Makela adds "Down by the River" to its repertoire

Makela recently had "Music Day" - a day for selecting new music to add to our repertoire.  It's always an interesting process to see how musicians select the pieces they will perform.  The music selection process is partly determined by group demographics.  For instance, our a cappella group of 12 individuals can just as easily disqualify a piece written for a 4 person quartet as we would a piece written for an 80 person choir with full orchestra accompaniment.  Since we're a co-ed group, we also steer away from arrangements that are for all male voice parts or all female voice parts.  Even then, however, that leaves literally thousands of songs that were either written with a cappella groups in mind or that can be arranged for a cappella.

We can narrow it down somewhat with the fact that we are a group dedicated to Jewish music - but what does that mean exactly?  Everyone in the group has a somewhat different take on what exactly "Jewish music" is.  Of course this includes traditional Jewish folk songs and liturgical pieces.  But we've also extended that to include secular Israeli or Hebrew music or music written in English about Israel.  Let's not forget that there's a rich wealth of folk music written in the other Jewish languages, Yiddish and Ladino.  And what about secular American music written by Jewish composers like Gershwin, Berlin and Bernstein?  "White Christmas" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" were written by Jewish musicians.  The Kennedy Center here in D.C. was opened with Bernstein's "Mass."  Are these Jewish music? 

On top of that, the group doesn't limit itself to only Jewish music.  Sometimes we sing secular pop music because we like it, though we do try to find connections where we can.  For instance, it's easy to see the connection that can be made to George Michael's Faith, one of the songs that we cover.

So how do we pick our music?  The benefit of being a fairly small group is that we can engage in a democratic process for music selection.  Larger groups often don't have that option.  We're also a large enough group, however, that we enjoy a diversity of musical tastes, exposure and philosophies among our members.  So our process for Music Day is simple - everybody brings one or two songs for a kind of show-and-tell, and we vote.

One of the new songs we ended up selecting is "Down to the River to Pray" (also known as "Down by the River" and "Down in the River") as popularized by Alison Krauss.  We will be using our own a cappella arrangement, and there are already numerous versions of the song out there.  Here's Krauss's version:

The song is an American tune.  According to this source, it's a 19th century slave song that became popular as an American folk tune and exists in multiple variations, including variations in title and some of the lyrics.

So why this song?  What makes this a Makela song as opposed to the all the other options out there?  For one, it's gorgeous and we're confident that we can perform this song beautifully.  We are lucky to have strong bases with booming resonance, saccharine sopranos and Earthy tenors and altos that all combine together to create the right vocal blend for a folksy American spiritual.  Compare the above video with this video of the same song, different rendition, by the King's Singers - a renowned British a cappella group.  It's extremely well executed but a totally different angle on the piece (complete with received pronunciation).

We also already have access to a cappella arrangements of this song that we can work from, as opposed to other songs that we also loved but that would have required arranging from the ground up. But these are mainly practical considerations that could have been fulfilled by other selections.

Our choice of "Down by the River" is particularly interesting given that we're a group dedicated to Jewish music but this song makes reference to baptism and contains other Christian elements.  Certainly there are religious concepts that resonate universally, and this song has the added benefit of bringing an interfaith element to our repertoire.  But why this song in particular?

Everyone in our group has different reasons for why they relate to certain songs, and this is no exception.  Emily, one of Makela's members, explains her own very personal reasons for why  "Down by the River" got her vote:  "We already sing Hatikva, the Israeli national anthem, and a lot of music in Hebrew.  It's important to me, as someone who is both Jewish and American, that we also sing distinctly American music because these two facets of my identity inform one another.  It doesn't have to be 'America the Beautiful,' but just having something that nods in that direction means that our repertoire paints a more holistic picture of who I am and what I'm singing about.  I jumped on the opportunity to vote for this song because I think it achieves that purpose really well."

There's also an argument to be made that American folk spirituals have quite a bit in common with many forms of Jewish music. They have a soulful, bluesy, sung-from-the-gut quality that is also present in the Jewish musical tradition.  This might lead lovers of Jewish music to also naturally enjoy traditional American tunes.

So it makes sense that several Makela members voice a simple aesthetic admiration for folk and spiritual music and enjoy having the opportunity to perform a piece incorporating those genres.  Many of us had already developed an appreciation for versions of this song when Makela's music director, Joel, nominated it at Music Night.  When several members started singing along as Joel played it for us that may have been a sign.  It's also something different that creates a new challenge for us, a new style and tone to experiment with as we strive to define our sound, our "signature blend" of voices, while also creating a new sound to catch the audience's attention during a performance.

We look forward to sharing our rendition of "Down by the River" soon.