CUUC Music: Sun Jan 24

In honor of CUUC’s Black Lives Matter service, Sunday morning music includes works by composers of African descent and a setting of an Afro-Cuban text by a European composer.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) was an English-born composer of Creole heritage. His 24 Negro Melodies, the source for the first two works in the Prelude, are his arrangements of traditional tunes from Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States. His style is warmly romantic and evocative of a virtuosic tradition of piano performance.

Scott Joplin’s numerous rags for solo piano need little introduction; they are among the classics of American music. “The Entertainer”, featured in “The Sting” from the early 1970’s, is widely credited with triggering a resurgence of interest in this popular musical form.

Xavier Montsalvatge (1912-2002) was a Catalonian composer, whose music reflects the influence of Maurice Ravel as well as Caribbean traditions. Because of the wealth of commerce between the Costa Brava of Spain and Cuba, popular music of the Antilles came to be known in that part of the Iberian peninsula. Montsalvatge’s Five Canciones Negras from 1945 are all based on texts by Cuban poets dealing with colonialism and Afro-Cuban culture. The Canción para dormir a un negrito is an enticing lullaby in the rhythm of an Habanera.

Prelude: Adam Kent, piano
Bamboula                       

West Indian, arr. by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Take Nabandji           

South East African, arr. by Coleridge-Taylor

The Easy Winners and Maple Leaf Rag

                                    Scott Joplin           

Opening Music: Kim Force, soprano
Canción para dormir a un negrito* from Canciones Negras

                                    Xavier Montsalvatge

*Translation:

Close your eyes and slumber, my little tiny one; little child, oh, won’t you go to sleep!
Coconut head, coffee bean, with freckled eyelids, your eyes wide open, like two 

windows looking out to the sea. Close your eyes and slumber, my frightened little one, the Bogeyman can devour you. No longer are you a slave! And, if you sleep enough, the lord of the manor will buy you a suit with buttons, so you can be a “groom”. Close your eyes and slumber, my little tiny one, etc. 
 

Offertory:
The Entertainer

                                    Joplin