Bel Canto’s April 2016 concert is titled “Deepness of the Blue.” The concert, a collaboration with the Providence Baptist Church Sanctuary Choir, showcases the deep and lasting contributions of Black composers and poets to the choral arts.

Too many people are unaware of the many ways that African-American influence on choral music extends far beyond spirituals and gospel. There is a vast catalog of choral music by Black composers, and the influence of Black writers and poets has inspired a wealth of music, by Black and non-Black composers alike. And yet, too often this music remains unremarked and, worse, unheard. While we certainly can’t sing it all on one concert, we are thrilled to be able to explore at least some of this rich and varied music.

The title of the concert is borrowed from one of the program’s featured works, The Deepness of the Blue by William Averitt. The piece includes five poems by Langston Hughes:

New Moon

There’s a new young moon
Riding the hills tonight.

There’s a sprightly young moon
Exploring the clouds.

There’s a half-shy young moon
Veiling her face like a virgin
Waiting for a lover.

My Loves

I love to see the big white moon,
A-shining in the sky;
I love to see the little stars,
When the shadow clouds go by.

I love the rain drops falling
On my roof-top in the night;
I love the soft wind’s sighing,
Before the dawn’s gray light.

I love the deepness of the blue,
In my Lord’s heaven above;
But better than all these things I think
I love my lady love.

To F.S.

I loved my friend.
He went away from me.
There is nothing more to say.
The poem ends,
Soft as it began, —
I loved my friend.

Danse Africaine

The low beating of the tom-toms,
The slow beating of the tom-toms,
Low . . . slow
Slow . . . low —
Stirs your blood.
Dance!
A night-veiled girl
Whirls softly into a
Circle of light.
Whirls softly . . . slowly,
Like a wisp of smoke around the fire —
And the tom-toms beat,
And the tom-toms beat,
And the low beating of the tom-toms
Stirs your blood.

Drum

Bear in mind
That death is a drum
Beating forever
Till the last worms come
To answer its call,
Till the last stars fall,
Until the last atom
Is no atom at all,
Until time is lost
And there is no air
And space itself
Is nothing nowhere,
Death is a drum,
A signal drum,
Calling life
To come!
Come!

From the composer:

“The Deepness of the Blue (2012) is the most recently written of my three Langston Hughes cycles. In this set, the first and second poems of five look to the night sky for their imagery. The first (New Moon) rides on a constantly twinkling syncopated figure high in Piano I while the second (My Loves) is accompanied by an old-fashioned slow boom-chick rhythm of the sort found in innumerable popular songs of the Great American Songbook. The poignant central Poem [To F.S.] stands alone in a simple, unaccompanied setting. The final pair of movements sets two poems based on drum imagery: the strong death-imagery of Drum is treated as a wild, pounding, syncopated and violent perpetual motion while the concluding, sensuous Danse Africaine is a long, hypnotically spun-out tango. The piece was commissioned by the Texas Lutheran University Choir under Douglas Boyer.” –William Averitt

Want to know what these stirring words sound like when set to music? You can hear a performance of the work by Choral Arts at the 2015 ACDA National Conference here: https://soundcloud.com/choral-arts/4-the-deepness-of-the-blues

And stay tuned…we will be posting clips from rehearsals over the next couple of weeks, not only of The Deepness of the Blue, but also some of the other exciting music planned for this concert.