Letter To A Sista String Player
(Clemency for Chrystul Kizer)
In the same way that words are used to give a poem color and texture, sound also has a dimension of color and texture. The pieces of music that make up this program are meant to be a poetic letter of musical texture and color. As a musical letter, the delivery has a lot in common with the spoken word. Words, when spoken, have a direct impact on us as individuals and collectively. Due to the nature of sound, a musical letter has an unmatched ambiance. Music carries with it all those impact dimensions. But music can permanently transform and re-shape the mood of any space in a way that words cannot.
Although the design of this music program is addressed to a singular person, by placing Nina Simone’s “Four Women” at the beginning, this musical letter takes on a much more expansive tone. The entire letter is by extension addressed directly to the plight of girls of color, women of color and transwomen of color. By including “Walk With Me” and “I Wish I Knew How it Feels to Be Free” both pieces of music, in their own way, speak to an intense solitary experience of a denied humanity locking a person into crisis.
What is most compelling about this collection of music, is the horrifying idea that we can simply be missing, absent, vacant, non-existent while our humanity is violently destroyed. At the moment we choose to assert whatever humanity we have left, we are suddenly at fault. For people of African descent in America, we are the spawn of the law. Our mother made us from the marrow of her technicalities. Even so we are still her spurned, repudiated and rejected children. The extent of that is clearly on display with this collection of music.
Denial: (Soul) Four Women
Composer: Dr. Nina Simone (1933 - 2003)
The High Priestess of Soul Dr. Nina Simone is both PhD musician & M.D. for the soul. In performance and persona she is the one who presides at mass when your soul needs direction. She is the medicine woman whose potions help uncloud your vision. She is the one at the altar preparing a sacrifice displaying herself without pretense.
Nina wrote this portrait of four Negro Women. Each one is a different age. Aunt Sarah, Saffronia, Sweet Thing, and Peaches have all had different experiences in life shaped by color and shaped by facets of the female experience. As a piece of music meant to be sung, the battles they have gone through are evident in the text and delivery as each narrates their own experience.
Only at the end, when Peaches screams her name does it become blatantly clear, Nina Simone's Four Women are different experiences linked by common circumstance. The scream emanating from within Peaches comes from a deep, gaping wound of torment. Given the history within her response, no one can blame her for her reaction to trauma. The scream of Peaches is an attempt to holler out a Hell No! of denial at forced subjugation.
Anger: (Spiritual) Walk With Me
Traditional African american Spiritual
This is another one of America’s arias.The focus in the text is on walking. The tone of the music and the pacing of the tempo of this are very heavy. It is a natural dirge. Sonically, in listening to it, we can feel the weight shackled to our own ankles. Sonically, it is like dragging a sleeping person or a dead body over long distances. Sonically, we can feel the struggle. It does not matter if it is played fast or slow. No matter what, “Walk With Me” still seems to drag. It is a piece both sad and angry burdened by circumstance. For that reason, in times of great difficulty this piece of music always seems to be an appropriate fit. Whether you are at the hands of someone else's mercy or at a crossroads about your own conduct or someone else's, this Spiritual is always relevant.
Bargaining: (Jazz) I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
Composer: Dr. Billy Taylor
(1921 - 2010)
Dr. Billy Taylor loved his daughter. The jazz pianist wrote this piece of music in tribute to his daughter. Dr. Taylor was an educator, composer, arranger and bandleader. It should be no surprise that a man so active in various musical circles would meet Nina Simone. The High Priestess of Soul added words to this jazz tune and gave it added popularity.
As a central musical figure of the civil rights era and the 60’s and 70’s protest movements, Nina’s use of this song held great significance. In all her music Nina was an expert at acknowledging the unvarnished reality of what was happening to people. She did exactly that with this song while also projecting a hopeful possibility that all people could be reconciled to one another and live peaceably together.
The text of the second verse illustrates that duality. “I wish I could share all the love that's in my heart. Remove all the doubts that keep us apart.” The text makes it clear, the challenge in sharing love, means accepting its existence. Getting there, is an act of bargaining about what we are willing to lose so that we can gain more.
