Chicago a cappella presents "Roll, Jordan, Roll" on Feb. 6, 7, 13, and 14. 
 
How did the African-American spiritual come about?  Here are some thoughts about the social background and history of the spiritual, from my program notes for these upcoming performances.   
 
* * * * *

This is the first in a series of blogs to provide historical context for Chicago a cappella's upcoming February performances of spirituals, Roll, Jordan, Roll.  Some of this material didn't make it into the program notes and so is unique to this blog and this website.  Enjoy, and don't be shy about commenting if you have something to say.

We just finished the first weekend of "Chansons d'Amour:  April in Paris," the newest Chicago a cappella program.  I must say I'm very happy with the program and how it all turned out.  If you haven't ever heard the Poulenc Huit chansons françaises (Eight French songs), mostly based on 16th-century and other traditional tunes, they're worth the whole admission price on their own.  What a fabulous cycle!  Poulenc is amazing.
 
But I don't want to dwell on Poulenc -- rather, on what it takes to deliver the 16th-century chanson in a convincing manner.  This is harder than it looks.  Replicating the notes on the page is necessary but not sufficient for a great performance. 
 
So I've been thinking about this a little and have a few thoughts to offer. 
 

One learns new things every day.  In preparing program notes for our upcoming Chicago a cappella program, April in Paris, I learned something surprising.  I had already known that the justly famous Trois Chansons by Debussy are settings of texts by Charles d’Orleans.  Who was this Charles?  Well, I have blissfully assumed for about 25 years that, because so many of the texts set by the Impressionist composers were written by their contemporaries, such as Paul Verlaine and Mallarmé, then of course this Charles would have been just another one of the guys on the Parisian scene, albeit one who called himself by a rather lofty name.

This blog entry is from guest writer Bill Flowers, board member and immediate past board president of Chicago a cappella.  He is writing of the recent "Abundance" concert by Chicago a cappella, which will be repeated February 20th in downtown Chicago and Feb. 21st in Evanston.  Bill is an avid fan of both Chicago a cappella and the Count Basie Band -- this is an account of a sort of battle of the bands in his life last weekend!
 
-------------------------------
Bill writes: