RiverChor will begin its 14th season of operation with its Annual Fall Concert Sunday, November 12, 2017, at 2:00 p.m., at Zion Lutheran Church, 439 3rd Avenue South, in Clinton, IA. The concert is free, and the public is cordially invited. Fee-will offering plates will be provided.
Local singers from Morrison, IL, include Al Janiceck, Kathy Janicek, Sunny Porter, Nancy Shank, Connie Swanson-DeSpain, and Luke VanderBleek. Laurie Wilkins is from Mount Carroll, IL.
The concert opens with a set of motets beginning with René Clausen’s “All That Hath Life & Breath Praise Ye the Lord,” followed by three motets by Russian composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, “Salvation is Created” and “O Lord God,” both by Pavel Tschesnokoff, and “Nunc Dimittis” (The Song of Simeon), by Alexander Gretchaninoff. The set concludes with Johannes Brahms’s homage to Johann Sebastian Bach, “O Heiland, reiss die Himmel auf” (O Savior, Throw the Heavens Wide.)
The featured work on the concert is George Frideric Handel’s “The King Shall Rejoice.” It is the third of four Coronation Anthems Handel wrote in 1727 for the coronation of George II of England. These anthems have been performed at coronations of every British monarch since then.
“We’ve been slowly working our way through these anthems the last couple of years,” Rob Engelson, RiverChor conductor, said. “We performed ‘Let Thy Hand Be Strengthened’ on our Fall 2016 concert and ‘Zadok the Priest’ last spring, so we’re adding ‘The King Shall Rejoice’ on this concert.”
The work is in five parts and is usually performed at the point in the coronation service when the crown is placed on the monarch’s head.
After intermission, men and women will be featured separately, in works by the contemporary American composer Dan Davison: “O Sing to the Lord” will be performed by the men, and “Shout for Joy!” will be sung by the women.
The concert concludes with four choir favorites: Moses Hogan’s arrangement of “Abide With Me;” “Saints Bound For Heaven” arranged by Alice Parker and Robert Shaw; “Give Me Jesus” (from Three About Jesus) arranged by Larry Fleming; “King Jesus Is A’Listenin'” arranged by Ken Berg.
Following the concert, RiverChor will begin rehearsals for the annual performance of Handel’s “Messiah,” to be held Sunday, December 17, at Zion Lutheran. Anyone interested in singing through some of Handel’s most glorious choral music and carrying on the 80+-year tradition of “Messiah” performances in Clinton is invited to attend rehearsal.
The first is on Monday, November 13, at 7:00 p.m., in the Great Hall of First Presbyterian Church, 500 S. 4th Street, in Clinton. Scores will be provided to those who need them.