WMOT, in Conjunction with Classical New England, Celebrates Black History Month with Let Freedom Sing on February 10th
“Any good crusade requires singing,” reformers like to say, and in the 19th Century, no cause was more righteous than in the decades-long crusade to abolish slavery.
WMOT-FM (89.5 fm) brings you Let Freedom Sing: The Music of The Abolitionists Sunday, February 10th at 7:00 pm.
Let Freedom Sing, hosted by NPR’s Noah Adams, chronicles of the idealistic artists, uncompromising personalities, and powerful music of the era, and looks at how these forces combined to turn abolitionism from a scorned fringe movement into a nation-changing force.
Aided by Vanderbilt and Middle Tennessee State University musicologist Dale Cockrell, Let Freedom Sing profiles:
- Henry Russell, the barnstorming Anglo-Jewish pianist and singer dubbed the master of “chutzpah and huzzah,”
- the Milford, New Hampshire-based Hutchinson Family Singers, remembered as America’s first protest singers,
- Stephen Collins Foster, America’s greatest – and most misunderstood – songwriter of the 19th century, who brought the rhetoric of the Abolitionists into America’s middle-class piano parlors,
- Chicago publisher turned composer George F. Root, author of the anthemic "Battle Cry of Freedom,"
- Songwriter Henry Clay Work, author of the Emancipation anthem "Kingdom Coming."
Hear Let Freedom Sing: Music of the Abolitionists on WMOT-FM, 89.5 FM, on February 10th at 7:00 p.m.
Music included in Let Freedom Sing:
Traditional - Steal Away
Fisk Jubilee Singers
Anon. - Come Join the Abolitionists
Deborah Anne Goss
Henry Russell - The Maniac
George Shirley, baritone; William Bolcom, piano
Jesse Hutchinson, Jr. - The Old Granite State
New Hutchinson Family Singers
Jesse Hutchinson, Jr. - Get off the Track
New Hutchinson Family Singers
Stephen Foster - Variations on Old Folks At Home
Noel Lester, piano
Stephen Foster - My Old Kentucky Home
George Shirley, baritone; William Bolcom, piano
Stephen Foster - My Old Kentucky Home arr. for Solo Flute
Paula Robison, Flute
Stephen Foster - Hard Times Come Again No More
Thomas Hampson, baritone; Jay Ungar violin; Molly Mason, bass; Tony Trishka, banjo; David Alpher, piano; Mark Rust & Garrison Keillor, background vocals
George F. Root - Where Home Is
The Harmoneion Singers: Peter Basquin, harmonium
George F. Root - Battle Cry of Freedom
John Cowan, vocals; Butch Baldassari, mandolin; Mark Combs, fiddle; Bryon House, bass; Jeffrey Taylor; accordion
George F. Root - Battle Cry of Freedom (reprise)
Mar Gardner, banjo; Rex Rideout, fiddle
Henry Clay Work - Kingdom Coming
Clifford Jackson, baritone; Joan Morris, mezzo-soprano; William Bolcom, piano; The Camerata Chorus Of Washington
Henry Clay Work – Who Shall Rule This American Nation?
Clifford Jackson, baritone; William Bolcom, piano; The Camerata Chorus Of Washington
Traditional – De Gospel Train (Get On Board)
Fisk Jubilee Singers
Jesse Hutchinson, Jr: - Get Off The Track
'The Proper Ladies -Deborah Goss and Anabel Graetz
For more information call WMOT-FM at 615 890-2800 or check out our website at http://wmot.org/