Urban Acoustics Part 1: Idumea, Singing under Battersea Rail Bridge

The Fieri Consort embark on their exploration of hidden acoustics around London with this rendition of 'Idumea'; a hymn in the shape note tradition of the American South. These songs are written with shaped noteheads which correspond to different notes on the scale.

Idumea is part of the Sacred Harp, the most widely-known collection of shape note songs. Many share this song's haunting tonality, and a few of these are included in Fieri's Out of the Shadows programme.

Words by Charles Wesley, music by Ananis Davison, written around 1816:

And am I born to die?
To lay this body down!
And must my trembling spirit fly
Into a world unknown?

(A land of deepest shade,
Unpierced by human thought;
The dreary regions of the dead,
Where all things are forgot!)

Soon as from earth I go,
What will become of me?
Eternal happiness or woe
Must then my portion be!

Waked by the trumpet sound,
I from my grave shall rise;
And see the Judge with glory crowned,
And see the flaming skies!