Texts and Sources for "Toward the Source" by Joyce Mekeel
Music for chorus and orchestra, written and first performed in 1975 for the nation's bicenntennial
Compiled and annotated by Sue Stone, 2016
The words listed here are in the general order they appear in the music. Mekeel's sources contain much of
Concord's early history. The words are sung and spoken by the chorus and even by members of the orchestra. In
addition to singing in various styles, including hymns, Mekeel uses the words to create murmuring spoken
textures. You won't necessarily be able to follow along as you listen since the texts are interwoven and
overlapping and sometimes barely audible.
Choral Texts of TOWARD THE SOURCE
This work is for and about the people of the town, their history, and their river. Let us examine Joyce Mekeel's
effort to interpret Concord, its rivers, and its search for values by looking at the spoken texts.
In the beginning…
"MUSKETAQUID", the native name for the river and for the town starts the recitation of names of wet,
marshy places that were and are so much a part of this place in first section of the piece.
Native place names
Assabet
Nashoba
Punkatasset
Squam
English place names
Biden's Brook
Barret's Bar
Buttonbush Pond
Peter's Spring
Egg Rock
Great Meadows
Spanish Brook
Ripley Shore
Sunset Reach
Nightshade Pond
Deacon Farrar's Swamp
Spencer Brook
North Bridge
Hubbard's Further Grove
Grackle Swamp
Ditch Pond
Dodge Brook
Deep Eddy
Cold Brook
Swamp Bridge Brook
Tarbell Spring
Saw Mill Brook
Sherman's Bridge
South Bridge.
The text for PSALM 69 (Tune: Litchfield) fittingly is recited in this section. The Puritans – the river…
The waters in unto my soul are come,
Oh God me save.
I am in muddy deep sunk down,
where I no standing have;
Into deep waters I am come,
where floods me overflow.
I of my crying weary am,
my throat is dried so.
(Psalm 69: 1-4 - text from Bay Psalm Book, 9th edition, (1698) tune supplement)
The four parts of the story are separated by quotes from PSALM 100 (tune: old 100th – one of the oldest of the
tunes of the Protestant Reformation dating back to the Geneva psalter and John Calvin's views of Psalm
singing). SHOUT TO JEHOVAH, ALL THE EARTH! Variations of these four verses are used perhaps both
to tie the parts together and to highlight the best of Puritan values. The Ainsworth Psalter (The Book of Psalmes:
Englished both in Prose and Meter. Amsterdam 1612) was carried to New England on the Mayflower. The Bay
Psalm Book was translated by Puritan ministers in New England from the Hebrew.
Ainsworth Psalter
1698 Bay Psalm Book
1
Shout to Jehovah, all the earth,
2
Serve ye Jehovah with gladness;
3
before him come with singing mirth. Before his presence come with
mirth
4
Know that Jehovah he God is.
Other
With joyfulness the Lord serve ye:
and sing before him songs
of praise
Know, that Jehovah God, is he
Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem, The Concord Hymn ("By the rude bridge that arched the flood…") was sung to
this tune in 1837 at the unveiling of the completed battle monument at the North Bridge.
And next….
Watch ye for ye know not when the master of the house cometh,
at even or at midnight or at the cocks crowing.
Mark 13:35 - KJV
To describe the people who lived beside the rivers in the 17th century, Mekeel first takes material
from genealogist George Tolman's 1873 The Inscriptions from Old Burying Grounds in Concord, Mass. Some
of these lines are spoken aloud; some are whispered. Some are just descriptive of the souls buried in the Old
Hill Burying Ground and the South Burying Place – the English settlers who've gone before.
Silence, silence.
This stone is designed by its durability to perpetuate the memory, and by its color to signify the moral
character of . .
Virtuous and exemplary life and in conversation . Silence.
An ingenious mind…enriched with the gift of prayer. Silence,
Silence, Virtue, faith, peace, industry. Silence.
A lover of good men, sober, just, termperate and a good friend.
Patience, humility. Silence. A lover of peace given to hospitality.
Silence. Beloved and lamented. Silence.
Silence, peace, faith, charity. silence, virtue, peace.
Silence. Beloved and lamented. Silence.
Correct morals and an indifference to the world. Silence.
Industry, conscience, charity, justice. Silence.
Silence. Virtue, faith, peace, industry. Silence.
Patience, humility. Silence. A lover of peace given to hospitality.
Beloved and lamented. Silence, silence.
Silence. Peace, faith,charity. Silence. Virtue, peace,
As a physician he was beloved, useful and celebrated. His hand was as charitable as healing to the poor.
She was a gentle woman of uncommon prudence, looking well to the affairs of her house.
Her exemplary life was better known to her friends than can be described on this monument.
After having lived with her said husband upwards of 65 years, she died in the belief of a resurrection to a
better life.
He was of honorable descent, early improved and advanced in civil and military affairs.
He was a bold and intrepid officer. Having laid down the sword with honor he resumed the plow with
industry.
He came to this country destitute of the comforts of life, but by his industry and economy he acquired a
good estate.
She was a kind and prudent wife-an indulgent parent. Benevolence was in all her actions.
The text of PSALM 116 (tune: Windsor) overlaps the recitation of tombstone inscriptions
The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold of me: I found trouble and sorrow.
