“Procession of the Pines” was where it really hooked me.

Up to that point, the “Adirondack Folk Opera” had been excellent, and the people who filled the vast St. Bernard’s Catholic Church were certainly getting their money’s worth. But that song in the middle of Act II was when the music first swept me away – perhaps to Follensby Pond, where Ralph Waldo Emerson was inspired to write “The Adirondacs.” Composer Glenn McClure set Mr. Emerson’s words to music that somehow, according to his notes in the program, took its pattern from microscopic algae called diatoms, which Paul Smith’s College Professor Curt Stager studied in primeval Wolf Pond.

Got all that? It’s a lot to process and nearly impossible to imagine from a cold start, but the way Mr. McClure put these disparate parts together was sublime. For this song, the Northern Lights Choir, led by Helen Demong – the concert’s main attraction – took a break to leave room to focus on the brilliant orchestra put together for the event, as well as soloist Jorell Williams of New York City.

The choir returned with emphasis for the next song, “Those Are the Same Stars,” which also featured Mr. Williams. With words by African-American poet Sojourner Truth, it lifted the audience’s thoughts into the night sky and earned a hearty ovation afterward.

The opera had gained its momentum by then, and everything that followed was pretty wonderful. Even a miscue here or there was smoothed over by the group’s powerful performance of excellent compositions.

This was a night of music that poked, provoked and made you want to bask in it. It was rooted in Mr. McClure being captivated by the story of the Adirondack land being used by 19th-century abolitionist Gerrit Smith to give free blacks the 40 acres they needed to meet voting requirements of the time. The injustice, the working around it and the involvement of violent revolutionary John Brown are part of that tale’s richness. Mr. McClure, who played several instruments with the orchestra, plucked a banjo as Peter Curtis of Saranac Lake gave his best sales pitch in “Come on Up to Timbuctoo,” that being the name of Mr. Smith’s Lake Placid colony. Another highlight, “Blow Ye the Trumpet, Blow,” is a Charles Wesley hymn sung at Mr. Brown’s funeral in Lake Placid by Lyman Epps, the most established of Mr. Smith’s settlers. Mr. Epps is also buried here, in the North Elba Cemetery not far from Mr. Brown’s grave and Timbuctoo.

A children’s choir, organized by Ms. Demong, joined the ensemble toward the end for “So Many Voices,” with solos by Zach Richards of Lake Placid and sisters Addison and Sydney Dann of Saranac Lake. They earned a standing ovation, and then the concert closed with perhaps the choir’s most layered and impressive performance.

“Under Our Own Vine” has words based on a book called “A Free Man of Color,” which Willis Augustus Hodges wrote in 1849 near Loon Lake in the Adirondacks. Mr. McClure’s composition uses as a refrain the Old Testament line about “Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree” (1 Kings 4:25 and Micah 4:4), and it captures the pride and satisfaction of owning land – made sweeter by having to overcome injustice to get it as an African-American in 19th-century America. For these people, at that time, our wild terrain of woods, waters and mountains was that promised land. That’s worth singing about.

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Mr. McClure and Ms. Demong are raising money to write a libretto and turn the “Adirondack Folk Opera” into a full theatrical production, with actors, sets, costumes, etc. If you are interested in donating for that, contact Mr. McClure at artforbrains.com or Ms. Demong at demongs4@yahoo.com.

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For what’s sure to be another excellent choral performance, check out the Northern Adirondack Vocal Ensemble’s spring concert at 4:30 p.m. Sunday at Saranac Lake’s First United Methodist Church, 63 Church St.

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If you have a story idea for Peter Crowley’s Roving Reporter column, let him know at 518-891-2600 ext. 22 or pcrowley@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.