Southern Dissonance: Portraits of a New South (2021)

Southern Dissonance: Portraits of a New South

Vocal quartet (SATB) and percussion // 25:00

Text by Langston Hughes, Stacey Abrams, Jimmy Carter, Alice Walker, Martin Luther King, and John Lewis; and a rally song from the 1960s (We Shall Not Be Moved)

Premiere: January 14, 2021 in Huntsville, AL

Commissioned  by Kinnara Ensemble, Atlanta, GA

Songs:

I. Harlem
II. We Shall Not Be Moved
III. Loophole for Suppression
IV. Malignant Malaise 
Interlude 
V. You Want to Grow Old Like the Carters
VI. We Shall Not Be Moved (reprise 1)
VII. Those Things
VIII. In Our Hands
IX. How Long?
X. We Shall Not Be Moved (reprise 2)
XI. Get It Done
XII. Only Love Can Do That 
Epilogue

Program Note:
This work is about progress and persistence, about standing firm.  Uniting texts by a variety of writers and political figures from the Civil Rights Movement to present day, it weaves together themes that are as relevant now as they were then.  The song cycle begins and ends with the question of a dream deferred, offering a musical setting of the 1951 poem by Langston Hughes.  It visits a re-working of the civil rights song, We Shall Not Be Moved, words that were sung on the Pettis Bridge in 1965 during the Selma-to-Montgomery March.  Passages from Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lewis, Jimmy Carter, and Stacey Abrams explore issues of voter rights and the idea of standing one’s ground.  Abrams points out the “loopholes for suppression” embedded in the voter-rights amendments; Lewis asks, “How long can we be patient?” and King reminds us that freedom is “in our hands” as we march toward justice.  Carter wonders how we can rebuild trust in the institutions of our democracy, while Alice Walker offers a poetic recounting of the righteousness and justness of Carter himself, working to cure blindness while building houses for the poor, “speaking what to you is true.”  Abrams reminds us, “You cannot have those things you refuse to dream of.”  In the end, we return to the question, what happens to a dream deferred?  And we hope that, with each struggle, with each fight, when we stand our ground, when we make measured progress while refusing to retreat, maybe we’ll come closer to realizing that dream.