The Ballad of the Brown King & Selected Songs
The Dessoff Choirs records "The Ballad of the Brown King" by Margaret Bonds with soloists, choir and new orchestration by M. Merriweather.
In December 2018, The Dessoff Choirs recorded The Ballad of the Brown King by Margaret Bonds with soloists, choir and a new orchestration by Malcolm J. Merriweather, Dessoff’s music director. It is our goal to release the recording in December 2019 and perform it with orchestra at our 2019 Welcome Yule concerts.
The Ballad of the Brown King is a holiday cantata with text by Langston Hughes. Dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr., this little-performed and never-recorded work focuses on Balthazar of the Three Kings. First performed in 1954, the piece combines elements of various black musical traditions, such as jazz, blues, calypso, and spirituals.
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