ERIKETA COST
Assistant Life & Arts Editor
There is something healing about the power of a spiritual song.
Even more so when it’s sung by a choir.
Spirituals were created by Black Christians of the south, who wrote these songs during times of adversity and slavery. They were inspired by hymns, bible verses and religious ideas.
As much as I tried to hold it in, the spirituals performed from renowned guest-artist Stacey Gibbs and Fredonia Choirs moved me to tears at their ninth annual choral festival.
Over the past few months, Fredonia choral conductors Vernon Huff (Chamber Choir), Melvin Unger (College Choir) and Adam Luebke (Women’s Choir) have been preparing the students to work with Gibbs, a world-famous conductor, arranger and musician.
In the past, the festival has focused primarily on hosting collegiate choral conductors.
But this year, the choirs had the experience of working with a world-famous arranger of choral music.
“This year, Stacey Gibbs will bring a wealth of different experiences: he is the premiere arranger of African American spirituals, a professional conductor and entrepreneur,” said Huff.
Huff explained the importance of spiritual pieces.
“Spirituals are the music of slaves, and incredibly important to the history of African Americans, and to the United States.
“To me, this music is incredibly beautiful and powerful. These old tunes have been arranged by generations of musicians, but in my opinion, Gibbs’ settings are some of the most incredible. They are hauntingly beautiful, rhythmically challenging and uplifting — all at the same time,” said Huff.
Gibbs first conducted his arrangement of “Little David, Play on Your Harp” with the Women’s Choir.
The piece was very playful.
Each member smiled and exuded joy and energy on their face as they sang and grooved.
“Stacey Gibbs was very adamant about using crisp constants and dynamics in order to create the excitement the piece had to offer,” said junior music education major Danielle Zareski of the Women’s Choir.
“As simple as it is, he also had us smile, which surprisingly gave us an energized sound. It was so cool to see how such simple things could bring a whole new life to the piece.”
The sopranos lofty and in-tune note at the end did not go unnoticed.
Conductor Luebke said before the piece, “One of the treats of teaching here at Fredonia is seeing our students interact with guest artists.”
“Watching this year’s clinician has been nothing short of astoundment. For those of us in the choral world, Stacey Gibbs is one of the great names. Perhaps the most performed and commissioned arrangers of African American spiritual writing today . . . We are so excited to have him here to work with our students,” said Luebke.
Gibbs’ arrangement of “All My Trials” performed with the Chamber Choir was the piece that welled tears in my eyes.
This beautiful spiritual was filled with dissonant harmonies and dynamically narrative lines.
Every consonant was pronounced with confidence and clarity.
With the College Choir, Gibbs performed his arrangement of “I Don’ Feel No Way Tried.”
This piece was uplifting and joyful.
It ended on quite a high note. Literally.
Gibbs announced before the last piece, “They [students] were prepared, they were energetic, and they were committed to their artwork.”
All three choirs performed Gibbs’ arrangement of “Rockin’ Jerusalem” to end the concert.
The piece was very percussive; each vocal section complemented the other as they told the spiritual narrative filled with bluesy inflections and harmonies.
“Stacey Gibbs is an incredibly passionate person who loves what he does. It was such a breath of fresh air to make beautiful music with someone so full of life and intelligence,” said Zareski.