»I know why the caged bird sings« – it sings of freedom in order not to lose hope. It sings in order to feel the life beyond the bars of its cage. To encourage itself and others. And this is how American composers and authors with African roots sing and write to this day: their subject matter is discrimination and injustice, pride and dignity – but love and separation as well, mourning and joy, belief and hope.
In the second part of the »Celebration of Black Music«, several generations of these artists have their say: from Florence Price and William Grant Still to Tyshawn Sorey and B. E. Boykin. The concert presents a panorama of »Black music« in its countless and fascinating facets.
Note: All Hamburg International Music Festival 2021 concerts are available to stream free of charge. Once premiered, each concert stream can be accessed for the whole festival period.
Thomas Hampson: A Celebration of Black Music
Teaser »Song of America: A Celebration of Black Music«
Performers
Louise Toppin soprano
Leah Hawkins soprano
Ema Nikolovska mezzo-soprano
Lawrence Brownlee tenor
Justin Austin baritone
Thomas Hampson baritone
Howard Watkins piano
Joseph Joubert piano
Members of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
Jörg Assmann violin
Beate Weis violin
Friederike Latzko viola
Nuala McKenna violoncello
Programme
»I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings«
Duration: approx. 90 minutes
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View the complete programme
Henry Thacker Burleigh
Passionale (selection)
Ethiopia Saluting the ColorsFlorence B. Price
Sympathy
Hold Fast to Dreams
Song to the Dark VirginSamuel Coleridge-Taylor
Oh What Comes Over the Sea, Op. 57/1
She Sat and Sang Always, Op. 57/4
Life and DeathWilliam Grant Still
Songs of Separation
Song for the LonelyDavid Baker
Deliver My Soul / from: Through This Vale of TearsAdolphus Hailstork
Songs of Love and Justice (selection)Robert Owens
Three Songs for baritone and piano, Op. 41Anthony R. Green
Three Quotes of Shakespeare
Sojourner Truth / from: ...All That Is Good…Peter Ashbourne
Liza / from: Five Songs for soprano and piano
Nobody’s BusinessShawn Okpebholo
Oh, FreedomRosephanye Powell
I Want to Die While You Love Me
A Winter TwilightValerie Capers
Song of the Seasons (selection)B. E. Boykin
Three Maya Angelou SongsJasmine Barnes
Flowers / from: Songs for the African VioletTyshawn Sorey
Inhale, Exhale / from: Cycles of My Being
The Artists
Louise Toppin – soprano
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About Louise Toppin
Louise Toppin has received critical acclaim for her operatic, orchestral, and oratorio performances in the United States, Europe, South America, Asia, New Zealand, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. She has appeared in recital on many concert series including Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Broadway’s Hudson Theater, and Lincoln Center.
Her recent performances include the 150th celebration of the ratification of the 13th amendment for Congress and President Obama at the U.S. Capitol; a performance in Havana, Cuba with the women’s orchestra Camerata Romeu and the opening of the Smithsonian’s African American Heritage Museum. Currently, she tours in »Gershwin on Broadway« with Joseph Joubert, piano and Robert Sims, baritone.
Louise Toppin has recorded eighteen compact disks of primarily American Music. Her newest releases are »Songs of Love and Justice« and »Summer.Life.Songs« with songs by Adolphus Hailstork and Duos on African American vocal chamber music.
As a musicologist and scholar, Louise Toppin has edited numerous scores of works by Margaret Bonds and Adolphus Hailstork. She has lectured on the music of African American composers and has appeared on NPR’s »All Things Considered«, on national conventions and on college campuses including Harvard, Tufts, and Duke.
As the co-founder and director of the George Shirley Vocal Competition and the non-profit organisation Videmus, Louise Toppin encourages the performance and scholarship of African American compositions by students and scholars. She is also the founder of the africandiasporamusicproject.org that is a research tool to locate the repertoire of composers of the African Diaspora from the 1600s to the present. She is currently Professor of Music at The University of Michigan.
Leah Hawkins – soprano
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About Leah Hawkins
A native of Philadelphia and recent graduate of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Metropolitan Opera, soprano Leah Hawkins is regarded as one of the most promising singers of her generation.