Depression: (Classical) Tears for A Burned Village
Composer: Dayvin M.A. Hallmon (1985 - Present)
Dayvin M.A. Hallmon is the musical grandchild of Jascha Heifetz, Dr. Thomas Dorsey and Dr. Mattie Moss Clark. Since the age of 9, Mr. Hallmon has been building ensembles in churches and helping congregations craft a strategic vision for their music ministry. Perfectly at home in both Gospel and Western Classical, Dayvin was Assistant Concertmaster of the Church of God In Christ International Orchestra for seven years. Mr. Hallmon has been studying music since the age of 5. He plays Violin, viola, clarinet, piano, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, flute, and pipe organ. Dayvin was born in Chicago, grew up in Racine, Wisconsin and is currently a resident of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The title of this composition comes from a conversation Mr. Dayvin had with a 5th Grade teacher. This particular 5th grade teacher is an old school Black grandma. Citing the historical nature of people in Black communities looking out for each other and assisting with the raising of children she said, “Mr. Dayvin, the village has been destroyed and we are all that is left.” The imagery embedded within her words forced the composer to confront a depressing scene. What do you say when you arrive home and your eyes are greeted with scorched, smoldering earth and burned out ruins scattered in the distance? What do you say when community leaders charged with custodial duties are complicit in the destruction of their own community? What do you say when others are taken captive, and some for one reason or another through no fault of their own, others are simply incapable of shouldering the burden? What do you say, when the soil that grew you and others cannot sustain life any longer?
“This is an odd piece. I don’t know if the end result was exactly what I had in my mind when I wrote it. It was raining outside. I turned off all the lights. I opened all the windows and just listened to the sound of the rain. I let my hand wander around the piano keyboard. In some ways this sounds more like a child’s music box partially buried in the dirt. As you take in and survey the landscape, This is the music that you hear in the background.”-D Hallmon
Acceptance: (Classical) Lyric For Strings
Composer: Dr. George Walker (1922 - 2018)
The composer Dr. George Walker was the grandson of slaves. He is the first Black graduate from the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music. He is also the first Black composer to win a Pulitzer prize, earning the award in 1996. The pianist and composer wrote nearly one hundred compositions. His music possesses a voice of individuality but you cannot discern his race from listening to his music. Dr. Walker does use Blues and Jazz elements in some of his compositions but in terms of style, Dr. Walker’s music is in line with other contemporary classical composers.
Lyric for Strings is the second movement from his first string quartet. The composer later arranged that section of the string quartet for full string orchestra. It is his most famous composition. He wrote this piece as a student at The Curtis Institute. It was written in memory of his grandmother. His grandmother had been enslaved in America. In speaking to her grandson Dr. George Walker about slavery, she said, “They did everything but eat us.” Those words resonated with Dr. Walker all of his life.
The stunning beauty in this slightly dissonant piece of music is found in the range of colors of sound that slowly move and meander through the various instrumental groups. Lower instruments and lower notes provide darker tones. Higher instruments and higher notes provide lighter colors and brighter textures. As the melody is passed back and forth from one section to another approaching the crescendo in the piece, the sound unfolds and grows like a ribbon being spooled. This mastery in using the string orchestra locks the listener into an emotional roller coaster. From the first three bars of music, it is clear why this piece is so well loved. At the close we are finally met with a peaceful harmonic resolution that allows us to accept finality in its fullest form as the music descends into contemplative silence.
Faith: (Gospel) Precious Lord-The Last Request
Composer: Dr. Thomas A Dorsey (1899 - 1993)
At the start of his musical career at age 11, Dr. Thomas Dorsey was primarily a blues pianist. He played in vaudeville theaters, brothels, and at after hours parties. His inspiration came from seeing Ma Rainey and The Empress of The Blues, Bessie Smith. He was the son of a preacher and a church organist. He suffered nervous breakdowns twice in his life that left him unable to play music. Each time he continued to press forward and try to confront the problem. His mother and a prominent Bishop both told him to turn away from the wickedness of The Blues and play gospel music.
Dr. Dorsey is known as the father of Gospel music. He wrote over 400 compositions. He merged some of the rhythms and musical figures from the Blues and infused them into Gospel. Many pastors did not like this. The Blues was considered the Devil’s music because of its association with alcohol, sex, drugs, and wallowing in sorrow. Dr. Dorsey was thrown out of some of the most well known churches in America. He went back to focusing on the Blues for awhile until life circumstance called him to write his most famous piece, “Precious Lord”
The inspiration for “Precious Lord” came to him after his wife and child both perished as his wife was giving birth. This should have been a moment of despair but instead it turned into an opportunity for hope. Dr. Dorsey lost a wife and child, but he gave birth to the song Precious Lord. This hymn is so well loved, it is the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s favorite hymn. The Rev. Dr. King loved it so much, it was played by his request at the end of nearly every sermon he gave. To further illustrate the song's significance and intensity, right before the assassin's bullet tore through Rev. Dr. King’s chest, he was on the balcony of The Lorraine Motel looking down into the parking lot talking to his music director Benjamin Branch asking him to play “Precious Lord”. This piece of music in the history of Black America and The Black Church is known as The Last Request.
