Make a Joyful Noise: Mainstreams and Backwaters of American Psalmody, 1770-1840

Oregon State University Choir (Performer), Ron Jeffers (Conductor) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Oregon State University Choir
• Conductor: Ron Jeffers
• Audio CD (July 16, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: New World Records
• ASIN: B0000030FK
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #270,913 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good introduction to some little-known music, March 8, 1999

By 

Adam Cole "Ministry of Silly Walks" (Menlo Park, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Make a Joyful Noise: Mainstreams and Backwaters of American Psalmody, 1770-1840 (Audio CD)

I first heard this recording on an old scratchy LP in a college course on American music. Like most people, I was ignorant of the existence of 'fuging tunes', which are an odd and uniquely American blend of baroque counterpoint and homespun harmonies. This extended polyphony is often tacked onto the end of the homophonic chorales or hymns which constitute the standard fare of modern American Protestant church services (and are often boring and bland by comparison, in my opinion). What was in Europe a past-time for the elite became music for the masses in the New World: These tunes were sung not by choirs but by congregations, and proliferated in folk tunebooks such as the 'Southern Harmony', which still survives today.

The performance by the Oregon State group is youthful and exuberant... Overall intonation and clarity are excellent, while vocal technique is somewhat unrefined (this is actually appropriate, given the origins of this music). If you've never experienced early American vocal music, you will be surprised and pleased with this recording.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It grows on you, April 25, 2005

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G. Shadduck "gshadduck" (Mpls, MN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Make a Joyful Noise: Mainstreams and Backwaters of American Psalmody, 1770-1840 (Audio CD)

I'd like to echo what Mr. Cole wrote 6 years ago: the apparent youth of the singers is a benefit. This CD grows on you. It has staying power, variety, honesty, vigor... and sopranos that excel. Listen to what offsetting effect they have against the young basses on track 2, Chesterfield. Or the seductive tracks 5 and 13.

The choir members are now pushing 50 years old. I would like to thank them for the pleasure and joyous renewal that they give so many years after these performances.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars American and English Psalmody, January 23, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Make a Joyful Noise: Mainstreams and Backwaters of American Psalmody, 1770-1840 (Audio CD)

The music of American psalmodists such as Billings and Belcher, while it does represent some of the great achievements of the psalmody tradition, is not the whole of this tradition. The fuging tune and related music (anthems etc.) stem originally from English psalmody (the "West Gallery tradition"), the works of men such as William Tans'ur and Aaron Williams. They, their music and the people who sang it in England, as in the US, were very much not of the elite: they were of "the folk", hence their folk music. Pieces by Tans'ur can be found, for those who are interested, in US psalmodies still in print, such as "Harmonia Sacra"