She began the 2020–2021 season with a debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Marina Abramović’s »7 Deaths of Maria Callas« as Desdemona – a role that she will reprise for debuts at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opéra national de Paris, Greek National Opera, and Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
Recent performances at The Metropolitan Opera include »Porgy & Bess« (Strawberry Woman), »Pique Dame« (Masha) and »Aida« (High Priestess). She made her Colorado Symphony debut in the Verdi »Requiem«, gave a recital at the Park Avenue Armory, and returned to the National Symphony Orchestra for a Labor Day Concert.
On the concert stage Leah Hawkins has appeared with orchestras including Yale Philharmonia, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and Philadelphia Orchestra. She performed in venues such as the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, The White House, singing for the President of France, and in Accra, Ghana.
Leah Hawkins has received numerous awards including the Sullivan Foundation Award and the Richard F. Gold Career Grant from Washington National Opera.
Ema Nikolovska – mezzo-soprano
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About Ema Nikolovska
Ema Nikolovska has been regarded as one of the most promising singers of her generation. Born in Macedonia, she grew up in Toronto where she studied voice and violin. In 2019 she was selected as a BBC New Generation Artist and won numerous prizes such as the 1st Prize at the International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch and the Ferrier Loveday Song Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards.
In autumn 2020 Ema Nikolovska joined the Berlin Staatsoper International Studio, where future performances include roles in »Hansel and Gretel«, »The Magic Flute« and »Hippolyte et Aricie«, »Jenufa« and »Rigoletto«. Highlights on the concert platform during 2021 include »Pulcinella« with the Musikkollegium Winterthur conducted by Barbara Hannigan, and recitals at the Pierre Boulez Saal, Wigmore Hall, Heidelberger Frühling, Verbier Festival, Schubertíada Barcelona and Berlin Konzerthaus. Ema Nikolovska collaborates with Malcolm Martineau, Wolfram Rieger, Sir Andràs Schiff and Barry Shiffman, among many others.
Lawrence Brownlee – tenor
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About Lawrence Brownlee
Lawrence Brownlee is a leading figure in opera, both as a singer on the world’s top stages, and as a voice for activism and diversity in the industry. Captivating audiences and critics around the globe, he has been hailed as »one of the most in-demand opera singers in the world today« (NPR). He is a regular guest in many of the leading opera houses such as the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala und the Bayerische Staatsoper. In addition, he performs in concert halls including Carnegie Hall New York and Wigmore Hall London
Highlights of Lawrence Brownlee’s 2020-21 season include Don Ramiro in »La Cenerentola« at Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, his role debut as Edgardo in »Lucia di Lammermoor« at New National Theatre Tokyo and Arturo in »I Puritani« with Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. In concert, Brownlee performed at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera and Opera Philadelphia.
A passionate advocate for diversity initiatives, Lawrence Brownlee works with companies and engages civic organizations to create programs seeking to expand opera audiences. His critically-acclaimed solo recital program »Cycles of My Being«, a song cycle that centers on the black male experience in America today, has toured across the country three times.
Lawrence Brownlee has emerged as a pivotal voice in classical music’s shift toward digital programming and the resurgence of conversations around racial justice. In May 2020, he launched »The Sitdown with LB,« a weekly Facebook Live series which explores the experience of being an African-American opera singer. Since April 2020 he has also hosted the video series »Coffee and a Song,« in which he invites artist friends to perform interpretations of art-songs from the intimacy of their own homes.
Justin Austin – baritone
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About Justin Austin
Praised in The Wall Street Journal for his »mellifluous baritone«, Justin Austin has been performing professionally since age 4. Born in Stuttgart, Germany, he performs a wide range of repertoire from Jazz, R&B, and Musical Theatre, to Opera and Oratorio.
He has performed and recorded numerous operatic, song, and oratorio world premiers by composers such as Wynton Marsalis, Avner Finberg, M. Roger Holland and Jack Perla. Moreover, he has collaborated with multiple groups and artists such as Aretha Franklin, The Boys Choir of Harlem, Mary J. Blige, Elton John, Lauryn Hill, 30 Seconds to Mars, Kanye West, and jazz legends Reggie Workman, Hugh Masekela, and Wynton Marsalis. Justin Austin sang at venues such as the Bayerische Staatsoper, Opera Saratoga, Bregenzer Festspiele, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and New York Festival of Song.
