University of Florida Performing Arts

presents

Apollo’s FireCome to the River

Sunday, March 3, 2013, 2 p.m.

University Auditorium

Apollo’s Fire — The Cleveland Baroque OrchestraJeannette Sorrell, Music Director

Program

Come to the River — An Early American GatheringConceived and arranged by Jeannette Sorrell

Part I. Shenandoah Valley Memories

APPALACHIAN BARN DANCE Swinging on a Gate — Give the Fiddler a Dram — Old Joe Clark

Traditional New England and Appalachian Fiddle Tunes, arr. Sorrell

WAYS OF THE WORLD - DUSTY MILLERTraditional Appalachian — dulcimer solo, arr. T. Bergmann

FAREWELL TO IRELAND — OVER THE ISLES TO AMERICATraditional Irish and Scottish, arr. Sorrell

CLUCK OLD HEN — WHISKEY BEFORE BREAKFASTAppalachian/Old-Time fiddle tunes

WILLIE, PRITHEE GO TO BEDRavenscroft, 1609/Traditional Appalachian

Paul Shipper & Co.

NOBODY BUT THE BABYTraditional Southern Lullaby

DARK ISLAND — LARK IN THE MORNING — KESH JIGG — KNIGHTS OF ST. PATRICKTraditional Irish, arr. Kathie Stewart

Part II. Covered Wagon Journey

DANCES FROM NEW ENGLAND & IRELANDharpsichord solo, arr. Sorrell

The Rakes of Kildare — Langstrom’s Pony — The Kitchen Girl — The Gravel Walk

OLD VIRGINNY — THE GIRL WHO BROKE MY HEARTTraditional Southern, arr. Schiffer

Ross Hauck, vocals | René Schiffer, cello

WILD BILL JONESTraditional Appalachian Ballad, arr. Sorrell

INTERMISSION

Part III. Crossing Over Jordan

WAYFARING STRANGER The Kentucky Harmony, 1816 — Amanda Powell, vocals

Part IV. Revival Meeting

GLORY IN THE MEETING HOUSEKentucky Fiddle Tunes, arr. Bergmann/Sorrell

AMAZING GRACE (long hymn style)Amanda Powell, leader

HOLD ONKentucky Spiritual, arr. Sorrell — Paul Shipper, vocals

GO MARCH ALONGSouthern Spiritual — Amanda Powell, vocals

WHAT WONDROUS LOVE IS THIS Dulcimer solo

SHAPE-NOTE HYMNSfrom The Southern Harmony (1835) and The Sacred Harp (1844)

HOLY MANNA — Brethren, We Have Met to Worship WHAT WONDROUS WONDROUS LOVE IS THIS — arr. Sorrell

RETURN AGAIN — Saviour, Visit Thy PlantationMORNING TRUMPET — Oh, When Shall I see Jesus

DOWN IN THE RIVER TO PRAYTraditional Southern folk Hymn

Amanda Powell & Co.

This concert was made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The CD recording of Come to the River and other Apollo’s Fire CDs are on sale in the lobby.

Musical Sources

Shape-note Hymns Ananias Davisson, The Kentucky Harmony, 1816 William Walker, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, 1835 B.F. White and Elisha King, The Sacred Harp, 1844

Folk Songs, Ballads and Fiddle Tunes American Ballads and Folk songs, ed. Alan and John Lomax Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians, ed. Jean Ritchie English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, ed. Cecil Sharp Thomas Ravenscroft, Melismata, 1611 (England) Our Singing Country: Folk Songs and Ballads, ed. Alan and John Lomax American Folk Tales and Songs, ed. Richard Chase The Fiddler’s Fake Book, ed. David Brody Front Porch Songs, ed. Wayne Erbsen

Program Notes

All You Need to Know to Enjoy the ShowOur story is set in the year 1800, at the beginning of the period in American history known as the Second Great Awakening. During this era the old-time or revivalist style of worship was sweeping rural America. Farmers would travel many miles with their families to participate in an intense week-long revival meeting being held by a traveling preacher in the region. People would camp outside the town that was hosting the meeting, and every evening there would be lengthy worship services with passionate preaching and singing.

