'Let Us Remember'-- Cantata on Persecution

A large-scale music program was given at the Opera House Monday night for the 48th assembly of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

And while the theme of the program was a joyous one - 'Sing Unto the Lord a New Song" - the mood and underlying content of many selections dealt with the more solemn and disturbing subject of persecution.

Chief among these was the new cantata. "Let US Remember." by the Negro Poet Langston Hughes and the Jewish composer David Amram, in which the problem of hate is dealt with by spokesmen for two peoples who have been prime victims.

"Auschwitz. Dachau. Buchenwald." runs Hughes', text. "let not the oppressed become oppressors. Oh. remember - Montgomery, Selma and Savannah; let not the oppressed become oppressors." It is a frank and simple sermon in six long sections. in which hope answers horror in the final, stanza; "Let not the song be a dirge - a new world's in the making."

Amram's setting is equally straightforward. Largely a strong neo-classical style.