For the 2021/22 season Justin Austin creates the leading role in the world premiere of the Lincoln Center Theater and The Metropolitan Opera co-commissioned opera »Intimate Apparel«. During the season 2020/21, he debuted with the Moab Music Festival as a resident artist and made his return to the New York Festival of Song for a virtual concert series.
Justin Austin strongly believes in utilizing his artistry to benefit music programs, new music projects, and community services around the world. He works with organizations such as MEND (Meeting Emergency Needs with Dignity,) QSAC (Quality Services for the Autism Community,) Holt International, and St. Mary’s Children’s Hospital.
Thomas Hampson – baritone
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About Thomas Hampson
Thomas Hampson, America’s foremost baritone, has received international honors and awards for his captivating artistry and cultural leadership. Lauded as a Metropolitan Opera Guild »Met Mastersinger« and inducted into both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Gramophone’s »Hall of Fame,« Hampson is one of the most respected and innovative musicians of our time. With an operatic repertoire of over 80 roles sung in all the major theaters of the world, his discography comprises more than 170 albums, which include multiple nominations and winners of the Grammy Award, Edison Award, and the Grand Prix du Disque.
Hampson is a Distinguished Visiting Artist of Voice at the University of Michigan, School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, and an honorary professor on the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Heidelberg. He holds honorary doctorates from Manhattan School of Music, the New England Conservatory, Whitworth College, and San Francisco Conservatory and is an honorary member of London’s Royal Academy of Music. He carries the titles of Kammersänger of the Wiener Staatsoper and Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the Republic of France, and was awarded the Austrian Medal of Honor in Arts and Sciences.
Thomas Hampson enjoys a singular international career as an opera singer, recording artist, and »ambassador of song,« maintaining an active interest in research, education, musical outreach, and technology, continually expanding his pedagogical activities. He is the Artistic Director of the Heidelberg Lied Academy, and collaborates with the Barenboim-Said Academy Schubert Week in Berlin each year. His recurring international master class schedule is a continuing online resource of the Manhattan School of Music, Medici.tv, and The Hampsong Foundation livestream channel.
Howard Watkins – piano
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About Howard Watkins
American pianist Howard Watkins is a frequent associate of some of the world’s leading musicians on the concert stage and as an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera. His appearances throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, Russia, and Israel have included collaborations with Joyce DiDonato, Diana Damrau, Kathleen Battle and Anna Netrebko at such venues as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Kennedy Center, the United States Supreme Court, Carnegie Hall, and the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.
His current and former faculty affiliations include The Juilliard School, the Bard College Conservatory of Music, the Yale School of Music as a Visiting Presidential Fellow and the Aspen Music Festival. Currently a guest Master Coach for the Cafritz Young Artists of Washington Opera and the Opera Theater of St. Louis, Howard Watkins has worked on the music staffs of Palm Beach Opera, the Washington National Opera, and the Los Angeles Opera.
A native of Dayton, Ohio, Howard Watkins bas been honored as the 2004 recipient of the Paul C. Boylan award from the University of Michigan for his outstanding contributions to the field of music.
Joseph Joubert – piano
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About Joseph Joubert
Joseph Joubert is a hugely versatile musician whose wide-ranging accomplishments and talent as a pianist, arranger, orchestrator, Broadway conductor, and music director have taken him around the world. He is at home in any style from classical to pop, gospel to Broadway, spiritual to R & B.
Most recently Joseph Joubert has done piano underscore recording and orchestration for the up-coming movie »Respect« starring Jennifer Hudson. He was co-producer and orchestrator for the »Georgia On My Mind« video that went viral for the Georgia election. In the 2021/22 season he will be musical supervisor for the play »Blue« at the Apollo Theater.
Joseph Joubert’s Broadway orchestration credits include »The Color Purple«, »Disaster« and »Violet«. He was musical director for Berry Gordy’s »Motown The Musical« and musical director, arranger, and pianist for Norm Lewis’s »American Songbook«, the PBS Live from Lincoln Center special. He received a Grammy nomination for »Best Arrangement Acompanying A Vocal« for the Broadway Inspirational Voices »Great Joy«.
As a record producer and orchestrator Joseph Joubert has worked with such artists as Ashford and Simpson, Diana Ross, Whitney Houston and Dionne Warwick. His orchestrations are used by symphonies across the USA including the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. As a pianist he appeared in the Metropolitan Opera’s revival of »Porgy and Bess« and has collaborated with classical singers such as Denyce Graves, Esther Hinds and Harolyn Blackwell, and performed with Kathleen Battle at the White House for President Bill Clinton.