Our program centers on the historical figure of Reverend James McGready, the most important early leader of the revival movement. McGready grew up in Pennsylvania but went to Kentucky, where he held the first-ever revival meeting in 1801 at the Red River Meeting House.

I have imagined what McGready’s family and traveling companions may have been like, on the covered-wagon journey from Pennsylvania to Kentucky. So in addition to our preacher (played by Paul Shipper), we have his nieces — Liza Jane and Susie (played by Amanda Powell and Molly Quinn) and Liza Jane’s sweetheart Johnnie (played by Ross Hauck). Johnnie was born in Virginia but moved to Pennsylvania as a youngster, and became smitten with Liza Jane.

You will need to pay special attention to the words of the song Wild Bill Jones, which closes the first half. This ballad is pivotal to the story, and sets in motion the events that transpire in the second half. During intermission, 20 years pass and we find ourselves in Kentucky at a revival meeting — where the long-lost Johnnie makes a surprise appearance.

This is really all you need to know. But if you are not satisfied, feel free to read as much or as little of the following information as you like.

A Covered-Wagon Journey Through Musical AmericaThe music of early America is, like our population, a melting-pot of several styles. The terms “folk music” or “traditional music” are as broad as the term “classical music,” and there are many styles to be discovered and appreciated under that general umbrella.

This concert presents a kaleidoscope of the styles one might find on a journey through early 19th-century rural America. We open with a set of old-time and New England fiddle tunes, as you might have heard at a barn dance in the Appalachian mountains. The set bursts into song when we arrive at Old Joe Clark, which is an old example of a play party or breakdown dance. Play parties and breakdowns were sing-and-dance tunes that could be played on fiddle but primarily were sung by the dancers themselves. These tunes originated with certain religious groups in rural America who believed that musical instruments were sinful — so singing was a cappella, and dancers provided their own music by singing.

Our band is a slightly luxurious version of the old-time bands that would have played these tunes. A fiddle and a banjo or guitar were considered essential, while instruments like hammered dulcimer and Irish flute were prevalent in certain communities.

For folk songs and ballads, such as Nobody but the Baby we are indebted to three great folklorists: Francis James Child and Alan Lomax (Americans), and Cecil Sharp (a British immigrant to the U.S.). Alan Lomax, who died in 2002, spent most of his life journeying through rural America (accompanied by a series of wives who each must have gotten tired of life on the road) and making field recordings of old-time and Appalachian singers. His field recording of Nobody but the Baby, as sung by Mrs. Sidney Carter in Mississippi, is our primary source for this Southern lullaby.

Francis Child was the collector of the large group of ballads from renaissance England and Scotland now known as the Child Ballads, which crossed the Atlantic and permeated the fabric of Appalachian culture. Some of the songs on our program originated as Elizabethan ballads and took roots in Appalachia; multiple versions of both the tune and the text can be found in New England and Appalachian folk music sources. The Kentucky Spiritual Hold On, was collected by Cecil Sharp, as sung by the girls of the Oneida School in Kentucky. Kentucky was an important center for spirituals and the revivalist movement of the 19th century, which is further explored in the later part of this recording.

Of course the Irish were among the most prominent groups of immigrants, and they brought their airs, jigs and reels with them. Our Dark Island medley of Irish dance tunes features the favorite Irish instrument, the wooden flute.

