Renaissance Roots ~ American Flowerings

Featuring performances by:
Endurance Gospel Quartet
UCSC Chamber Singers directed by Michael McGushin

In the Renaissance, vocal polyphony and close harmony reached an apex of technical perfection, and their primacy in music culture was at its height. This Golden Age of choral music coincided with the first wave of European colonization of Africa and the Americas. Everywhere they went, the singing styles Europeans brought along were preserved and transformed by colonists, indigenous people and the enslaved, and strains of their musical influence has persisted through the centuries to the present day. In North America, close harmonic singing and Baroque ‘fugueing’ evolved into Sacred Harp psalmody. Following the Civil War, creative blends in opposing contexts – North/South, urban/rural, classical/pop, White/Black – gave birth to various uniquely American styles, such as Tin-Pan Alley, Barbershop and Gospel. This concert features Renaissance sacred music along with a selection of its flowerings across four centuries, with prize-winning ensembles performing in diverse genres – sacred harp, classical choral, and gospel.