»I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings« :About the programme
A breath of freedom
Like countless other African American artists and intellectuals, Maya Angelou left America to get away. First, to Europe, performing in a tour of George Gershwin’s opera, Porgy and Bess, then later to Egypt and Accra, Ghana, where she lived for years. In her memoir, All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes, Angelou recounts her incredulity at finding herself living in Berlin, Germany in the 1960s as part of a theatrical touring company.
Germany was both familiar and strange to her. Familiar, because Angelou’s mother, Vivian Baxter, spoke with a strong German accent having been raised by adoptive German parents. Strange, because Angelou felt like she was witnessing a new era in Germany’s long history of racism and antisemitism during the aftermath of WWII. Like other African Americans on tour, she guarded her encounters with many white Germans that she met. The constant refrain, however, in Angelou’s life outside of the United States was that her time overseas afforded her with a freedom unavailable to her at home: a chance to see the world — and, more importantly, herself — in a different light.
Seeking freedom from white American racism
In this, Angelou was not alone. Germany, specifically, has long functioned as a site of Black travel, where many African Americans sought freedom from white American racism. A young and ambitious W.E.B. Du Bois was astounded by how free he felt traveling the German countryside in the 1890s. Harlem Renaissance figures Langston Hughes and Alain Locke wandered around Weimar Germany in the 1920s, attending concerts by the celebrity Black tenor Roland Hayes and going to the opera. After WWII, the African American soldier and later secretary of state Colin Powell described his stationing in West Germany as »a breath of freedom.«
The quest for freedom has defined African American poetry and music from the very beginning. In fact, Angelou’s famous poem is itself an homage to African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar’s 1899 poem, “Sympathy,” which begins with the statement, “I know what the caged bird feels, alas!” Years later, composer Florence Price set Dunbar’s text to music in her flighty song, “Sympathy” in the 1930s.
Two of Price’s other songs—“Hold Fast to Dreams,” and “Song to a Dark Virgin”—are just as ethereal. Shawn Okpebholo takes up this centuries’ old theme in his riveting piece, “Freedom,” borrowing from the spiritual of the same name. David Baker’s “Deliver My Soul,” takes on the same theme but in a completely different style, turning to lively gospel music for inspiration instead.
In contrast, the music of Adolphus Hailstork and Robert Owens are stormy and turbulent, both composers reminding us why Black people have sought freedom beyond America’s shores to begin with. In “Songs of Love and Justice,” Hailstork sets to music the frustrating challenges facing the oppressed. Similarly, Robert Owens’s music most directly addresses racial violence in its stormy settings of Claude McKay’s poetry condemning white supremacy.
Composers Peter Ashbourne, Samuel Colerdige-Taylor give us art songs that capture a global Black diasporic experience. Ashbourne’s soothing “Liza” and cheeky “Nobody’s Business,” both taken from his “Five Jamaican Songs” give classic Jamaican folk songs a colorful and moving arrangement for piano and voice.
Black British composer Coleridge-Taylor’s art songs showcase his admiration for composers such as Edward Grieg while remaining true to his own musical vision. William Grant Still’s “Songs of Separation” and Valerie Caper’s “Songs of the Seasons” are vibrant examples of how African American art songs both build upon and depart from the long tradition of setting music for piano and voice.
This concert program concludes by bringing together an exciting generation of Black composers – Shawn Okpebholo, Anthony Green, B.E. Boykin, Jasmine Barnes, and Tyshawn Sorrey. Their song settings pick up the same themes of freedom, longing, and social justice that have defined African American art song for over a century and sparked waves of Black travel since the nineteenth century.
Whether turning to the poetry of Maya Angelou (B.E. Boykin), revisiting Shakespeare’s prose (Anthony Green), capturing the beauty of nature (Jasmine Barnes), or articulating what it means to be a Black man in America today (Tyshawn Sorrey), their works provide the deep and lasting comfort that the art song is alive today. Indeed, in these composers’ hands, art songs are expressing the full kaleidoscope of human experiences.