In contrast to the modal music of the Irish, we also present one example of bluegrass style — the ballad Wild Bill Jones. Bluegrass style makes playful use of major and minor thirds, rather than the Dorian, Aeolian and Mixolydian modes featured in old-time and Irish melodies. Bluegrass was the 1940s offshoot of old-time instrumental music, developed by the band called the Blue Grass Boys, formed in 1939. Bluegrass is known for its “high and lonesome” sound, thanks to a tradition of three-part “stacked” vocal harmony. Despite its relatively modern birth, bluegrass style was developed for acoustic instruments, since it was prevalent in rural areas where household electricity was not widely available. Wild Bill Jones is an old-time ballad, but we perform it in bluegrass style.

An exploration of rural 19th-century America would not be complete without a look at old-time religion. In the second half of the program, we evoke a visit to a revival meeting. The revival movement emerged at the turn of the 18th

century, when hundreds and sometimes thousands of people would gather from miles around for a week of intensely emotional worship meetings. These revival meetings were the birthplace of the shape-note style of hymnody.

Shape-note notation developed in order to facilitate sight-reading by singers not trained in standard musical notation. The different shapes of the note-heads (triangle, square, diamond, etc.) correspond to solfège syllables based on the centuries-old concept of the hexachord. The shape-note tradition uses only four syllables — sol, mi, fa and la. From 1800 to 1850, several different shape-note hymnals were published, of which the most prominent were The Kentucky Harmony in 1816, The Southern Harmony in 1835 and The Sacred Harp in 1844.

The shape-note hymns are composed in a strikingly stark and open harmonic style, written in three-part harmony featuring mostly open fourths and fifths. The melody is in the middle voice, and that line was sung in octaves by both men and women. (Performance of shape-note hymns by an all-female quartet is not historical.) Thus a one-per-part performance of shape-note hymns requires four singers — a man and a woman singing the melody in octaves, a man singing the bass line and a soprano singing the upper descant. Most commonly though, the entire congregation would sing, so all parts had multiple voices. The harmonic language is more closely related to medieval organum than to Bach chorales or other Protestant hymn styles.

Traditionally, the singers would first sing the “shapes” (solfège syllables) once through, to learn the notes. Then they would proceed to sing the verses with words. Shape-note hymns were most commonly performed a cappella (unaccompanied) but were occasionally performed with instruments in some circles. We present our selection of shape-note hymns in a variety of styles — one-per-part singing, group singing and some solo passages accompanied by instruments.

The religious tradition of baptism in a river is still alive and well in some parts of rural America — including the Shenandoah Valley where I lived as a teenager. The southern folk hymn, Down in the River to Pray, is a haunting evocation of a river baptism gathering. Our performance of this hymn as well as the shape-note hymns features a mix of trained and untrained voices, to evoke the original communal spirit of these pieces.

Come to the River was conceived originally for an historic barn in the countryside outside Cleveland, where Apollo’s Fire performs summer concerts. The rustic barn still serves as the inspiration for the musical approach. This is music as old as the hills — we find that playing it on old instruments helps us understand its most soulful qualities.

©2013 Jeannette SorrellCleveland, Ohio

Apollo’s Fire — The Cleveland Baroque OrchestraNamed for the classical god of music and the sun, Apollo’s Fire is a collection of creative artists who share founding music director Jeannette Sorrell’s passion for drama and rhetoric in early music. The ensemble has been praised nationally and internationally for stylistic freshness, spontaneity, technical excellence and for the creativity of Sorrell’s programming. In addition to enjoying sold-out performances at its series in Cleveland, the ensemble tours internationally and has performed to standing ovations at London’s Wigmore Hall, Madrid’s Royal Theatre and major concert halls in Lisbon, Bordeaux, Toronto, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as the Aspen Music Festival, the Boston Early Music Festival, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. and many others.

Apollo’s Fire has been featured on many national and international broadcasts, including holiday programs carried by National Public Radio, the BBC and the European Broadcasting Union. Apollo’s Fire records for British label AVIE and has released 20 commercial CDs, including the Monteverdi Vespers, the complete Brandenburg Concerti, several discs of Vivaldi, Mozart and Telemann, and three historical crossover/folk programs. Four of the ensemble’s CDs have been bestsellers on the Billboard classical chart — including Come to the River: An Early American Gathering.

