Music fills Moberly

Musical melodies, harmonies and the Gospel all found their way to Moberly in the last two weeks in a variety of styles.

The Jesus Homecoming March 6 brought performers from Branson but the sweetest sounds came from the Homecoming Choir, band and the “congregation” as they sang favorite hymns such as “Victory in Jesus”, “Just a Closer Walk With Thee”, “Amazing Grace”, and the invitational “Just As I Am”. The well-filled Municipal Auditorium was filled with a joyful noise unto the Lord.

Down East Boys

The Auditorium wasn’t quite as full on March 11 but the sounds were just as sweet as the Down East Boys brought Southern Gospel to downtown. The program was sponsored by First Baptist Church of Moberly and Echoes of Calvary. Pastor Doug Coonce of Echoes of Calvary played some lively gospel music on the piano as the offering was collected. Dr. Dorothy Smith, pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church of Moberly, asked the blessing for the offering.

The Down East Boys are a quartet of Southern Gospel singers based in North Carolina. They spend 200 days each year traveling coast to coast and to parts of Canada raising their voices to the Lord for His pleasure and for all who hear their blended voices in the style of the Statler Brothers and the Oak Ridge Boys.

The group led the audience in a solemn version of “Because He Lives” and said they “still believe in the blood, the cross and the empty tomb.”

Octarium – Should Have Been Choral

Except for one tune, the music of Octarium, Should Have Been Choral, was secular music sung a capella to a full house at the MACC Auditorium Saturday night.

The eight singers of Octarium brought each individual note of each song sung together into a perfectly blended sound with no help from instrumentation. This “eight as one” performed songs, some that had originally been performed as orchestral symphonies or operatic overtures but arranged because it was decided those selections “should have been choral.

Some of the musical selections re-arranged for choral and paired together for a capella performance by the Octarium were “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” by Tchaikovsky with Abba’s “Dancing Queen”; “Gymnopedie No. 1″ by Satie with “And So It Goes” by Billy Joel. The encore piece, sung only by the four male members of the group was “Star Wars – John Williams is the Man.”

The Octarium was presented by the Moberly Area Council on the Arts.