| | 
The Romanian composer Gheorghe Cucu was born in Puiesti, Vaslui, on February 11, 1882. He died in Bucharest on August 24, 1932. He studied at Bucharest’s choir school then at Bucharest’s Conservatory from 1899 to 1905. He studied with Gheorghe Bratianu (music theory), Dumitru Chiriac (harmony, counterpoint and conducting) and Eduard Wachmann (harmony). He also studied counterpoint at Schola Cantorum de Paris with Vincent d’Indy from 1908 to 1911. He conducted several church choirs in Bucharest and then, he became the director of an MCC choir and of Carmen’s choir. He taught harmony at Conservatory from 1918 to 1932 and at Academia de Muzica Religioasa from 1928 to 1932. His students brought him many folk songs he later used in his own compositions, like Christmas and opera songs. He and George Enescu were the most eminent Romanian composer.
|
| | | 
-
|
| | | 
“Amazing Grace” is one of the most famous Protestant songs of Great-Britain, Ireland and the United States. Lyrics were written by John Newton probably between 1760 and 1761. It was published by Newton and William Cowper in 1779, in Olney Hymns collection. John Newton (1725-1807) was the captain of a slave ship. He wrote in his diary on May 10, 1748, that there was a storm and that there was a risk for the ship to sink on his way back. He felt a “great release.” After surviving the storm, he became a vicar and gave up on slave trading; he even campaigned for the abolition. Newton did not compose the melody and there were many tries before being definitely associated with this one. It is said to be an old Irish or Scottish melody, but some people would say that it was a slave song and so it would come from South Africa. Anyway, this spiritual even influenced Celtic music; it is today one of the most melody played on the bagpipes. Barbara Pollard Dawson was born in 1957 in Derby, England. She was a nurse supervisor but suffering from an industrial accident, she went back to studying the piano, singing and theory. She is now teaching music in Dordogne and conducting the vocal ensemble “Les Vocalies.”
|
| | | 
Arrangement for SATB a cappella choir on a traditional tune by Michel Prezman. |
|
|
