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Come celebrate the 200th anniversary of General Lafayette’s grand US tour (including a visit to Culpeper!) with renowned music historians David & Ginger Hildebrand for a concert of special period music.
David & Ginger will don period attire to perform music heard in 18th– and 19th-century Virginia. Much evidence of Lafayette’s 1824/25 tour survives, especially that related to music and dance. Americans were thrilled to celebrate both Lafayette and George Washington on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Revolutionary War.
Come here songs, dance tunes, arranged from historical sources. Some of the selections involve newly composed music and lyrics, while others are parodies: that is, new lyrics set to old familiar tunes. “Auld Lang Syne,” “Yankee Doodle,” and that of our national anthem were common melodic choices. Regardless of the melody chosen or new composed, the lyrics for Lafayette songs are forcefully positive, idealistic and heartily celebratory. How wonderfully he must have basked in such musical glory!
This afternoon’s concert therefore illustrates how American music of the 1770s through 1820s served to express the thoughts and hopes of Americans within the current musical styles.
The Hildebrands will explain and demonstrate their instruments, including the harpsichord, hammered dulcimer, violin, and Spanish & English guitars — interpreting various musical traditions, featuring both the formal and less refined aspects of music in early America.
