Fieldwork Assignment by Riley Horoshko

Virtual Fieldwork Assignment

tup86130 — 2024-04-23 00:47:25 UTC

I listened to six different morning meditations from the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas.

Morning Meditations

tup86130 — 2024-04-23 01:00:07 UTC

"He touched me", was a beautiful and upbeat way to celebrate all fathers and father figures on Father's Day. It was truly beautiful.

"Lift every voice and sing", I actually already long this song and hear it before every lacrosse game in February in honor of Black History Month so it was so cool to hear it from this choir.

"City called heaven", Geovanni Diaz in this meditation is so amazing and smooth. He is a great performer and made this song his own and it was super powerful. I also loved the suspenseful music behind his singing.

"My tribute", the opening of this meditation with the piano is very calming and smooth, it gives a great sense of pride for the song that is about to be sung. Susan Ben's voice is very deep and strong in this song.

"I love you, Jesus", this song threw me off because it opens with the sounds of waves crashing and is very light-hearted and fun. The men's choir did a great job on this.

"I am your child", Thomas V. Lynch song this song and while he is very young you can feel the emotion and soul behind his voice when he sings about being a child of God.

The History of African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas

tup86130 — 2024-04-23 01:05:51 UTC

This church was founded in 1792 in Philadelphia, it is the first black Episcopal Church in the whole United States. While the location of the church has moved over the years do to the growth of the congregation and other factors, the true soul of the church has never changed.

Differences between live and recorded performances

tup86130 — 2024-04-23 15:38:33 UTC

While I have never seen the African Episcopal Church of St.Thomas' choir live, I have seen other choirs' lives before. The music was still amazing from this church however you did not get to be truly immersed in the culture. The singers we hard to hear on some of the morning meditations especially the "He Touched Me" because the band was right next to the camera so the actual singers were difficult to hear. Overall you still got the message and passion that the performers intended.

Diversity

tup86130 — 2024-04-23 15:42:51 UTC

This choir is majority African Americans but the age and gender vary. There were a lot of solos performed by teenagers or younger. They also have an all-male choir and an all-female choir, then a large conjoined choir. The music that was performed varied from newer songs to older classic gospel music.