The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress (AFC) documents and shares the many expressions of human experience to inspire, revitalize, and perpetuate living cultural traditions. Designated by the U.S. Congress as the national center for folklife documentation and research, the Center meets its mission by stewarding archival collections, creating public programs, and exchanging knowledge and expertise. The Center’s vision is to encourage diversity of expression and foster community participation in the collective creation of cultural memory. Here is how you can make the most of your visit to the American Folklife Center.
A fourth area of distinction is:
Religious folklife includes, but is not limited to, vernacular hymn singing recorded in homes, small churches, community centers, and at festivals; documentation of wedding music and customs, funeral music; vernacular sermons (especially, but not exclusively, African American sermons); interviews with preachers and congregants, documentation of religious processions and material culture.
The American Folklife Center holds a number of collections documenting vernacular religious expression related to Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Orthodox Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. As you survey these holdings, consider how the psalms factor into different faith traditions. Be mindful, too, that Psalm 23 (which is used in the second movement of Chichester Psalms) can be heard in at least three different recordings in AFC collections. Two of these recordings were made within days of July 15, 1965, premiere of Chichester Psalms,with Bernstein at the podium leading the New York Philharmonic and the Camerata Singers.
For example, in the Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian collection, you will find a recording from the Newport Folk Festival featuring the Cape Breton Singers, who interpret this psalm on July 23, 1965.
Interestingly, a “parody” of Psalm 23 from the following month is also available!
This same psalm appears again in a recording from 1966, which can be heard in the Pete Welding collection, 1958-1995, bulk 1961-1980. This responsorial reading is of Rev. Rubin Lacy and his congregation at Union Baptist Church of Ridgecrest, California.
Indeed, Psalm 23 is among the best-known and widely interpreted psalms, but it’s not the only one in AFC collections.
In the Don Yoder collection of tape and disc recordings, you will be able to hear a recording of Psalm 42, as rendered by members of the Amish community in Indiana.
Other divisions at the Library of Congress hold a variety of materials related to Leonard Bernstein, including holograph lyric sheets of Chichester Psalms and images of the composer over the course of his life. Below, find a sampling of these resources.
For more information about Library of Congress holdings related to Leonard Bernstein, see the Resource Guide published by the Library’s Music Division.
The online Leonard Bernstein collection makes available a significant selection of correspondence both to and from Bernstein, musical sketches for several of his major works, writings, including the scripts for his Young People’s Concerts, Thursday Evening Previews, Omnibus, and Ford Presents, his scrapbooks, photographs, and audio-visual materials.
Manuscripts and documents related to Chichester Psalms (Music Division, Library of Congress)
Correspondence between Bernstein and Cyril Solomon, a British physician to whom Chichester Psalms was dedicated can be found in the Leonard Bernstein collection, circa 1900-1995 (Music Division, Library of Congress)
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