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- Kirke Mechem
Songs of the Slave (1993)
- G Schirmer Inc (World)
- 3(pic).2+ca.3(bcl).2+cbn/4331/timp.4perc/hp/str
- 2(pic).22(bcl).2/421+btbn.0/timp.2perc/hp/str
- Mixed Chorus
- Bass baritone, Soprano
- 34 min
- English
Programme Note
Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), an escaped slave, became the greatest African-American leader of the 19th century. A close friend of John Brown, Douglass is the central figure in this powerful new cantata by Kirke Mechem. The Sacramento Symphony previewed an earlier version of three of the movements on its 1991 Martin Luther King Day concerts, which the Sacramento Bee called "a sensational success ...beautiful writing for the chorus."
The work begins with new music to the text of John Brown's favorite hymn, "Blow Ye the Trumpet," a choral piece whose inspiring and solemn words prophesy both the day of jubilee and the martyr's death that Brown knew would hasten the destruction of slavery. The centerpiece of the suite is "Dan-u-el," a rousing piece in the rhythmic style of the black spiritual. Already published as an octavo, "Dan-u-el" has become one of the most acclaimed new American choral works, receiving worldwide performance.
In the suite's second movement, Douglass sings of the sorrows of the slave. In the fifth, he describes American slavery to an English audience, using all his powers of ridicule, pathos and mimicry. This leads directly into a finale that brings the cantata to a great climax, Douglass and the chorus singing a portion of the Declaration of Independence: "All men are created equal."
The work begins with new music to the text of John Brown's favorite hymn, "Blow Ye the Trumpet," a choral piece whose inspiring and solemn words prophesy both the day of jubilee and the martyr's death that Brown knew would hasten the destruction of slavery. The centerpiece of the suite is "Dan-u-el," a rousing piece in the rhythmic style of the black spiritual. Already published as an octavo, "Dan-u-el" has become one of the most acclaimed new American choral works, receiving worldwide performance.
In the suite's second movement, Douglass sings of the sorrows of the slave. In the fifth, he describes American slavery to an English audience, using all his powers of ridicule, pathos and mimicry. This leads directly into a finale that brings the cantata to a great climax, Douglass and the chorus singing a portion of the Declaration of Independence: "All men are created equal."
Media
Songs of the Slave: No. 3, Dan-u-el
Songs of the Slave: No. 1, Blow Ye the Trumpet
Scores
Reviews
What a work it was. With 130 voices...and two vocal soloists...Strickler led the singers and musicians in performing Songs of the Slave, a suite that the Wichita-born, Topeka-raised composer Kirke Mechem drew from his opera, John Brown.
...SONGS OF THE SLAVE proved stirring. And it was not just for the lush and lively score by Mechem but also for the text he chose from history....The fiery abolitionist John Brown arrived 150 years ago in what was "Bleeding Kansas."...But slavery's legacy didn't end with the South's defeat.
When Shepperd sang...words from a speech by Frederick Douglass, the former slave who championed liberty for his race...it served as a reminder of another moment decades later that put Topeka's name in the history books....Mechem cemented that historical connection by closing his cantata with a phrase from the Declaration of Independence....That wasn't the suite's only dramatic moment....Mechem [composed] a movement based on a letter that a slave, Harriet Newby, wrote to her husband. She tells him she fears she will be sold if he doesn't soon return. [He] was killed in Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. She was sold.
...a memorable concert.