Century's Song
Item
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Score title
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Century's Song
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Composer
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Margaret Brouwer
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Program note
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Century’s Song was commissioned by the Ohio Bicentennial Commission for the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, Ohio to commemorate the Ohio Bicentennial. The ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus first performed it on February 23, 2003 with Timothy Russell, Music Director, conducting. A signature bicentennial event was the casting of a handmade bicentennial bell in each of Ohio’s 88 counties. The ringing of bells therefore became a prominent feature in the energetic fanfare, Centennial Bells. The second movement is a song that the composer set to a poem titled With the Lark by the African American poet from Dayton Ohio, Paul Laurence Dunbar. As requested by the Bicentennial Committee, this movement was composed for choir as well as for orchestra and can be performed by choir and orchestra together or for a cappella choir, or orchestra alone. The last movement is a lively march with occasional quotes from the Red Hill Special, a fiddle tune that can be heard on the recording, Folk Music of Ohio, 1938 through 1940.
Margaret Brouwer