traditions. 6 R. Nathaniel Dett, was the first African–American to receive a bachelor's in music from the Oberlin College Conservatory (in 1908). Born in Drummondville, Quebec, Canada, October 11, 1882, he was a prolific composer who wrote music mainly for voice and keyboard. Most of his work was done at African–American colleges- Lane College, Tennessee (1908--11), the Lincoln Institute, Missouri (1911-- 13), the Hampton Institute, Virginia (1913--32), and Bennett College, North Carolina (1937--42). Dett achieved significant recognition as a music educator at Hampton. He organized a town and gown choir that specialized in African–American sacred music and toured internationally. Dett believed that African–American music should be traced to its African roots. Hall Johnson was born in Athens, Georgia, on 12 March 1888. Johnson‘s musical interest was influenced early in his life by his grandmother, a former slave, who exposed him to spirituals. He attended Atlanta University and graduated from Allen University. He continued his studies at the University of Pennsylvania, the Juilliard School and the University of Southern California. He began his professional career as a violinist with James Reese Europe's orchestra and opened a studio where he taught violin and other instruments. Johnson formed the Hall Johnson Negro Choir in September 1925. His choir performed with great success in concert and on the radio within the New York City area, and made a first recording for RCA Victor in 1928. In 1930, the choir sang his settings of spirituals composed for the musical, The Green Pastures, on Broadway. This success was followed by the Broadway production of Johnson's Run Little Chillun in 1933. Between 1935 and 1943, the Johnson choir was featured in films such as The Green Pastures, Lost Horizon and Cabin in the Sky. 7 Hall Johnson continued to organize choral groups, including festival choirs in both Los Angeles and New York. He wrote numerous works for his choirs as well as spiritual settings for solo voice and piano. William Henry Smith is known as a prolific arranger of the African–American spiritual. He is best known for conducting the Wiley College Choir during the era of “The Great Debaters”. Originally called the Wiley Jubilee Singers (Wiley College, Marshall, Texas) , the choir was organized in 1897 by R.E. Brown. Wiley College is one of eleven historically black colleges and universities affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Founded in 1873 by the Freed- man’s Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, it is the oldest, continuously operating accredited historically black college west of the Mississippi River. Acknowledgements Special thanks to the parish staff at St. John’s and to the music department– Dennis Van Koevering, director, Mair Alsgaard, organist/accompanist, and Julie Falls, bell choir director, for their cooperation and support in this musical endeavor.

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