Azariah: Whom Jehovah Helps
My MFA Thesis Show, Azariah: Whom Jehovah Helps is this Saturday.
The show will be a participatory shape note singing, and is at 2 PM (please be on time) at the Old Songs Community Art Center at 37 South Main Street in Voorheesville, NY.
After the singing, there will be a pot-luck supper, and from 7:30-10:00 PM is the monthly, Albany-area Sacred Harp singing.
About Azariah
Part storytelling circle and part shape note singing, Azariah: Whom Jehovah Helps is a spirited journey through 19th-century rural New York. On March 4 at the Old Songs Community Art Center in Voorheesville, NY (directions), the tale of Azariah will be told through participatory singing. Participants will learn to read shape note music as the story unfolds, using a tunebook created for this event.
Set in the “burnt-over district” in late 1844 (so-called because there was no more “fuel left to burn,” meaning “people left to convert”), the story follows a young man named Azariah, a member of the Millerite sect, that believed Jesus would return to earth by October 22, 1844. After the prophecy failed, during the “Great Disappointment” that followed, Azariah begins to have visions in which he encounters mysterious prophets, who speak to him through song.
We receive the Azariah story as a collection of texts and songs written in the shape note style popular in New York State in the early 1800s; presently experiencing a revival in the Northeast. Named for its unique notation system, where notes have different shapes depending on their place in the musical scale, shape note music is full-volume, full-throated, enthusiastic singing. Azariah: Whom Jehovah Helps harnesses the traditional form of a shape note singing as a vehicle for storytelling that is both vigorous and provocative.
Azariah: Whom Jehovah Helps is free of charge and open to the public. No singing experience is necessary, and listeners are welcome. Tunebooks will be provided. Please join us after the singing for a potluck supper from 5:00-7:00 PM (bring dishes that can be served cold, please), and for the monthly Albany Area Sacred Harp Singing from 7:30-10:00 at the Cavalry United Methodist Church in Latham, NY.