A Lunchtime carillon concert. Free. Free Parking in the lot in front of the tower on Euclid Avenue also along Bellflower Rd behind the tower, a great place to hear the concert.
You can also tune in on your computer, tablet, or smart phone through our YouTube channel
Sheryl Modlin, Carillonneur
View the Live Stream
Program
Lift Every Voice and Sing. J. Rosamond Johnson
Arr. John Courter
We Shall Overcome. Rev. Charles Albert Tindley
Arr. Milford Myhre
Amazing Grace. John Newton
Arr. Loyd Lott
Go Tell It on the Mountain. African American Spiritual
Arr. Tiffany Ng
This Little Light of Mine. Harry Dixon Loes
Arr. Tiffany Ng
Allegretto. Florence Price
Arr. Tiffany Ng
Good News, Chariot’s A-Comin’. Spiritual
Arr. Jen Wang
Precious Lord. Thomas Dorsey
Arr. John Courter
The Cascades. Scott Joplin
Arr. Wesley Arai
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. Arr. Milford Myhre
Buses Are A- Coming Arr. Jen Wang
Wade in the Water. Spiritual
Arr. Peter Paul Olejar
Notes on the Program
In 1926 Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) designated February 7 as the start of the first Negro History Week. The birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and Frederick Douglas (February 14) fell during this week. The son of former slaves, Woodson has been called the “Father of Black History”. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Berea College, and was the second African American (after W.E.B. DuBois) to earn a Ph.D. at Harvard. In 1976 President Gerald Ford recognized February as Black History Month.
Lift Every Voice (Black National Anthem)
The lyrics were written as a poem by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938), then set to music by his brother J. Rosamond Johnson in 1899. This song was written when Jim Crow was replacing slavery. The song sets an atmosphere of reverence for the suffering and sacrifices of ancestors and celebrates the liberties of the African American people.
The song was first performed February 12, 1900 by 500 school children at Stanton school in Jacksonville, Florida where James Weldon Johnson served as the school principal.
I’ll Overcome Someday was a hymn written by Charles Albert Tindley, published in 1900. I Will Overcome was sung as a protest song on the picket line in a 5 month labor strike against American Tobacco in Charleston, SC 1945-1946. Most of the workers were African American women protesting for a wage increase from 40 to 65 cents an hour and medical benefits. The song was changed to We Shall Overcome and became the anthem for the Civil Rights Movement.
Go Tell it on the Mountain. Although John Wesley Work, Jr. did not write this song, he is credited with us enjoying this spiritual. Work grew up in Nashville, TN , the son of a church choir director. Negro spirituals were not written down,but were passed down verbally plantation to plantation. Work was the first African collector of Negro spirituals. He published the “New Jubilee Songs as sung by the Fisk Jubilee singers “ (1901) and “New Jubilee Songs of the American Negro” (1907). Work studied Latin and History as a student at Fisk. Later he served as the director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers and was responsible for the tours every year.
This Little Light of Mine was originally written as a children’s song. It later became an anthem of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s.
Amazing Grace was written by John Newton (1725-1807) an English slave trader-turned Abolitionist. There is a message that forgiveness and redemption are possible despite past sins. Over time Amazing Grace has become a black spiritual.
Precious Lord was written by Rev. Thomas A. Dorsey (1899-1933) in response to his bereavement at the loss of his wife and infant son during childbirth in 1932. Rev Dorsey wrote 1000 Gospel songs and is called the”Father of Gospel music”. Precious Lord was Martin Luther King, Jr.’s favorite song. He invited Mahalia Jackson to sing it at Civil Rights rallies; and she sang it at his funeral April 1968.
Florence Price (1887-1953) was the first African -American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and the first to have a composition played by a major orchestra. She was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. She gave her first piano performance at age 4, and her first composition was published at age 11. Jim Crow laws prevented her from pursuing music studies in the South, so she studied at the New England Conservatory of Music. She settled in Chicago and during her life she composed over 300 works including 4 symphonies.
Scott Joplin (1868-1917) is known as the King of Ragtime. He wrote 40 ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet and two operas. He performed at the Chicago World’s Fair (1893) which had 27 million attendees and was largely responsible for making Ragtime a National craze. The publication of “The Maple Leaf Rag” brought him fame in 1899. The 1973 Academy Award-winning film “The Sting” featured several of Joplin’s compositions. In 1976 Joplin was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot is believed to be written by an ex-slave Wallace Willis, late 19th century, Choctaw County, Oklahoma. One interpretation is that the song is about abolition and being rescued from slavery. “Swing Low” is a call for abolitionists to come to southern slave states to rescue slaves. “Sweet Chariot” is a part of the Underground Railroad- representing an escape from slavery. Regarding the lyrics: “ I looked over Jordan…” Jordan is the code word for the Ohio River.
Buses Are A-Comin is a Freedom Sing that was composed in a Jackson, Mississippi jail cell. 1961 was the year of the Mississippi Freedom Rides. The Supreme Court ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. Southern states did not integrate buses, and the Federal Government did not enforce the rulings. Freedom Riders were Civil Rights Activists who traveled in groups by bus into the segregated South. Riders drew attention to the disregard for federal law and violence used to force segregation. Police let local mobs attack the riders, and then later arrested the riders for trespassing. “Buses Are A-Comin” was a way for riders to communicate to the jailers that more buses and riders were coming.
Wade in the Water was first published in “New Jubilee Song as Sung by Fisk Jubilee Singers “ (1901) John Wesley Work, Jr. The verses reflect the Israelite’s escape from Egypt in The book of Exodus. Harriet Tubman sang the song to tell escaping slaves to get off the trail and into the water so dogs could not follow their scent.
Sheryl Modlin has played the Arter Memorial Carillon at the Church of the Saviour, Cleveland Heights, OH for the past four years. Other musical interests include the church handbell and Good News choirs. She is an anesthesiologist with the Cleveland Clinic. Sheryl is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Friends of the McGaffin Carillon in University Circle.
The carillon can be heard from the grounds around the tower including the Case Western Reserve Campus behind the tower away from the Euclid Avenue traffic noise. Concerts are rain or shine and your car is also a place to hear the concert. Horn honking is an accepted form of applause at the end of the program.
Send music requests to info@ucbells.org
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