cleve callison’s blog

On March 7th we attended a performance of this work by William Averitt:

The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to St. Matthew
In Twelve Scenes
Incorporating American Shape Note Hymns

Averitt is on the music faculty of Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia. This performance was in Columbia, SC, with orchestra and the University of South Carolina Concert Choir and the Cantus choir of Shenandoah, directed by USC’s Larry Wyatt. It will be performed again at the southeastern conference of the American Choral Directors Association in Memphis. The conference is March 10-12 and the Averitt performance is on the 11th.

I wanted to see this work not only because of my long interest in Sacred Harp/shape-note music, but also because our son John is a senior vocal performance major at USC. He sang the role of Judas on Sunday and will do so again in Memphis.

The work was commissioned by a group of southeastern music departments and premiered in 2000. Very much in the spirit of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, it presents Matthew’s narrative in 12 scenes with an Evangelist and Jesus in the prominent roles. Just as Bach drew from Lutheran chorales, each scene in Averitt is followed by a hymn taken from the shape-note tradition, concluding with the moving Deal Gently with Thy Servants, Lord (‘Gently Lord, O Gently Lead Us’) from  The American Vocalist of 1849.

I spoke briefly with Averitt after the performance. He first encountered shape-note music from recordings by the Boston Camerata. But only Deal Gently is presented in a straightforward shape-note style. Others use the words and the tunes, but are set in complex harmonies reflecting a contemporary classical idiom. The other ones Averitt used are:

• from Harmonia Sacra: 68 Supplication, 302 Resignation, 389 Limehouse, 114 Liberty Hall, 232 Voice of Warning, 213 Salisbury
• from The Sacred Harp: 39 Detroit, 95 Vernon, 312 Restoration, 102 Fulfillment, 38 Windham, 159 Wondrous Love, 48 Kedron

It’s not always easy music. Some in our party found it difficult going. Others were fascinated. All of us found the final chorale, Deal Gently, deeply moving. To me it’s a worthy successor to Bach’s use of the Passion Chorale ‘O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded.’ I want it sung at my funeral.

By the way, John did great.