The Camerata brings the soul of the American founding generation to life through hymns, polyphonic songs, and ballads. This concert will explores the vital and life-affirming sounds of the young Republic as its citizens sang and played forth their love of freedom and their rejection of tyranny. The rough-hewn works of citizen-composers, such as Boston tanner William Billings or Vermont tavern-keeper Jeremiah Ingalls, still ring true to our contemporary ears.

 

On this fascinating and inspiring concert, Camerata will perform songs by the many religious groups that came to Boston and New England, beginning with the Puritans in 1640, to the hymn and anthem-singing Congregationalists and Universalists of the eighteenth century, to the utopian Shakers of Maine and Massachusetts, whose enormous production of spirituals and dance songs reveal themselves as central to the American dream of the Shining City. Solemn and virtuous hymn singing contrasts with the barroom ballads that became religious songs. Carefully ordered worship contrasts with inspired dancing, joyful revelation, and hope for a better world.