The Wild Colonial Boy
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Description
The Wild Colonial Boy Presents several tunes from the 16th through the 18th centuries that were associated with life at sea and on land in Maine in the 1700's and 1800's. Commissioned by the Town of Bath for Bicentennial Celebration in 1976, the work was ordered to be five minutes in length, and to be based on tunes that were selected by Larry Douglas in an arrangement suitable for performance by Bath's public school music groups. The songs and one hymn were arranged in such a way as to suggest a story of the life a boy raised in Casco, Maine (i.e. the wild colonial boy) who goes to sea (Haul on the Bolin - a short-haul ditty sung by sailors as early as the time of King Henry VIII), falls in love and leaves his life at sea (Up She Goes), settles down on land (Plenitude -a hymn written by Supple Belcher of Farmington, Maine [from his hymn book Harmony of Maine of 1794], and Simple Gifts - a song composed by Joseph Brackett, Jr. in 1848 at the Shaker colony in Alfred, Maine), and finally takes up arms to defend his country in its fights for independecne from the British (Portsmouth).
Of interest: Supply Belcher served under George Wshington in the Revolutionary War and was an associate of Wm. Billings, another pioneer American Composer. Joseph Brackett, Jr. lived for a short time in Gorham, Maine. His father, Joseph Brackett, Sr. donated his farm and its land to form the basis of the Shaker Colony at Sabbath Day Lake.
Publication Date
1976
Publisher
University of Southern Maine
Keywords
American Revolution Bicentennial 1976, Choruses, Secular (Mixed Voices), Gorham Chorale, University of Southern Maine Concert Band
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities | Music | Musicology | Music Performance | Music Practice
Recommended Citation
Bowder, Jerry L. PhD, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1976). Faculty Publications. 4.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/music-faculty/4
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
The Wild Colonial Boy, for SAB chorus, winds & percussion (1976)
View the audio recording and the score on the library catalog.