Delta Youth Chorale Fall 2022 Concert

My Youth Community Choir to Perform Bach's Cantata 61

It has been neat to see this Musically Speaking readership grow over the last few months. Many of you I have never met in person. For that reason, you may not know that this Thursday, December 15, my Delta Youth Chorale will be performing our Fall 2022 concert. We will be live streaming it on YouTube and Facebook, Lord willing. I’d love for you to tune in LIVE or after the fact. It may help fill in more about what I am doing in music literacy and how I go about it week in and week out.

Tenth Year of DYC

I started the Delta Youth Chorale in the fall of 2013 as a creative outlet for my Geneva Academy music students and homeschoolers in the area looking for music instruction and choir. Many schools have choir as part of their curriculum during the school day. We at Geneva Academy use the school day to teach students to sing, read, and write music. The need arose for a music outlet for these students to put into practice what they are learning during the school day.

Experiencing Great Choral Literature

I feel strongly about not shying away from good choral literature just because you don’t have a world-class choral ensemble performing it. Of course, wisdom should be applied to what to sing, but too many people are unwilling or uninterested in singing some of the best music from centuries past. They are afraid they will not do it justice or not sound exceptional in their performance. But this thinking does not seem to consider the need to instill a love and thirst for what is true, good, and beautiful. We want our students to learn to love great music and great books then, they have to experience them for themselves. It’s not enough to tell them about it. They must know it.

Bach’s Cantata 61 (Nun Komm Der Heiden Heiland)

For this reason, my 7th-12th grade singers in the Delta Youth Chorale will be performing Bach’s 1714 advent cantata, which is sourced in a text by Ambrose and reworked by Martin Luther into German before being translated in English to the Advent hymn, “Savior of the Nations, Come.” As you may know, Bach does not just write new music from scratch. Instead, he glorifies and adorns existing hymn tunes and texts with supplemental glorious additions and reworkings. Often, the sopranos will keep the original melody with the other sections of the choir dancing around in glorious polyphony that paints with the text, rhythm, and counter melodies a magnificent picture of the hymn’s meaning. Returning to my above point, I can tell my students that Bach does this, or I can let them experience it, love it, and then highlight the sheer beauty and genius of what he is doing. It is more likely to ring true in their minds after tasting and seeing it for themselves.

Tune in LIVE on December 15 at 7 pm Central

We will perform this work and numerous others this Thursday at 7 pm Central time. We will be streaming the concert on YouTube as well as Facebook. Our media guy (Braden Smith) has stepped up the audio quality in the broadcast, which sounds a bit clearer and balanced to what it is like to hear it in the room. Below is the link to the YouTube stream:

The concert will also feature settings of The Holly and the Ivy, Bring A Torch Jeanette Isabella, Wexford Carol, and more.