Children of God Oratorio Collection

Cooper, an associate professor of psychology and eventual chairman of the Psychology Department, received inspiration for the oratoriofrom both traditional and contemporary sources. In December 1952, she attended a performance of Handel’s Messiah, its text taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Also that month, she received a copy of the recently published Revised Standard Version of the Bible. It occurred to her that an oratorio based on the Revised Standard Version could give a modern voice to the tradition of putting biblical texts to music.

With Berea’s centennial approaching, Cooper decided to choose a brotherhood theme for the oratorio, based on the Berea College motto, “God hath made of one blood all nations of men.” The oratorio has two parts, based on the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, respectively. In her Jan. 14, 1957 account, “Brief History of the New Oratorio CHILDREN OF GOD and Its Relation to Berea College,” Cooper explained that Part I (subtitled “Am I My Brother’s Keeper?”), “portrays the development of the idea of brotherhood from the creation of man and the story of Cain and Abel, through the giving of the law, the messages of the [biblical] prophets, and the story of Ruth, to the concept of triumph of justice and righteousness under a universal God of righteousness.”  She stated that Part II (subtitled “Who is MyNeighbor?”)  “extends the idea of brotherhood from the emphasis on brotherly love as the test ofdiscipleship and a condition of eternal life, through the teachings of Jesus and the apostles, to itsculmination in the realization of a brotherhood of man under the fatherhood of God.”By November 1953 she had completed a preliminary edition of the libretto, and by early 1954 had received advice and support from a number of Berea College associates, including department of music chairman Rolf Hovey and Theodore Cronk, business manager for the then-in-development out door drama Wilderness Road, the major event planned for the Centennial observance. Because of the college’s financial commitment to Wilderness Road, which included building a performance facility, financial support for Children of God was not immediately available. Cronk offered to assist Cooper in locating other potential financial backers for the oratorio, and his interest in the project helped bring about the co-sponsorship of the oratorio by Berea College and the NCC.  Thor Johnson, conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, also served the NCC as chairman of its Commission on Music in its Department of Worship and the Arts. In that capacity, he supervised the commissioning of a composer for the oratorio score. Johnson bestowed the final selection process onthe music department of Berea College, and in January 1956 the department announced that thecommission had been awarded to Normand Lockwood, an acclaimed composer of sacred choral music.

By October 1956 Lockwood had completed both the piano/vocal and orchestral scores. Meanwhile, Hovey had begun selecting members for the 90-member oratorio choir, which was made up of BereaCollege students, faculty, and staff. Throughout that fall, he conducted rehearsals and directed the choir in performing sections of the oratorio at campus chapel services.These preparations for Children of God had an ironic twist. The time needed to rehearse the new oratorio meant that there was no time to prepare for the annual performance of the traditional oratorio that had helped inspire Children of God in the first place. A 1956 performance of the Messiah – which would have been its 50th presentation at Berea College – had to be cancelled. Johnson’s interest in the oratorio led to its inclusion in the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s 1956-57concert series. Due to time constraints, only Part I was performed. World-renowned pianist GinaBachauer was featured, and guest soloists were Donald Gramm, bass; Franklin Bens, tenor; Edgar Keenon, baritone; Marcelle Bolman, soprano, and Shirley Delp, contralto.On Feb. 17, 1957 CBS radio broadcast a recording made from the Cincinnati performances, which was heard nationwide. When the entire oratorio was performed at Union Church three months later, the adult choir was joined by a children’s choir, which was needed for Part II. Soloists at that performance included two members of the Berea College music faculty, soprano Bonnie Gibson and alto Ann Huddleston; also, Berea College music student Richard Hipps sang the baritone solos. James King sang tenor, and Donald Gramm, amember of the City Center Opera of New York City, again was bass soloist. Berea College music instructor Donald Farley was piano accompanist, and concert master was Joseph Firszt, director of instrumental music at Berea College. Thirty members of the Louisville Symphony Orchestra provided accompaniment.Composer Lockwood attended both the Cincinnati and Berea performances of the oratorio. After those events, Lockwood continued to correspond with both Cooper and Hovey on matters relating to the oratorio, as well maintaining social correspondence for over 20 years.

Complications regarding the  copyrighting of the oratorio is the focus of part of the correspondence, as well as details on other performance opportunities for the oratorio. Materials in this collection do not indicate that the oratorio has been performed again in its entirety. Selections from the oratorio have been presented at Berea College on several occasions, such as at baccalaureate services. Also, Hovey included portions of the oratorio in the Berea College Chapel Choir’s1971 spring tour repertoire.  At least two other colleges have given performances of substantial portions of Children of God. On May8, 1960 the Southwestern Singers and Orchestra, of Southwestern College in Memphis, performed selections at the annual spring vesper service at Evergreen Presbyterian Church, Dr. VernonH. Taylor directing. On May 2, 1971, the Shorter College Oratorio Choir performed excerpts from the oratorio at First Baptist Church, Rome, Ga., in celebration of National Music Week.

After retiring from Berea College in 1963, Clara Chassell Cooper held teaching posts at several other colleges – West Virginia Wesleyan College, Buckhannon, W. Va.; Talladega College, Talladega, Ala., and Tunghai University in Taiwan. She arranged for the oratorio to be heard in some form in those places, either via tape recordings or by arranging for the performance of parts of the oratorio in worship services. Cooper had hopes of seeing the full oratorio performed again, along with a presentation of slides of great works of religious art, but no such performance occurred before her death at age 99 in1993. On May 25, 1974, Berea College conferred the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music upon Normand Lockwood, for his role in spreading the message of brotherhood and Berea College’s motto through a major musical work.

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