Text: Kira Thurman
German Translation: Özlem Karuç
In collaboration with the Hampsong Foundation
Supported by the Kühne Foundation, the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media, Stiftung Elbphilharmonie and the Förderkreis Internationales Musikfest Hamburg
Song texts :All song texts, sorted according to the composers’ names
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Henry Thacker Burleigh
Her Eyes, Twin Pools (1915)
Music by H. T. Burleigh (1866-1949)
Text by James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)
Her eyes, twin pools of mystic light,
Soft star-sheen melting into night;
O’er which, to sound their glam’rous haze,
A man might bend, and vainly gaze.
Her eyes, twin pools so dark and deep,
In which life’s ancient myst’ries sleep;
Wherein, to seek the quested goal,
A man might plunge, and lose his soul.
Your Lips Are Wine (1915)
Music by H. T. Burleigh (1866-1949)
Text by James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)
Translator unknownYour lips are wine, —
O Heart’s Desire,
Give me the flame
Of their passion-kindling fire;
The world melts away
In the glow of your kiss,
And leaves just you and me,
Alone in silent bliss.
Your lips again,
Give them to mine,
One more full draught
Of their nectar’d anodyne.
In the fold of your arms
Lull me softly, softly until
There comes the wondrous calm
Of love so deep and still.
The Glory of the Day Was in Her Face (1915)
Music by H. T. Burleigh (1866-1949)
Text by James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)
The glory of the day was in her face,
The beauty of the night was in her eyes.
And over all her loveliness, the grace
Of morning blushing in the early skies.
And in her voice, the calling of the dove;
Like music of a sweet, melodious part.
And in her smile, the breaking light of love;
And all the gentle virtues in her heart.
And now the glorious day, the beauteous night,
The birds that signal to their mates at dawn,
To my dull ears, to my tear-blinded sight
Are one with all the dead, since she has gone.
Ethiopia Saluting the Colors (1915)
Music by H. T. Burleigh (1866-1949)
Text by Walt Whitman (1819-1892)Who are you, dusky woman,
so ancient, hardly human,
With your woolly white and turban’d head,
and bare bony feet?
Why, rising by the roadside here,
do you the colors greet?
(Tis while our army lines
Carolina’s sands and pines,
Forth from thy hovel door,
thou Ethiopia, com’st to me,
As, under doughty Sherman,
I march toward the sea.)
Me, master, years a hundred,
since from my parents sunder’d,
A little child, they caught me
as the savage beast is caught,
Then hither me, across the sea,
the cruel slaver brought.
No further does she say,
but lingering all the day,
Her high borne turban’d head she wags,
and rolls her darkling eye,
And courtseys to the regiments,
the guidons moving by.
What is it, fateful woman?
so blear, hardly human?
Why wag your head with turban bound?
yellow, red and green?
Are the things so strange and marvelous,
you see or have seen?
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Florence B. Price
Sympathy
Music by Florence B. Price (1887-1953)
Text by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1871-1938)
German Translation by Özlem KaruçI know what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from the chalice steals–
I know what the caged bird feels!
I know why the caged bird beats his wing
Till the blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting–
I know why he beats his wing!
I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,–
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings–
I know why the caged bird sings!
Hold Fast to Dreams (1945)
Music by Florence B. Price (1887-1953)
Text by Langston Hughes (1901-1967)
Translator unknownHold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
Song to the Dark Virgin (1941)
Music by Florence B. Price (1887-1953)
Text by Langston Hughes (1901-1967)
German Translation by Özlem KaruçWould that I were a jewel,
A shattered jewel,
That all my shining brilliants might fall at that feet,
Thou dark one.
Would that I were a garment,
A shimmering silken garment,
That all my folds might wrap about thy body,
Absorb thy body
Hold and hide thy body,
Thou dark one.
Would that I were a flame
But one sharp, leaping flame
To annihilate thy body,
Thou dark one.
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Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Oh, What Comes Over the Sea (1904) (First song of »6 Sorrow Songs«)
Music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)
Text by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894)
German Translation by Özlem KaruçOh, what comes over the sea,
Shoals and quicksands past;
And what comes home to me,
Sailing slow, sailing fast?
A wind comes over the sea
With a moan in its blast;
But nothing comes home to me,
Sailing slow, sailing fast.
Let me be, let me be,
For my lot is cast,
Land or sea, all’s one to me,
And sail it slow or fast.
Let me be,
Let me be,
Let me be.
