The Word Was God - Rosephanye Powell | Advent Calendar Project 2.0

The Advent Calendar Project 2.0
The Word Was God - Rosephanye Powell
Sung by: The Choirs of Trinity Church, Boston, MA
Director of Music and Organist: Richard Webster
Associate Director of Music and Organist: Colin Lynch
Music and Worship Administrator: Marissa Hall
From Trinity Church Boston: "In October, the Trinity choirs participated in a weekend-long workshop on Black sacred choral music. This transformative experience with Dr. Brandon Boyd culminated in a concert and three services with the congregation that Sunday.
The choir's 2021 Candlelight Carols offerings represent a continuation of our our work to better appreciate and perform sacred music from a diverse range of traditional and contemporary musicians, especially female and Black composers.
To that end, we're particularly excited to sing "The Word Was God" by Rosephanye Powell (ro-SEH-fuh-nee: sort of like "Stephanie," as she explains). Powell is a living composer and a singer herself as well as a scholar of the art of the African-American spiritual. She grew up in the Christian Methodist Church hearing spirituals and sometimes accompanying them on the piano. She found her love of singing in high school with three of her girlfriends; they would sing in the bathroom, gym, cafeteria-much to the other students' annoyance-and eventually formed a gospel quartet.
"The Word Was God," one of her most popular compositions as well as her first to be published-is a word-painting of the Creation story told in John 1 ("In the beginning was the Word..."). It begins sparely and builds slowly. "Be careful not to rush," she admonishes conductors. "It gives the sense that God was in a 'mad hurry' to create the world." -Ania Wieckowski
Listen to daily videos of broadcasts of Advent and Christmas choral and organ music by women composers and arrangers, sung by participating parish, cathedral, and university choirs from the US and UK. Videos are published daily at noon EST from December 1 to 25, and hosted at amplifyfemaleco....
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