Sounds of sacred songs will fill the sanctuary of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church Tuesday as the Greenwood Chorale performs a selection of psalms chosen by director Paul Brown.
Traditionally, the chorale’s fall performances feature classical or sacred music, and the spring performance is a lighter performance. This fall’s “Psalms” — to be performed free to the public at 7 p.m. — will mark Brown’s seventh time as director of the chorale.
The last concert he directed was
May’s “A Night at the Movies,” which he said created a more casual and fun atmosphere.
“I spend a good bit of time researching music well before the season begins. That usually helps me narrow down a major work or a theme for pulling together multiple smaller works,” he said.
He said while researching for this performance, he “came across several beautiful psalms and just followed that theme.”
Paul Brown, director of the Greenwood Chorale, chose the psalms that will be performed. This will be his seventh year as director of the chorale.
The psalm that caught Brown’s eye was Psalm 131, the third act of Leonard Bernstein’s three-part “Chichester Psalms.” Bernstein composed the piece in 1965 for a choral festival, and referred to it later as “the most accessible, B-flat majorish tonal piece I’ve ever written.”
“It’s part of a larger work I sang in college,” Brown explained, “So when I was looking for and researching music for the concert, I came across it again, and the memories made me think I wanted to perform that here.”
He described the composition as “heavenly.”
“Bernstein wrote it to be accompanied with the organ and harp, and the harp is just a heavenly sound,” Brown reflected.
“As a Christian, you enjoy things that are rooted in scripture, and it’s a chance to bring glory to God,” chorale member Dallas Baker said. Baker joined the chorale at the behest of a friend.
He said he was struck by how Greenwood’s community focused on the arts when he moved here about a year ago. Previously, he had been commuting from his home in Brandon.
“I think the psalms unite us all in a focus on God and each other. In this time, I hope it’s a night that we can all come together and enjoy fellowship and community,” Baker said.
He lauded Brown’s directorial talent. “He’s incredibly qualified as a musician and a director. He has the ability to get the best out of amateur singers such as myself.”
“Music will always be my first love. The opportunity to share that love with the members of the chorale and with the Greenwood community is deeply rewarding for me,” Brown said.
The chorale features performers from across the Delta and musicians from the Mississippi and Memphis symphonies as well as professors from Delta State University and the University of Mississippi. A 22-piece chamber orchestra will be featured in Tuesday’s performance.
“This concert is an opportunity to come together as a community and celebrate our common love and appreciation for music, despite all of our differences and in the face of all the things that tend to divide us,” Brown said.
“The psalms we’re singing are spiritually fulfilling psalms of prayer and supplication ... and I think in the hardest of times, psalms can offer some hope and reminders that someone bigger is in control and that we also are called to come together and do what we can for one another and our community,” mused Donna Bryant, a chorale member who lives near Glendora and works at Delta State University.
Bryant joined the chorale to have an activity to occupy her when her children, now 22 and 25, left her an empty-nester.
“I heard something on the radio the other day about how sports help people — you’re in rhythm with other people, reacting and moving with them — and that’s the same as being in a chorale group,” she said.
“With live music, anything can happen, and it’s different every time. It’s very fulfilling,” she added.
The music also offers light to guide the community’s persistent struggles with violence and the dire situation with Greenwood Leflore Hospital, Brown said.
“So many of the psalms are prayers, and usually in each one we’re asking for something — whether it’s asking for help, for comfort, for peace — so I would certainly assume a community that’s been recently wracked with violence would be seeking those things as well, encouragement, courage,” he pondered.
The psalms the chorale will be performing could be best described as uplifting, Brown said, though the themes vary across the selection he chose. “Some of them are very laudatory praising psalms, and some of them are asking for mercy and comfort,” he explained.
While the chorale has previously performed psalms as parts of other shows, it has never performed solely psalms.
“I thought it was something unique, then there were so many that were so nice and fit so well together from one thing to the next,” Brown explained.
The chorale has been rehearsing its performance for about three months with once a week rehearsals.
“It is rewarding to perform with new friends and be challenged to get ready for the performance and work towards something we’re proud of,” Baker said.
Audience members can anticipate a warm and uplifting evening of moving, sacred music, accompanied by a professional chamber orchestra in a beautiful sanctuary.
“Take a chance. Support the performing arts in our community with your presence. You may be surprised at what you discover about your own perceptions of traditional choral music,” Brown suggests.
- Contact Katherine Parker at 662-581-7239 or kparker@gwcommonwealth.com.
