African American Choral Ensemble to perform

African-American music is rich in tradition and culture. And Saturday, the African American Choral Ensemble will proudly bring such tradition and culture to light.\nThe African American Choral Ensemble is one of IU's most well-known choirs. Since its founding in 1975, the Choral Ensemble has been devoted to presenting and promoting the rich and varied traditions of African-American choral music. The group's repertoire includes spirituals, folk forms, traditional and contemporary gospel music and formally composed works by and about African Americans.\nThe Choral Ensemble has been engaged in venues ranging from schools to concert halls throughout the Midwest and eastern U.S. Dr. James Mumford, the director since 1983, said the audience can expect four different genres of music from Saturday's performance.\nThe first genre features formally composed African-American music. This genre expresses the idiosyncrasies of black culture in music. There are certain rhythmical and tonal differences unique to African-American culture that separate this from formally composed western music.\nThe second genre is known as the spiritual. The spiritual is inspired by the days of slavery and post-slavery.\n"This genre of music is probably the most informative record of how African Americans dealt with slavery," Mumford said. "Movies are almost always falsely depicted towards this time. Spirituals are living libraries of their feelings."\nMumford said a spiritual's topic almost always includes hidden messages behind the lyrics. For instance, many songs sing about God and heaven, where God means anyone who delivers them from their suffering, and heaven means the northern states. Spirituals are about freedom from physical slavery, whether it was how to escape or how to endure it -- never how to accept it.\nA third genre of music that will be performed is known as Diasporic music. Any other place in the world where black culture congregates is represented in this form of music, whether it is Jamaica, Ethiopia or Cuba. Interestingly, despite the different geographical locations, the rhythms and scales of each culture are very similar.\nThe final genre performed will be traditional and contemporary gospel. Whereas spiritual songs sing of the freedom from physical slavery, gospel songs sing of freedom of the spirit. Their purpose is to praise and honor God. This form of music was developed long after slavery, so spiritual and gospel songs are very different in both meaning and musicality.\nThis year, the ensemble numbers about 88 members. Of the 88, one-third are non-African-American students. That includes white, Asian, Jewish, Buddhist, Indian and many other different forms of nationalities and religions. The choir's members speak well of the show to come.\n"Dr. Mumford has prepared us to put on an excellent show that truly expresses the music of the African-American culture," member and music education major Dustin Podgorski said. \n "What the choir has done for me can almost not be put into words. I have grown not only musically, but even spiritually as a result of this choir, and more specifically Dr. James E. Mumford.\n"He not only gives lessons on music, but on life, too."\nAnother member, language education major Junko Dosaka, also praised the ensemble.\n"Although I am not a Christian, I have been learning about (the) profound meaning of being a human," he said. "My experience with this choir has been philosophical and emotional. The music that we sing in this choir talks to me about life beyond a boundary of religion. Every time I sing, I am always on the verge of tears because the music touches my heart. In that sense, messages that I hear through this choir are universal to me."\nThe African American Choral Ensemble will perform Saturday at 8 p.m at the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre. Tickets range from $5 to $10 and are on sale at the door. Call 855-5427 for ticket information.