oustonebonymusic.org<\/a><\/p>\nUpdating how we think about music history has been a goal of Gregory McDaniel since he became artistic director of the Houston Ebony Opera Guild (HEOG) in June. His first Christmas production, “Journey to Bethlehem,” will let the\u00a0HEOG showcase how well a more diverse composer pool fits in with the popular Christmas concert program.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cOur mission is to always promote African American composers, singers, and conductors,\u201d he said in a phone interview. \u201cAnd to use anything that has to do with the Black experience in a classical idiom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though new to the role, McDaniel has been a fan of the HEOG since he was a student at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. As the former director of traditional music at First United Methodist Church in Missouri City, he has a lot of experience creating interesting programs.<\/p>\n
“Journey to Bethlehem” is not just a solid musical look at Christ\u2019s impact from the prophecies to His birth. It\u2019s a brilliant mixture of traditions from across the cultural spectrum. One name that stands out is Betty Jackson King, a brilliant composer of operas, cantatas, and other vocal works from Chicago.\u00a0HEOG is presenting her 1978 arrangement of \u201cRise Up, Shepherds,\u201d a song that probably started with Black laborers in the Reconstruction era South and was popularized by the short story \u201cChristmas-Gifts\u201d by Ruth McEnery Stuart.<\/p>\n
King brings a plaintive, somewhat melancholy tone to the old song, utilizing a call-and-response format that makes it perfect for carols and audience engagement. It\u2019s also a piece that highlights King\u2019s classical training with its subtly complex rhythms.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the resurgence of a lot of African American music over the past number of years, Betty Jackson King is now getting a lot of the respect and appreciation that she deserves,\u201d said McDaniel. \u201cI\u2019m always elated to bring attention to composers that aren\u2019t as well known.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the classical songs sung by African Americans have survived thanks to people like King and Glenn Burleigh. HEOG is singing portions of his work “Born to Die.” Burleigh has a long history with Houston and the HEOG, having studied under the company\u2019s late founder, Dr. Robert Henry. Burleigh is a prolific composer and chronicler of African American Christian music.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe brought a sound gospel music that combined both the gospel music tradition with classical idioms,\u201d said McDaniel. \u201cYou would hear moments of Bach, Mozart, and Saint-Saens, things he studied in his youth, but combining it with the Black choral tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n
The goal isn\u2019t to overshadow other Christmas norms, but to bring the African American contribution in as a part of the musical canon alongside them as equals. McDaniel has also programmed traditional European and Russian works, including J. S. Bach\u2019s “Magnificat in D” and\u00a0Sergei Rachmaninoff\u2019s \u201cBogorodiste Devo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
The latter highlights HEOG\u2019s mission the best. Just as many audiences may not be familiar with works by African American composers, so was his guild a little hesitant to dive into a work written for the Eastern Orthodox Church performed in Slavonic. It\u2019s about as far from the American fields that spawned \u201cRise Up, Shepherds\u201d as one can get, but the central message of Christmas unites them.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first, I thought the singers were going to be against it because it\u2019s a new language, but they have caught on very well and very much love the piece,\u201d said McDaniel. \u201cIn a world of chaos there\u2019s peace, and peace comes from this being, this light. That\u2019s how I wanted to frame it. We are using this different music under the Nativity tradition, but you never can go wrong with the light. It\u2019s the same lesson every year, but we have to hear it again every year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston Ebony Opera Guild rehearsing for ‘Journey to Bethlehem.’\u00a0 Houston Ebony Opera Guild Houston Ebony Opera Guild rehearsing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-58659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}