I’m working on a new composition. It’s requiring researching dozens of Negro Spirituals. I ordered what I hope is a copy of one the earliest collections of them.
My friend, