L'Achéron

EARLY MUSIC

Liberty Songs

The United States and freedom in music

What music accompanied the journeys, dreams and fears of the first American settlers? What songs did these pioneers sing? Which songs illustrate this quest for freedom that is so fundamental to the American spirit?

L'Achéron invites you to discover the roots of a culture that is so important today: Spanish and English music heard for the first time on American soil, but also later songs, as the United States continued to symbolise the quest for freedom in the 18th century with its revolution, then later during the Civil War, during the struggles against segregation, and the liberation of morals in the 20th century.

Beyond the historical illustration of the birth of a nation and its music, L'Achéron invites us to question the notion of freedom during the extraordinary blossoming of the United States of America: this idealised destination, this utopia, this place of fertile and influential culture, is this dream a reality?

Tessa Roos, mezzo-soprano
Johanna Bartz, flutes
Pieter Theuns, lute
Pernelle Marzorati, harp
François Joubert-Caillet, viols & direction

Stephen Foster (1826-1864)
Eulalie (1854)

Anonyme
Psalm 100 (Bay Psalm Book, 1640)

Stephen Foster
Hard times come again no more (1854)

Stephen Foster
Quadrille (Village festival, 1854)

Juan del Encina (1468- ca.1530)
Mi libertad sin sosiego (Cancionero de Palacio, 1505-1520)

Patsy Williamson (NN-NN)
Pretty home (1849)

Anonyme
New Britain (1847)

William Byerly (NN-NN)
Byerly’s Waltz (1851)

John Dickinson (1732-1808)
The Liberty song (1768)

Sam Cooke (1931-1964)
A change is gonna come (1964)

William Billings (1746-1800)
America (The New England Psalm-Singer, 1770)