She Sat And Sang Alway (1904) (Fourth song of »6 Sorrow Songs«)
Music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)
Text by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894)
German Translation by Özlem KaruçShe sat and sang alway
By the green margin of the stream,
Watching the fishes leap and play
Beneath the glad sunbeam.
I sat and wept alway
‘Neath the moon’s most shad’wy beam,
Watching the blossoms of the May weep leaves,
The blossoms weep leaves into the stream.
I wept for memory;
She sang for hope that is so fair;
My tears were swallowed by the sea,
Her songs died, died on the air.
Life and Death (1914)
Music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)
Text by Jessie Adelaide Middleton (1864-1933)
German Translation by Özlem KaruçTo look for thee–cry for thee–sigh for thee,
Under my breath,
To clasp but a shade
Where thy head hath been laid
It is death.
To long for thee, yearn for thee, burn for thee,
Sorrow and strife.
But to have thee, to have thee,
And hold thee and fold thee,
It is life.
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William Grant Still
From: Songs of Separation
»Idolatry«
Music by William Grant Still
Text by Arna Bontemps (1902-1973)You have been good to me, I give you this:
The arms of lovers empty as our own,
Marble lips sustaining one long kiss,
And the hard sound of hammers breaking stone.
For I will build a chapel in the place
Where our love died. And I will journey there
To make a sign and kneel before your face,
And set an old bell tolling on the air.
From: Songs of Separation
»Poéme«
Music by William Grant Still
Text by Philippe Thoby-Marcelin (1904-1975)Ce n’était pas l’aurore,
Mais je m'étais levé,
En me frottant les yeux.
Tout dormait alentour.
Les bananiers sous ma fenêtre
Frissonnaient dans le clair de lune calme.
Alors, j’ai pris ma tête dans mes mains
Et j’ai pensé à vous.
From: Songs of Separation
»Parted«
Music by William Grant Still
Text by Paul Laurence DunbarShe wrapped her soul in a lace of lies,
With a prime deceit to pin it;
And I thought I was gaining a fearsome prize,
So I staked my soul to win it.
We wed and parted on her complaint,
And both were a bit of barter,
Though I’ll confess that I’m no saint,
I’ll swear that she’s no martyr.
From: Songs of Separation
»If You Should Go«
Music by William Grant Still
Text by Countee CullenLove, leave me like the light,
The gently passing day;
We would not know, but for the night,
When it has slipped away.
Go quietly; a dream,
When done, should leave no trace
That it has lived, except a gleam
Across the dreamer’s face.
From: Songs of Separation
»A Black Pierrot«
Music by William Grant Still
Text by Langston HughesI am a black Pierrot.
She did not love me,
So I crept away into the night
And the night was black, too.
I am a black Pierrot.
She did not love me,
So I wept until the dawn
Dripped blood over the eastern hills,
And my heart was bleeding, too.
I am a black Pierrot.
She did not love me,
So with my once gay-colored soul
Shrunken like a balloon without air,
I went forth in the morning
To seek a new brown love.
Song for the Lonely
Music by William Grant Still
Text by Verna ArveyRaindrops, soft from the mist,
Disturb the stillness of my thoughts.
Raindrops, soft from the mist, beat down.
No birdnote breaks the all pervading hush,
No ray of moonlight cuts the darkness.
No footstep comes along the graveled pathway,
Nor the sound of a stone displaced.
Soft raindrops, fresh from the mist,
Dull the pain of loneliness.
Soft raindrops, fresh from the mist, beat down.
Raindrops, unceasing:
They bring again the breath of a presence.
Raindrops, insistent:
They bring again a long lost dream.
Raindrops, unending:
They fall into my soul, into my heart,
And mingle with my tears.
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David Baker
Deliver My Soul (1991)
Music by David Baker (1931-2016)
Text: Psalm 22 (Bible)Deliver my soul,
My soul from the sword.
Deliver my soul,
My soul from the sword.
Oh, thou my help, oh,
Won’t cha please come to my aid
Deliver my life
From the pow’r of the dog
Deliver my life
Thou my help, oh,
Won’t cha please come to my aid
Lord sav a poor me
from the mouth of the lion.
[continues]
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Adolphus Hailstork
Justice
Music by Adolphus Hailstock
Text by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.When evil men plot,
Good men must plan.
When evil men burn and bomb
Good men must build and bind.
