Amidon Choral Gems Choral arrangements & compositions by Peter & Mary Alice Amidon A collection of some of the Amidons’ favorites. All songs arranged by Peter Amidon.CD only - $10Mary Alice and I started singing together from the moment we met in 1975, when we were swept up in the rich world of traditional music and dance in Cambridge Massachusetts. Our harmonic sensibilities were influenced by our deep involvement in shape note singing, our tours with Larry Gordon's choruses (Word of Mouth Chorus/Northern Harmony), the a cappella singing of groups like the Waterson family (Yorkshire England) and the Nowell Sing We Clear guy quartet, and the harmonizing-by-ear we did singing with our friends and family.Mary Alice has the gift of creating the perfect melody for text and for creating songs that sound like traditional folk classics. Many of our arrangements and compositions were written originally for the Guilford (VT) Community Church, UCC Choir.All the songs on this album were recorded by Al Stockwell, and sung either by the Friends of the Amidons singers, or by the Starry Mountain Singers (which includes our son and daughter-in-law, Stefan Amidon and Zara Bode). Solstice Song by Alouette Iselin - Alouette Iselin, a wonderful singer of traditional song, lives across river from us in New Hampshire. The recording is from a live concert by the Starry Mountain Singers. audio and lyrics Blackbird by John Lennon and Paul McCartney - I am the music director of Hallowell, an a cappella SATB hospice singing group. We are realizing that as we age we need to include songs for our generation, so I arranged this for our hospice singing. There But For Fortune by Phil Ochs - Dr. Rev. Lise Sparrow, the pastor of the Guilford (VT) Community Church where I am a co-choir director, requested this for our choir to sing at one of our Sunday services, hence this arrangement. Zara Bode, the soloist, is our daughter-in-law; Mary Alice is on banjo. audio and lyrics Climbing High Mountains traditional - We learned this hymn from the singing of our friend, the late Lucy Picco Simpson (from whom we also learned "Prodigal's Return". She gleaned it from one of her collection of 400 19th and early 20th century hymnals. audio and lyrics Be Thou My Vision traditional - Mary Alice and I have always loved this old hymn - what a perfect marriage of text and melody. audio and lyrics Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen - I wrote this arrangement when the song was requested for a funeral. I thought that it was a strange choice for a funeral anthem, but it ended up being quite moving for everyone. Our daughter-in-law Zara Bode is the soloist. audio and lyrics Gift of Love by Mary Alice Amidon - Mary Alice composed this song for her late mother, Alice Copeland, who, at the time, was drifting off into the world of Alzheimers. audio and lyrics Over the Rainbow by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg - I met a man at a Vermont Hospice Conference who told me how much this song meant to him after seeing multiple rainbows as he walked out of the church after the funeral of his wife. I went home and did this arrangement for our Hallowell hospice choir. Prodigal's Return by AD Merrill, 1845 - Whenever we saw our friend, the late Lucy Picco Simpson (from whom we also learned "Climbing High Mountains"), we always made sure we sang through this old hymn she found in a 19th century hymnal. The melody and lyrics were as they are here, but the harmonization was uninspired, so we harmonized by ear, and, eventually, I did this arrangement so we could sing it with our church choir. audio and lyrics Kisses Sweeter Than Wine by Fred Hellerman, Huddie Ledbetter, Lee Hays, Pete Seeger, and Ronnie Gilbert - I cannot remember why I did this arrangement, but we sang it at my mother's (Frances Robertson Amidon) funeral with a choir of about a dozen members of my family: Mary Alice, sons, daughters in law, brothers, sisters in law, cousins, nephews and nieces. It was a pretty wonderful funeral anthem for Mom. audio and lyrics Make Me a Channel of Your Peace music by Peter Amidon - I composed this for the Guilford (VT) Community Church (UCC) Choir. The soloist is Louisa Sullivan. audio and lyrics Magnificat music by Peter Amidon - When Pastor Lise Sparrow said she was using the Magnificat text in one of our Advent Sunday services last year (2017) I looked around and found a lot of wonderful big settings of the Magnificat. We needed one that was not so big, so I wrote this. audio and lyrics Corinthians 13 music by Peter Amidon - A few years ago Pastor Lise Sparrow asked for service music that combined the classic text from "Corinthians 13" and some Hallelujahs, so I put the two together in this setting of "Corinthians 13". An Amidon choir of my brothers, sisters in law, sons, daughters in law, cousins, nephews and nieces sang this at my father's funeral. audio and lyrics So Far From Home poem by Tom Mousin, music by Peter Amidon - Pastor/singer/contra dance caller/morris dancer/calligrapher/poet Tom Mousin sends out an advent poem to friends and family every winter. This was his 2015 poem which resonates with the stories of so many refugees. audio and lyrics Still There Is Love poem by Edith Newlin Chase, music by Mary Alice Amidon - Edith Newlin Chase and her husband Heman Chase lived in Alstead New Hampshire where he ran a watermill-powered sawmill and Edith was an early education teacher and poet. Mary Alice learned this poem from Andy Davis, who was a neighbor and friend of the Chases. audio and lyrics What a Wonderful World by George Weiss and Bob Thiele - Our Hallowell hospice singers, for whom I did this arrangement, sing this a lot for men and women in hospice care. audio and lyrics Turn Around by Malvina Reynolds, Alan Greene, and Harry Belafonte - I have always had fond memories of the Kodak TV commercial that used this song in 1960. Malvina Reynolds gave herself the goal of composing a new song every day. She is also the composer of "Little Boxes". This is a wonderful song for an elementary school chorus performance. Our daughter-in-law Zara Bode is the soloist. audio and lyrics
