st.thomas - St. John Tradewinds News

St. John Singers Present
Two Christmas Concerts
St. John Tradewinds
With a mixture of classical music, holiday favorites, and a traditional
sing-a-long, the St. John Singers are ready to ring in the
festive season.
The choir will present a concert in Cruz Bay on Tuesday, December
16, and another in Coral Bay on Saturday, December 20,
both beginning at 7:30 p.m.
The featured composer is George Frideric Handel, according to
director John Cahill.
“We’re presenting the ‘Hallelujah, Amen,’ but it’s not the ‘Hallelujah
Chorus’ from the Messiah,” said Cahill. “It’s from another
oratorio, Judas Maccabaeus. And we’re performing ‘Awake the
Trumpet’s Lofty Sound’ from the oratorio Samsom with accompanying
brass players from St. Thomas.”
“Handel wrote a lot of oratorios, you know,” Cahill said.
The choir will sing a variety of holiday songs, from the big-itup
“Do you Hear What I Hear?” to the lesser known, but lovely,
French Canadian carol “Shepherdess, Whence Come You?”
Soprano Detra Davis from St. Thomas will be the featured soloist
on several selections, including a 20th Century version of
“What Child Is This?” by composer Lloyd Pfautsch.
“What’s fun about the choir is that we do 20th century compositions,
and we also do music from the Renaissance — 500 hundred
years of music,” said Cahill.
Accompanist Janice Ballard will lead the audience and choir in
a sing-a-long of Christmas carols.
“The St. John Singers draw people together by evoking our
shared music,” said one long-time member.
Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for students and are available
at the door.
St. John Tradewinds will not be publishing
on Monday, December 29th
(Tradewinds news office will be closed to the public from Dec. 20-28)
All Holiday & New Year’s Eve Advertising
is due on Thursday, December 18th
St. John Tradewinds
In the latest issue of the St. John
Historical Society’s newsletter
there is a five-page excerpt from a
new book titled, “Archaeology and
Geoinformatics — Case Studies
from the Caribbean,” published by
the University of Alabama which
discusses the earliest map of St.
John created by Peter Lotharius
Oxholm.
A Danish military officer, Oxholm’s
primary mission was to
evaluate and map existing fortifications
and to recommend improvements
which would safeguard
Danish commercial interests
in the Caribbean.
In the course of his surveys, Oxholm
produced the “1780” map.
The map has long been available
to scholars but not to the general
public.
The son of King Frederik V
had one of the finest collections of
historic maps in the world and the
St. John map became part of that
esteemed collection. Another copy
was created and given to Juliane
Marie and is preserved today in
Queen Margrethe’s library.
We take maps very much for
granted today. The view of St.
John from the heavens was hard to
St. John Tradewinds, December 15-21, 2008 15
Historical Bits
& Pieces
by Chuck Pishko
The Original St. John Map
imagine in 1780 before satellites,
lasers and other modern mapping
tools. Depicting ghuts, hills,
marshes, roads, paths and buildings
— including the enslaved Africans’
houses — belies Oxholm’s
genius in achieving the graphic
impact of his map.
In 1800 a version of the map
was printed by G. Angelo in Copenhagen.
Most recently this
black and white map was reprinted
by the Eastern National Park and
Monument Association through
1780 map of St. John
the efforts of the late Historian
Stephen C. Edwards. It is no longer
available.
Now through the efforts of three
inveterate St. John hikers, Peter
Burgess, John Baldwin and Bob
Garrison, the original 1780 map is
available in a full color art print in
various sizes from Frames of Mind
Gallery (framesofmind@earthlink.
net) in the Lumberyard.
It’s a perfect Christmas gift for
anybody interested in the history
of St. John.