Then I called upon the name of the Lord; Oh Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.
The Lord preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.
For he hath delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.
I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.
(Psalm 116: 3-4, 6, 8, 7, 1 – text from KJV. The King James Version 1st edition dates to 1611 )
The men of the Chorus introduce the third section of Toward the Source –that where the relationship of the
English colonists to the native population is interpreted.
I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
(Exodus 20:2 – King James Version (KJV)
Part of the effort was to teach the Indians and bring them to Christianity. Nine of the orders (laws) agreed to at
Concord in 1646 by Simon Willard, Peter Bulkeley, Tahattawan, Squaw Sachem and other leaders.
They desire that they may understand the wiles of Satan and grow out of love with his temptations.
They do all resolve to set up prayer in their wigwams.
Wilful murder shall be punished by death.
No lndian shall have more than one wife.
Whosoever stealeth shall restore fourfold.
They desire that they may be brought to the sight of the sin of lying.
No lndian shall take an English man's canoe.
There shall be no powwowing among the lndians.
They shall labor after humility and not be proud.
(Shepard, Thomas. The Clear Sunshine of the Gospel Breaking forth upon the Indians in New England.
Printed in London, 1648) - one of several documents carried to London in search of funding for the
efforts to Christianize the native populations of Massachusetts Bay.
Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye and considereth
not the beam that is thine own.
Judge not that ye be not judged.
(Matthew 7:3,1 – KJV)
Contrast the agreed-to native "laws" above to this version of the Ten Commandments, spoken by the chorus at
the same time:
Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.
Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house nor anything that is thy neighbor's.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Thou shalt not. Thou shalt not. …
("Ten Commandments" – KJV –Drawn from Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 6, Matthew 22:37)
For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third
and fourth generation of them that hate me.
(Deuteronomy 5:9 – KJV)
The text of PSALM 119 (tune: PS. 119 – CM) fits nicely into this section on the value of "law."
All blest are the upright (upright in the way)
who in the Lord's way (law) go.
O that to keep thy statutes, then
my ways were so direct!
Then shall I not be shamed when
I all thy laws respect.
With upright heart l'll praise thee when
I learn thy judgments right.
I will observe thy statutes, then:
O do not leave me quite.
(Psalm 119:1, 5-8 – text as in Bay Psalm book, 9th edition, 1698)
Members of the orchestra augment the chorus, speaking these words:
Penance remorse guilty punishment conscience repent heathen sin
In the fourth and final section, Mekeel shares "…the river of names that flowed beneath the North
Bridge…" on April 19, 1775 with direction to the chorus that they be spoken in a low voice without marked
rhythm to bring us back to the feel of river currents.
Jeremiah Clark
Joseph Hosmer
Frederick MacKenzie
Prince Estabrook
Simeon Burrage
Samuel Emery
Edward Gould
Cato Wood
David Hartwell
John Cole
Thomas Barker
Ezekial Hagar
Silas Walker
Barnaby Davis
Waldron Kelly
lsaac Hoar
Edward Richardson
Edward Wilkins
Lawrence Parsons
David Hubbard
Simeon Hayward
Jonathan Farrar
Christopher Horsfall
John Laughton
Nathan Pierce
Oliver Harris
John Barker
William Mercer
Joseph Cleasley
Samuel Jewel
Jeremy Lister
Bradbury Robinson
Solomon Rice
George Minot
John Bateman
Jonas Whitney
John Buttrick
James Miles
Thomas Gage
Thomas Thurston
Ephraim Brooks
Alexander Conrad
John Robertson
Ammi White
Joseph Stratton
Abishai Brown
James Pettigrew
Nathan Stow
Stephen Stearns
Emerson Cogswell
George Hutchinson
Francis Wheeler
Jacob Ames
Amos Wood
James Marr
Abel Prescott
Cuff Whitemore
Reuben Hunt
Ensign de Berniere
Jonas Whitney
Lemuel Haynes
Stephen Jones
Francis Smith
Aaron Wright
Amos Darby
Phineas Alin
John Pitcairn
Ebenezer Johnson
Thaddeus Bancroft
Jonas Bateman
Hugh Percy
Daniel Wheat
Samuel Melvin
Purchase Brown
Walter Laurie
John Flag
Nathan Dudley
Daniel Gray.
Oliver Forlin
Samuel Croft
Charles Flint
Pomp Blackman
THE TITLES OF THE 13 TUNES IN THE 1698 (9TH EDITION) BAY PSALM BOOK ARE:
PSALM 4 - OXFORD
PSALM 69 - LITCHFIELD
PSALM 23 – LOW DUTCH (OR CANTERBURY)
PSALM 3 – YORK
PSALM 116 – WINDSOR
PSALM 70 – CAMBRIDGE SHORT (OR LONDON)
PSALM 95 – ST DAVIDS
PSALM 39 – MARTYRS
PSALM 61 – HACKNEY (OR ST. MARY'S)
PSALM 119 – ITSELF (SECOND METER)
PSALM 100 – ITSELF (FIRST METER)
PSALM 115 – ITSELF (FIRST METER)
PSALM 148 – ITSELF (FIRST METER)