Ecclesiastes Oratorium

Ecclesiastes Oratorium

Composed and written by

Barrie Lee Hall Jr.

Fritz Renold

Helen Savari

For

Gospel Choir and Jazz Orchestra

1. Ouverture

2. Meaningless Statement A - 1:2/12:8

3. The Pleasure Quest - 1:3-2:26

4. Can’t Swing Time - 3:1-22

5. A Time For Everything - 3:1-22

6. Empty Words - 5:1-7

7. A Pantoum of The Lonely - 4:1-16; 5:8-6:12

8. Our Only Certainty Is Now - 7:1-9:10

9. Wisdom For Time And Chance - 9:11-10:20

10. Take Your Risk - 11:1-6

11. To God your Attention - 11:7-12:7

12. Meaningless Statement B - 1:2/12:8

Instrumentation

Choir:

Solo Voice

Soprano

Mezzo Soprano

Alto

Tenor

Bass

Orchestra:

1^st Alto Saxophon

2^nd Alto Saxophon

1^st Tenor Saxophon

2^nd Tenor Saxophon

Baritone Saxophone

1^st Trumpet

2^nd Trumpet

3^rd Trumpet

4^th Trumpet

5^th Trumpet

1^st Trombone

2^nd Trombone

3^rd Trombone

4^th Basstrombone

Piano

Guitar

Hammond B3

Bass

Drums

Introduction to Ecclesiastes

The book of Ecclesiastes, is part of the old testament in the Bible and was written by King Solomon probably in a similar Zeitgeist like that of the present age. The key message in the book is that everything in life is meaningless and amounts to vanity without the joy that results out of the search for God. We believe the message conveyed in the texts of this music is indeed relevant today to induce hope for the present generation of young people around the world to tap into that creative source for problem solving.

Professor Dr. James Walters, a theologian who has been active in rehabilitation projects in the ghettos of American cities had extracted ten segments or sketches out of the monologues found in the book of Ecclesiastes that would translate directly to the 21^st century society. Helen Savari-Renold in turn wrote the lyrics based on these sketches transforming these into dialogues.

The choir is comprised of singers from a Baptist church in Houston, Texas joined by a selected Swiss youth singers keen in gospel music that rehearsed and worked together during a whole week of intensive training under the direction of Dennis Montgomerry III from Boston, MA, USA.

This music was composed by Fritz Renold and Barry Lee Hall for this special ocassion for a jazz orchestra with the following instrumentation: five saxophones, five trumpets, four trombones, piano, Hammond B3, guitar, electric bass and drums. This combination is a historically new setting for this genre. The orchestra was made up of mix of renowned international artists out of the jazz, classical and gospel genre.