The NC State Department of
Performing Arts and Technology
presents
“Portraits of America”
NC State Chorale
Nathan Leaf, conductor
Ariadna Nacianceno, pianio
Program
Portrait of Early America
Weeping Mary
From The Social Harp, arr. Brad Holmes
Self Portraits
Reflections (text by Henry David Thoreau)
Jake Runestad (b. 1986)
Lift Every Voice and Sing (text by James Weldon Johnson)
J. Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954), arr. Roland Carter
Portrait in Motion
Railroad Medley
Traditional songs, arr. Derric Johnson
Portraits of Endurance
Hard Times
Stephen Foster (1826-1864), arr. Johnson
Soloist: Eli Sandusky
The Battle of Jericho
Spiritual, arr. Moses Hogan (1957-2003)
My Lord, What A Mornin’
Spiritual, arr. Harry Burleigh (1866-1949)
His Eye is On the Sparrow
Charles Gabriel (1856-1932), arr. Zanaida Robles
Soloists: Alyssa Allen, Sivan Cabell, Mesha Strickland
Regional Portraits
Shenandoah
Folksong, arr. James Erb
The Yellow Rose of Texas
Folksong, arr. Parker/Shaw
Clementine
Folksong, arr. Byunghee Oh
Soloist: Anna Muchukot
Sourwood Mountain
Folksong, arr. John Rutter
Soloists: Sean Li and Sully Schwartz
Expanded Portrait
Song Of Democracy (text by Walt Whitman)
Howard Hanson (1896-1981)
Welcome and Program Notes
Welcome to the concert – we are glad you are here! The year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the United States’ Declaration of Independence. For our choir concerts this semester, on April 11 and April 23, we are presenting Portraits of America, with music and texts representing many of the wide variety of regions, histories, and people of this vast country. All of the works being performed tell a part of the American story.
We open tonight’s concert with an arrangement of music representing early America. Sacred Harp singing is a tradition of sacred choral music using “shaped-notes,” which developed in New England and perpetuated in the American South starting in the late 18th century. The Social Harp was a collection of songs published in 1855 with music in the Sacred Harp tradition. The Self Portraits section of our program includes Reflections, a work built on texts by a quintessential American author, Thoreau, and Roland Carter’s arrangement of Lift Every Voice And Sing, a work which holds an essential role in American history.
The history of the railroad, and the songs about it, are fixtures in American culture, including as songs we teach to children. While often considered fun and simple, She’ll Be Comin’ Around the Mountain, I’ve Been Workin’ On the Railroad, Someone’s in the Kitchen with Dinah, and Gospel Train are rich in meaning and tell us much about our history. Similarly, the prolific song writing output of Stephen Foster, known as “the father of American music,” is a wealth of understanding about American life in the 19th century.
Choral arrangements of spirituals are a uniquely American art form and have been a core part of the choral repertoire for decades. Harry Burleigh was one of the first generation of Black composers to arrange spirituals into classical concert form. The iconic Moses Hogan was one of the first of the modern generation of concert spiritual arrangers, bringing the genre into 21st century styles. His Eye is on the Sparrow is a classic gospel hymn from 1905, presented tonight in a modern arrangement by Los Angeles composer Zanaida Robles. Regional Portraits includes four settings of folk songs from different parts of the country. The potential choices of regional folk songs are so plentiful and diverse, we could easily have filled an entire concert with similar arrangements.
The final work on the concert, Song of Democracy, is a seminal work . The composer combines texts from two different poems written by the iconic American writer, Walt Whitman. One poem was written for the dedication of a public school, the other for a college graduation. This combination of words and music by the composer presents a reflection on the question of what…or perhaps, who…is the driving force at the core of the great American experiment begun 250 years ago.
Selected Texts and Translations
Reflections Henry David Thoreau, compiled by the composer
Reflections Henry David Thoreau, compiled by the composer
We live but a fraction of our life.
We do not !ll all our pores with our blood;
we do not inspire and expire fully and entirely enough,
so that the wave of each inspiration
shall break on our farthest shores,
rolling ’til it meets the sand which bounds us,
and the sound of the surf comes back to us.
Why do we not let on the flood,
raise the gates,
and set all our wheels in motion?
There is the calmness of the lake
when there is not a breath of wind;
so it is with us.
Sometimes we are clarified and calmed
as we never were before.
We become like a still lake of purest crystal
and without an e#ort
our depths are revealed to ourselves.
All the world goes by us
and is reflected in our deeps.
Such clarity!
Obtained by such pure means!
By simple living,
by honesty of purpose.
To be calm, to be serene!
Lift Every Voice and Sing. James Weldon Johnson
Lift Every Voice and Sing. James Weldon Johnson
Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who hast by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand.
True to our God,
True to our native land.
Song of Democracy Walt Whitman
Song of Democracy Walt Whitman
An old man’s thoughts of school
An old man’s gathering youthful memories and
Blooms that youth itself cannot
Now only do I know You
O fair auroral skies – O morning dew upon the grass!
And these I see, these sparkling eyes
These stores of mystic meaning, these young lives
Building, equipping like a fleet of ships, immortal ships
Soon to sail out over the measureless seas
On the soul’s voyage
Only a lot of boys and girls?
Only the tiresome spelling, writing, ciphering classes?
Only a public school?
Ah more, infinitely more!
And you America
Cast you the real reckoning for your present?
The lights and shadows of your future, good or evil?
To girlhood, boyhood look, the teacher and the school.
Sail, Sail thy best, ship of Democracy
Of value is thy freight, ’tis not the present only
The Past is also stored in thee
Thou holdest not the venture of thyself alone
Not of thy Western continent alone
Earth’s resume entire floats on thy keel, O ship
Is steadied by thy spars
With thee Time voyages in trust, the antecedent
Nations sink or swim with thee
With all their ancient struggles, martyrs, heroes
Epics, wars, thou bear’st the other continents
Theirs, theirs as much as thine, the destination –
Port triumphant;
Steer then with good strong hand and wary eye
O helmsman, thou carriest great companions
Venerable priestly Asia sails this day with thee
And royal feudal Europe sails with thee
.
MEET THE PERFORMERS
State Chorale
Saprano
Madison Brown
Sivan Cabell
Sam Hayes
Alison Hinnant
Hayden Kocur
Maya Lennon
Anoushka Mallya
Anna Muchukot
Kyra Rizk
Anna Rushing
Eli Sandusky
Anam Siddiqi
Annalee Smith
Chloe Tackett
Abby Trantham
Alto
Alyssa Allen
Alexa Dollar
Alex Fountain
Sammie Graff
Lilian Hauser
Penny Kudlak
Allison Lassiter
Zoe Leibert
Veronica Oliech
Tsedey Pretto
Anna Russell
Mesha Strickland
Ryann Schindler
Allison Thompson
Sara Trimech
Tenor
Nic Chancafe
Caleb Homan
Michael Izzo
Jimmy Kinsella
Eli Leonard
Sean Li
Ian Livengood
Spencer Long
Chance Martin
Devon Olds
Thomas Radford
Kyle Setzer
Noah Siekierski
Ty Smoak
Taylor Sullivan
Bass
Rani Alsbinati
Elijah Ball
Elijah Ball
Kevin Ballesteros
Yi Chen
Jude Clance
Elisha Daugird
James Garrison
Max Haugh
Graham Otten
Hayden Palmer
Bennett Perry
Jack Reever
Sullivan Schwartz
Theo Stewart
Malachi Vazquez-Carr
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