What does American choral music actually sound like? The Phoenix Chorale devotes an entire program to that deceptively simple question in American Voices, recorded in May of 2025 at Camelback Bible Church and All Saints’ Episcopal Church.
The answer runs from Frank Ticheli’s Earth Song and Aaron Copland’s Four Motets to Eric Whitacre‘s setting of Walt Whitman – then into John McCabe’s desert soundscape Scenes in America Deserta, and back to the roots the music grew from: the Sacred Harp song “McKay,” the spiritual “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” and the Shaker tune Copland would one day bring to life in Appalachian Spring, “Simple Gifts.” At the heart of the program is the world premiere of Vista Point, a work the Chorale commissioned from composer Jennifer Lucy Cook – a piece about the awe our landscapes inspire, and the idea that the land belongs to all of us.
Christopher Gabbitas conducts, with soloists Madalyn Kiewiet, Courtney Evans, James Grandjean, Jason Raet, and Lies’l Hill.
Featured in this episode:
Ticheli – Earth Song
Copland – Four Motets
- I. Help us, O Lord
- II. Thou, O Jehovah, Abideth
- III. Have mercy on us, O my Lord
- IV. Sing ye praises to our King – Madalyn Kiewiet, soprano; Courtney Evans, alto; James Grandjean, tenor; and Jason Raetz, bass
Whitacre – All seems beautiful to me
McCabe – Scenes in America Deserta
Cook – Vista Point – Lies’l Hill, soprano
Trad. American (Sacred Harp), arr. Carol Barnett – McKay
Trad. African American (Spiritual), arr. Dale Adelmann – Swing low, sweet chariot – Caleb French, baritone
Trad. American (Shaker)/Brackett, arr. Bob Chilcott – The Gift to be Simple
