This 5-movement, multi-media, Choral Drama honors one of the great heroes of the emancipation era. Scholars have no idea how these spirituals were performed before the Civil War, but they agree that there was probably very little European influence. Dr. Kean's goal was to compose and arrange music in a style that is evocative of the enslaved Africans' frame of mind based upon their west African musical heritage and in their sociological context. He chose to accompany the spirituals with kalimba (thumb piano) to honor the west African tradition of connecting with ancestors and the marimba to sound like the west African balafon. Medium to difficult. |