Apollo’s Fire and the crossover/folk traditionFor more than a decade, music director Jeannette Sorrell has developed a unique ensemble of crossover artists who specialize in early American and British Isles traditional repertoire, performing on period instruments in a historically informed aesthetic, but with the lively freedom of folk performers. These artists, most of whom also play in the regular Apollo’s Fire baroque programs, have immersed themselves in the folk traditions and improvisatory musical idioms of the 17th and 18th centuries. They strive to break down the modern barrier between art music and popular music and to revive the “crossover” spirit of the 17th century, when great composers regularly wrote artful variations on street

Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire have won special distinction for their pioneering work in early American repertoire. Sorrell’s premiere early American program, titled Spirit of ’96, received the Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society for reconstructions of compositions by early American composers and arrangements of Ohio folk songs. This was followed by a British Isles program called Scarborough Fayre, which can be heard on CD on the Koch International Classics label. Come to the River was premiered in 2009 in 10 sold-out concerts, and has been awarded three major grants from the National Endowment for the Arts — first for the research and program development by Sorrell, and then for the CD production and touring. The 2011 CD release on the AVIE label spent two weeks on Billboard’s top-10 classical chart. The most recent crossover release (2012) by Sorrell and AF is Sacrum Mysterium: A Celtic Christmas Vespers, which is also a Billboard classical bestseller.

Jeannette Sorrell (harpsichord, direction and arranger), is a leading voice in the new generation of early music conductors and performers. As a conductor, she studied at the Tanglewood Music Festival under Roger Norrington and Leonard Bernstein and served as a conducting fellow at the Aspen Music Festival. As a harpsichordist, she studied with Gustav Leonhardt, and took first prize and the audience choice award in the 1991 Spivey International Harpsichord Competition. She founded Apollo’s Fire in 1992, and enjoys a busy career performing and touring nationally and internationally. Sorrell’s guest conducting engagements include the Pittsburgh Symphony (conductor and soloist in the complete Brandenburg Concertos), St. Louis Opera with the St. Louis Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, the Handel & Haydn Society in Boston and upcoming engagements with Seattle Symphony and Omaha Symphony. She has also performed with the Cleveland Orchestra as guest keyboard artist.

In addition to receiving the Erwin Bodky Award in early music, Sorrell has received several awards for her research and arrangements of early music — including the Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society, given for her work in reconstructing music from the American Federalist period (1790s). She holds an honorary doctorate from Case Western University. The daughter of Swiss and American parents, she fell in love with Appalachian folk music at the age of 14, when she moved with her family to the rural Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.

Ross Hauck (tenor), is a busy concert artist specializing in early music and premieres of new works. He last appeared in 2012 with Apollo’s Fire as Tamino in The Magic Flute. He has sung with the symphonies of Seattle, Phoenix, Chicago, Portland, Grand Rapids and Kansas City. An alumnus of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, he undertook further training at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen Festivals and at the Wolf Trap Opera Company. He can be heard on the AVIE label on the Apollo’s Fire recording of Messiah and on the Naxos label in the world premiere of the song cycle Vedem by Lori Laitman. Hauck is artistic director of the Sacred Music Foundation. Hauck comes from a family of Southern preachers and church music directors, and grew up singing spirituals and Southern hymns in his father’s church.

Amanda Powell (mezzo-soprano), enjoys a diverse career that includes classical, folk, jazz and global music performance. She holds a degree in vocal performance from Shenandoah Conservatory and a certificate in jazz improvisation from the University of Massachusetts. A nationally recognized leader in field of sacred world music, she has sung concerts around the world, including venues in Italy, Spain, France, Mongolia and China. She has performed at such venues as Wolftrap in Washington, D.C., Severance Hall in Cleveland and has appeared with orchestras in Italy, Spain, France and China. Powell grew up in the Shenandoah region and spent her summers on her grandparent’s farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia. She sang folk songs and southern hymns loudly from the back of her grandfather’s pickup truck while wandering through the mountains.

