AMERICAN HARMONY explores the depths of one of America’s earliest repertoires: the New England Hymn. In eighteenth-century New England, small towns forged their musical identities through hymn books—collections of homegrown counterpoint that served as the communal heartbeat of a nascent society. When these songs emerged in the founding decades of the Republic, they were born of necessity: among many functions, they were a means to process collective grief, navigate the frailty of life, and articulate moral responsibilities.

​

Driven by fervent, full-throated music-making, these hymns are “suggestive of the strife, the commotion, the battle cries of a transitional period of society, struggling onward toward dimly seen ideals” (Harriett Beecher Stowe). 

The centerpiece of this concert is a new commission by Celeste Oram. Structured as a short radio program, the work bridges the gap between present and past, contemplating the nature of mortality and the never-ending endings that define the human experience. 

​

Ruckus with Tim Eriksen (acclaimed for his work on the Cold Mountain soundtrack) and John Taylor Ward create an ensemble of elite singers and instrumentalists from the American early music and ‘shapenote’ traditions. Together, they highlight the time-honored tradition of making new from the old, treating the act of performance as a ritual of remembrance and an exercise in moral resonance.

 

“like that same ocean aroused by stormy winds, when deep calleth unto deep in tempestuous confusion, out of which at last is evolved union and harmony”