When evil men shout ugly words of hatred
Good men must commit themselves to the glories of love
When evil men would seek to perpetuate an unjust status quo,
Good men must seek to bring into being a real order of justice,
An order of justice.
Justice!
Difficulties
Music by Adolphus Hailstock
Text by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
From »Loving Your Enemies«, a sermon delivered at the Detroit Council of Churches’ Noon Lenten Services, March 7, 1961It is difficult to like some people.
Like is sentimental.
It is difficult to like someone bombing your home,
It is difficult to like somebody threat’ning your children!
It is so difficult,
so difficult to like some people
difficult to like some people.
Like is sentimental.
But Jesus says: »Love them«
But Jesus says: »Love, love them,«
For love is greater than like.
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Robert Owens
From: Three Songs, Op. 41
The Lynching
Music by Robert Owens (1925-2017)
Text by Claude McKay (1889-1948)His Spirit in smoke ascended to high heaven.
His father, by the cruelest way of pain,
Had bidden him to his bosom once again;
The awful sin remained still unforgiven.
All night a bright and solitary star
(Perchance the one that ever guided him,
Yet gave him up at last to Fate's wild whim)
Hung pitifully o'er the swinging char.
Day dawned,
and soon the mixed crowds came
To view the ghastly body
swaying in the sun.
The women thronged to look,
but never a one showed sorrow
In her eyes of steely blue;
And little lads, lynchers that were to be,
Danced round the dreadful thing in fiendish glee.
From Three Songs, Op. 41
If We Must Die
Music by Robert Owens (1925-2017)
Text by Claude McKay (1889-1948)If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen!
We must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered
let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows
deal one death-blow!
What though
before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
From Three Songs, Op. 41
To the White Fiends
Music by Robert Owens (1925-2017)
Text by Claude McKay (1889-1948)Think you I am not fiend and savage too?
Think you I could not arm me with a gun
And shoot down ten of you for every one
Of my black brothers murdered, burnt by you?
Be not deceived, for every deed you do
I could match – out-match: am I not Africa's son,
Black of that black land where black deeds are done?
But the Almighty from the darkness drew
My soul and said: Even thou shalt be a light
Awhile to burn on the benighted earth,
Thy dusky face I set among the white
For thee to prove thyself of highest worth;
Before the world is swallowed up in night,
To show thy little lamp: go forth, go forth!
-
Anthony R. Green
Three Quotes of Shakespeare (2010)
Music by Anthony R. Green
Text by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Translator unknownExpectation is the root of all heartache.
Brevity is the soul of wit.
Love all, trust a few.
Sojourner Truth
Music by Anthony R. Green
Text by Sojourner Truth, New Year’s Day “Letter” (greeting) published in the newspaper The Chicago
Inter Ocean, 26 December 1880We talk of a beginning,
but there is no beginning
but the beginning of a wrong.
All that has a beginning
will have an ending.
Ah, and all that is good is without end.
-
Peter Ashbourne
Liza (Water Come a Me Eye) (2002)
Music by Peter Ashbourne
Based on a traditional Jamaican folk song
Words of 2nd Verse by Louise Bennett-Coverley (1919-2006)E’vry time me ‘memba Liza,
water come a me eye,
When me ‘memba me nice gal Liza,
water come a me eye.
Oh! come back Liza, come back gal,
water come a me eye,
(repeat)
When me look upon Sarah’ daughter,
when me look upon Vie,
And me ‘memba me nice gal Liza,
water come a me eye.
Come back Liza, come back gal--
dry the cry from me eye.
(repeat)
E’vry time me ‘memba Liza,
water come a me eye.
Nobody’s Business (but me own) (2002)
Music by Peter Ashbourne
Based on a traditional Jamaican folk song
Solomon grandpa gawn a Ecuador
lef’ him wife an’ pickney out a door
nobody’s business but him own
Solomon grandma swear she naw
go beg tief weh all bra’ Sammy fowl an egg
nobody’s business but she own
Chorus:
Nobody’s business business
nobody’s business business
nobody’s business but me own
(repeat)
If ah married to a Nayga man
an ‘ah lef ‘him for a Chiney man
nobody’s business but me own
If ah even old like Taggoram
an ah wan’ to pose as twenty one
nobody’s business but me own
Chorus
-
Shawn Okpebholo
Oh, Freedom (2013)
Music by Shawn Okpebholo (b. 1981)
Text from a traditional Negro spiritualOh, freedom,
Oh, freedom,
Oh, freedom,
Over me.
