'Down in the Valley to Pray' was featured in the film 'O Brother Where Art Thou?' (only it was titled 'Down in River to Pray'), workers in a field sang the song with great fervor as they swung their hoes plowing the land. The song is African-American in origin, perhaps with some Appalachian influence due to the use of the pentatonic scale. The piece should be sung with great energy, with an ever-strong pulse on the first beat of the measure. The ever-popular spiritual, 'Wade in the Water' is especially fun to sing in this arrangement. It lends itself to accompaniment well, or it can be sung a cappella. The great 3 part harmony mixed with the very expressive dynamics make it very fun to sing. The wonderful melody hardly needs decoration. At times, indeed, it seems that harmony merely gets in its way. This arrangement is intended to highlight the tune's effectiveness through its simple and straightforward persentation. With the possible exception of a slight slowing in the final few measures, the piece should remain in tempo thorughout, and dynamics should err on the side of comfortably soft. 'The 'river' figure should remain a background murmur with little or no change in dynamic. Joan Szymko's 'Amazing Grace' is very exciting, there isn't a boring line in any voice part. 'Simple Gifts' is one of 12.000 songs composed by the Shakers during the middle of the nineteenth century. Thought to be written by Shaker Elder Joseph Brackett, the song was both an instruction for like as well sa an instruction for dancing. This arrangement starts out unison before breaking off into glorious 4 part women's harmonies. |
