Prelude –

Cantata for voice and piano (1964)

Prelude –

Rondo

Recitative

Aria

Toccata

So little is known about John Carter that we cannot be sure even when he died (the date given above represents the consensus of conjectural opinion). We know that he was born into an African-American family in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1932, studied at Oberlin College, Ohio, became an accomplished pianist, and taught at the Federal City College, Washington DC, in the 1970s. As for his composing activities, there is general agreement only that he was composer in residence with the National Symphony Orchestras in 1968. A solitary voice claims that he was a “prolific” although, in fact, there is no evidence of anything but arrangements of hymns, carols and spirituals and it is difficult to trace performances of anything but the present Cantata – of which Christine Brewer is a prominent (but by no means the only) exponent.

It has been suggested that the Carter Cantata was inspired by the civil rights movement that was in progress in the United States at the time it was written. Certainly, it is a fascinating symbol of integration in the way it so ingeniously sets a selection of spirituals in a classical context. A modern version of the time-honoured cantata, it is made up of five movements each one of which is shaped according to a conventional instrumental or vocal form. As the Prelude indicates, the piano is an essential factor in the integration, establishing the sophisticated harmonic credentials of the work before delivering an exuberantly colourful and rhythmically idiomatic accompaniment to the voice in the “Peter go ring dem bells” Rondo. The spare or otheriwise severe piano harmonies admit no suspicion of sentimentality to the Recitative setting of “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child,” just as in Aria they exclude any hint of religiosity in the vocally passionate treatment of “Let us break bread together.” The concluding Toccata drives on the galloping rhythms appropriate to “Ride on King Jesus” to a percussive end effectively echoing the ringing harmonies of “Peter go ring dem bells.”