PURCHASE is a multipart musical history project, presenting music connected to the Louisiana Purchase, 1763-1863.  The musical sources include music from the United States, France, Haiti and Mexico.  The US music is African American and Native American, though all sources are not in every part of the project. 

The six thematic parts of PURCHASE are:

Hope

Freedom

Justice

         Strife

         Exile

         Hiding

This presentation will be the Hiding portion of the project.

PURCHASE: Hiding is a performance of African American spirituals, Baroque and Classical vocal music from England and France, and traditional songs from Spain, France and Haiti. These songs are presented alongside a historical narrative in a dramatic context.  Rhetorical and musical themes of power, enslavement, parental love and the search for freedom are woven throughout PURCHASE.

The history of what is called “Early Music” has centered on the music of Western Europe. In the United States, the traditions of Africans, Native Americans and Euro Americans were occurring side by side. This often-overlooked simultaneity can be viewed, crisscrossing the geographical outlines of the Louisiana Purchase. The Purchase is the huge tract of land sold to Jefferson and the United States in 1803 by Napoleon and France. 

An opera, Proserpine, by Napoleon’s chapel master, Giovanni Paisiello, premiered in the same year as the Louisiana Purchase.  Music from the opera will be juxtaposed with Spirituals and other traditional songs to give voice to everyday people–enslaved Africans, Native Americans, and European immigrants–who forged a new country.