Topic: Movement - Liturgical Dance
Costumes for liturgical dance performances are easily available from companies that supply dancers. Most are empire-style dresses with flowing, ankle-length skirts that cost between $25 and $40. Individuals usually don’t wear shoes.
In the early years, the steps used by liturgical dancers looked like animations of photographs of Ruth St. Denis and Isadora Duncan. As mentioned in the post for 14 October 2018, both were known for dramatizing the spiritual roots of dance.
The latter may have been especially influential because a biographical film starring Vanessa Redgrave was released in 1968. [1] Even people who didn’t see the movie, saw photographs of Duncan and knew she died when her scarf got caught in the wheels of an automobile.
A performance of "Kumbaya" by the gospel youth choir of the Lutheran church in Heimerdingen, Germany, featured two girls who danced with long, thin, red scarves. They were dressed, like the rest of the group, in dark slacks and tops.
They began kneeling on the floor. As the stood, they crossed their arms in front, raised them over their heads, brought them down to a stretched out position before lowering them in a standard port de bras. On the second line of the verse, they lifted their outside arms with the scarves into a modified first arabesque a terre.
After turning slowly one time with their arms stretched wide, they took two large chassé steps away from each other. As they moved they swept their arms in circles in front of their bodies twice. Finally, they knelt down again sweeping their scarves with them.
The arrangement alternated vocal parts with saxophone solos. The dance routine was repeated without variation during every instrumental interlude.
The youth choir was formed in 2010 for a concert. [2] Since then, they’ve met weekly for ninety minutes [3] to prepare music for "music service, choir day in Ludwigsburg, communion of the newly confirmed, summer serenade, gospel concert, Christmas Eve family worship." [4] This performance was a concert. I don’t know if they used dancers during services.
The group believed gospel music was "originally the Christian songs of black Americans" that did not rely on the Old Testament. "Their lyrics tell of the joy of life and confidence born of faith, and of the love of God and of men." [5]
Their instruments were borrowed from the African diaspora, but they were assimilated into European ideas of orchestration. Instead of a bass drum hitting a downbeat and a snare playing the off beats, a floor drum was hit with a stick on the first count. A woman used her hands on two other floor drums on the other beats. Two cajones played on the final beat of each measure, while two other drum heads were beaten.
Instead of an organ, the group used a digital piano as its primary accompanying instrument. I could see a string bass and electric guitar being played, but couldn’t hear them.
The choir stood in the altar space with the bass and guitar to its left. Instead of an open area in front of the altar rail for a mourning bench, space was reserved between the rail and the steps to the altar for communers. The drummers were seated at the choir’s right, and the piano and saxophone at its left. The dancers were behind the rail, with the first pews nearby.
The saxophone did not embellish its part with repetitions, but the vocal part became more complex. It began with a soprano soloist singing "kumbaya." After the saxophone interlude, the choir repeated the "kumbaya" verse. The reed and choir continued to trade the melody, which the choir repeated with some harmony. Its final repetition of the "kumbaya" verse used a descant.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: soprano
Vocal Group: young men and women
Vocal Director: Ricarda Kost
Instrumental Soloist: saxophone
Instrumental Accompaniment: digital piano, electric guitar
Rhythm Accompaniment: three floor drums, string bass
Credits
There were none.
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: kum BY yah, Lort
Verses: kumbaya, singing, praying, crying
Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: the German translation used "herr" for "Lord"; "kumbaya" was "come to us." [6]
Basic Form: three-verse song framed by kumbaya
Verse Repetition Pattern: AxxxA with A = kumbaya
Ending: repeated "oh Lord kumbaya" six times
Unique Features: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: slow
Basic Structure: alternated vocal and instrumental parts with the vocal part increasing in complexity with repetitions.
Singing Style: one syllable to one note
Vocal-Orchestral Dynamics: the instruments provided a simple cadence for both the singers and the saxophone; the camera’s microphone only picked up the sax and piano.
Notes on Performance
Occasion: concert, 2016
Location: altar, Peter-und-Paul-Kirche, Heimerdingen, Baden-Württemberg
Microphones: the soloist had a hand-held mike
Clothing: everyone wore dark slacks and tee-shirts with the choir’s name in white on the backs.
Notes on Movement
The singers stood still with their arms at their sides facing front. The musicians also exerted no extra movements. The director used his arms.
Notes on Audience
All the seats were taken that could be seen in the video. During the performance, no one made any response. The film ended before any applause.
Notes on Performers
The parish of Heimerdingen dated back to the ninth century. The area came under the control of the Grafen von Württemberg who turned it Protestant in 1534. The current building was erected after a 1776 fire destroyed the previous one. The interior was simplified in 1964. [7]
The area was ravaged by wars, epidemics and famines during the Reformation, and was occupied by the French in 1945. It since has been absorbed into the city of Ditzingen within the region of Stuttgart. [8]
Availability
YouTube: uploaded by Gospelchor Heimerdingen on 13 March 2016.
End Notes
1. Isadora. Directed by Karel Reisz. Universal Pictures. 18 December 1968. Its focus on Duncan’s personal life would not have attracted conservative religious viewers, so knowledge about her dance would have been a consequence of publicity on television.
2. "Go Gospel." Choir’s website. Translation by Google Translate.
3. "Gospelchor." Church’s website.
4. Choir website.
5. Choir website. Translation by Google Translate. They believed Negro spirituals relied on the Old Testament.
6. Google Translate of "komm zu uns, herr."
7. German Wikipedia. "Peter-und-Paul-Kirche (Heimerdingen)."
8. German Wikipedia. "Heimerdingen."
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