And before I’d be a slave,
I’ll be buried in my grave.
And go home to my Lord and be free.
No more mournin.’
Oh, no more mournin’ over me.
And before I’d be a slave,
I’ll be buried in my grave.
And be home with my Lord and be free.
No more crying.
No more crying, Lord,
There’ll be no more crying over me.
And before I’d be a slave,
I’ll be buried in my grave.
And be home with my Lord and be free.
There’ll be singin’!
There’ll be shoutin’!
There’ll be glory!
Oh, freedom over me.
And before I’d be a slave,
I’ll be buried in my grave.
And be home with my Lord and be free.
-
Rosephanye Powell
I Want to Die While You Love Me (2015)
Music by Rosephanye Powell
Text by Georgia Douglas Johnson (1880-1966)I want to die while you love me,
While yet you hold me fair,
While laughter lies upon my lips
And lights are in my hair.
I want to die while you love me,
Your kisses turbulent, unspent
To warm me when I'm dead.
I want to die while you love me
Oh, who would care to live
Till love has nothing more to ask
And nothing more to give!
I want to die while you love me
And never, never see
The glory of this perfect day
Grow dim or cease to be.
A Winter Twilight (2015)
Music by Rosephanye Powell
Text by Angelina W. Grimké (1880-1958)A silence slipping around like death,
Yet chased by a whisper, a sigh, a breath;
One group of trees, lean, naked and cold,
Inking their cress 'gainst a sky green-gold;
One path that knows where the corn flowers were;
Lonely, apart, unyielding, one fir;
And over it softly leaning down,
One star that I loved ere the fields went brown.
-
Valerie Capers
From: Song of the Seasons
Spring
Music and Text by Valerie CapersThe snow has left the mountainside
and cherry blossoms are in bloom.
The spring bird from its winter flight
returns to sing its joyous song
of splendid dreams and things to be.
So sweet this sound drifts down to me!
The trees reflect a silver moon
and dancing to a merry tune.
The brook goes gaily gliding by.
A smiling sun awaits the dawn,
The dark and cold of winter gone.
My heart cries out; my soul doth sing:
‘Tis spring!
From: Song of the Seasons
Summer
Music and Text by Valerie CapersI gazed into your eyes
and saw reflected there,
The summer of my soul.
Two people but a single heart
the season of our youth to start,
forever young forever new
forever love forever you
We walked together, you and I
beneath the vast hot summer sky
The fields were green
the days were warm
the breezes cool
your kisses strong
And as the trembling trees look on
we loved in sweet fulfillment of our time
forever young forever new
forever love forever you.
But soon the summer days did fade
into a golden autumn shade
that whispers of what used to be
forever now just a memory.
-
B. E. Boykin
Greyday
Music by B. E. Boykin
Text by Maya AngelouThe day hangs heavy
loose and grey
when you're away.
A crown of thorns
a shirt of hair
is what I wear.
No one knows
my lonely heart
when we're apart.
-
Jasmine Barnes
From: Songs for the African Violet
Flowers (2018)
Music and Text by Jasmine BarnesFlowers
water your flowers.
Flowers
water them,
for you never know when you’ll
ever see your flowers again.
Flowers,
She is a flower.
Flower she is!
She is a flower that flows in the wind,
plucked from the ground.
African Violet,
How we have wronged you!
We took your beauty selfishly,harvesting your charm!
African Violet,
oh how we mourn you!
For once you were so radiant,
but now, you’re lifeless.
How could we leave you lifeless
expecting you to grow?
(repeat)
Everyone loves the African Violet,
until it’s been completely PLUCKED.
Flowers
water your flowers.
Flowers
water them,
for you never know when you’ll
ever see your flowers again.
-
Tyshawn Sorey
From Cycles of My Being
Inhale, Exhale
Music by Tyshawn Sorey
Text by Terrence HayesAmerica – I hear you hiss and stare
Do you love the air in me, as I love the air in you?
Black boxes of cargo
Black boxes in holes
Hysteria, Hysteria – I hear you hiss and stare
Black eyes and blackouts
Blackjacks and nightmares
America – do you care for me, as I care for you?
Do you love the air in me, as I love the air in you?
