Thursday , March 28 2024
One floor up from where George Washington said his official farewell to his troops in 1783, Western Wind and three fine actors evoked the seminal American story of slavery and emancipation.

Concert Review: Western Wind Vocal Ensemble with Slave Narrative Readings at Fraunces Tavern, NYC, 4/5/14

“Home after 30 years – to Virginia, now free.”

After escaping slavery and avoiding the clutches of the Fugitive Slave Act for three decades, James L. Smith, now officially emancipated along with the millions of African Americans in the now re-United States, visited his former Virginia home and ate a pleasant meal with his former owner. He’d been surprised to find her working in the garden in the hot sun with her own white hands.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons. Photo by Leonard J. DeFrancisci
Image source: Wikimedia Commons. Photo by Leonard J. DeFrancisci

That’s the image I was left with at the end of Salon/Sanctuary’s smartly constructed and affecting presentation of “Exodus: Dreams of the Promised Land in Antebellum America.” A combined concert and reading presentation, the show alternates folk-hymns, spirituals and Shaker songs, sung by acclaimed a capella sextet the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble, with readings from slave narratives and the writings of abolitionists by three intensely focused actors.

Jennifer Rau, Broadway veteran Rosalyn Coleman Williams (The Mountaintop, The Piano Lesson), and House of Cards‘ Reg E. Cathey read from scripts and started a bit hesitantly, but as the show went on and especially in the second half they exploded, Mr. Cathey especially, into fiery embodiments of the various historical personages they were channeling, including Frederick Douglass; abolitionist Angelina Grimké; Elizabeth Keckley, a former slave who became Mary Todd Lincoln’s seamstress and confidante; the abovementioned James L. Smith; and, not least, Solomon Northup, whose wrenching story has just been drilled deep into pop-culture’s psyche by the Oscar-winning film 12 Years a Slave. These readings built to some crescendos worthy of a Broadway stage.

Known for its eclectic repertoire, the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble lived up to its longstanding reputation with a variety of songs beautifully arranged and sung. These ranged from the mournful “Sorrow’s Tear,” which opened and closed with a lovely soprano solo, to the funny, archly performed “Complainer,” and from William Billings’s ambitious extended narrative “I Am Come Unto My Garden” to “Kadesh Ur’chatz” (“Sanctify and Wash the Hands”), a Babylonian/Sephardic Passover chant.

The Passover, of course, commemorates the ancient Hebrews’ deliverance from slavery, and Erica Gould and Jessica Gould’s program weaves the parallel stories smartly together. Rev. Elkanah Kelsey Dare’s shape-note hymn “Babylonian Captivity,” dating from the early 1800s, made the same connection earlier in the program.

Flag exhibit in Fraunces Tavern Museum
Flag exhibit in Fraunces Tavern Museum

Western Wind’s arrangements include unison singing, as in “The Happy Journey”; music that suggests solemn medieval chant (“Evening Hymn”); melody with drone (“The Bower of Prayer”); glorious devotional hymns (“Fiducia”); familiar tunes dressed in rich, powerful harmonies (“Go Down Moses”); and inspirational Civil War military music (“The Marching Song of the First Arkansas,” a version of “Glory Hallelujah” presented here as almost a production number.

The concert was held one floor up from where George Washington said his official farewell to his troops in 1783. Fraunces Tavern is Manhattan’s oldest surviving building, now a museum and restaurant. The museum is well worth a visit even without an event, but the Western Wind and the powerful readings made it an extra special occasion to plunge into the deep history of New York City – and of the whole United States, for good and ill.

About the Author

About Jon Sobel

Jon Sobel is Publisher and Executive Editor of Blogcritics as well as lead editor of the Culture & Society section. As a writer he contributes most often to Music, where he covers classical music (old and new) and other genres, and Culture, where he reviews NYC theater. Through Oren Hope Marketing and Copywriting at http://www.orenhope.com/ you can hire him to write or edit whatever marketing or journalistic materials your heart desires. Jon also writes the blog Park Odyssey at http://parkodyssey.blogspot.com/ where he is on a mission to visit every park in New York City. He has also been a part-time working musician, including as lead singer, songwriter, and bass player for Whisperado.

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One comment

  1. Dr Joseph S Maresca

    The Tavern is a fantastic restaurant for anyone living or visiting NYC.The ambiance and food are great.The mention of Frederick Douglass reminds me of the considerable skills possessed by slaves, as well as, people of color who entered the professions even before the Emancipation Proclamation.Frederick Douglass discussed the trades and the professions in his works.In essence, Douglass realized that a formal education or long apprenticeship had to deliver a marketable skill in order to be of maximum value.His musings on trade skills and the professions still have wide applicability today.