Molly Quinn (soprano), praised for her “radiant sweetness” (New York Times), makes her debut with Apollo’s Fire in these performances. Other highlights of her 2012-13 season include Dido and Aeneas with Seraphic Fire, concert appearances with The Folger Consort, Trinity Baroque Orchestra and The Clarion Music Society, and the rare opportunity to provide back-up vocals for The Rolling Stones’ 50th anniversary tour. She collaborates regularly with New York’s TENET ensemble, including its critically acclaimed Green Mountain Project. She is featured in Trinity Wall Street’s Grammy-nominated recording of Israel in Egypt. She holds a master’s degree in vocal performance from Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She grew up in Chapel Hill, N.C., where her father was a church music director.

Paul Shipper (bass vocals and guitar), has performed in all 50 states and in 17 countries with early music groups such as Tragicomedia, Pomerium, The Harp Consort, Piffaro and Artek. He is a founding member of New-York based ensemble Ex Umbris and also performs regularly with Ensemble El Mundo of California, with whom he can be heard on a Grammy-nominated disc. One the operatic stage, he has sung roles from Monteverdi to Berlioz and has devised gestures and stage direction for The New York Continuo Collective as well as for colleges and regional opera companies including Bronx Opera and Juneau Lyric Opera. He can be heard on the Harmonia Mundi, RCA, Dorian, Koch, Sono Luminus, Nonesuch, AVIE and Ex Cathedra labels, as well as on the soundtracks of various PBS miniseries, Showtime’s acclaimed series The Tudors and a few bad horror films.

Tina Bergmann (hammered dulcimer), is one of the world’s leading exponents of the instrument and has been described by folk musician Pete Seeger as “the best hammered dulcimer player I’ve heard in my life.” Playing by ear as a child, she made her professional debut at the age of 12 and led her first string band at 16. Since then, she has been in demand at folk festivals and has appeared as soloist with several symphony orchestras. She has collaborated in many crossover programs with Apollo’s Fire. Bergmann has eight CDs to her credit, and currently leads a string band called Hu$hmoney.

Olivier Brault (violin), is a French Canadian from Quebec. He brings both enthusiasm and extensive knowledge of historic musical interpretation to his work as a leading violin soloist in North America. He holds a doctorate of music from the University of Montréal. His exploration of historical performance has also led him to traditional music, dance and theatre. Brault has participated in many award-winning recordings on the Atma and Analekta labels. He often leads master classes at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal, McGill University and Oberlin Conservatory. In 2011 he received a medal from the Assemblée Nationale du Québec for his cultural contributions to Canada.

René Schiffer (cello), is a composer in historical styles as well as a leading baroque cellist of the international early music scene. A protégé of renowned Dutch baroque cellist Anner Bylsma, he toured internationally for 15 years as a member of La Petite Bande under Sigiswald Kuijken. He has appeared as viola da gamba soloist on European television, and has performed in more than 50 projects for Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra of Toronto. His compositions and reconstructions in historical style have been performed by baroque orchestras in North America, Europe and Australia. He can be heard on the Harmonia Mundi, Philips, Virgin Classics, Erato and Sony labels.

Kathie Stewart (wooden flutes and pennywhistle), has performed throughout the U.S., England and Denmark with ensembles such as The Cleveland Orchestra, Oberlin Baroque Ensemble, Cleveland Opera and ARTEK, as well as Apollo’s Fire of which she is a founding member. She serves on the early music faculty of Oberlin Conservatory and holds a master’s degree in flute performance from the Manhattan School of Music. She is co-founder of The Bach Project, a chamber ensemble devoted to J.S. Bach’s flute repertoire. For more than 15 years she has been an active folk performer on Celtic flutes, playing regularly with her Irish band, Turn the Corner, and the Scottish band, Next in Line.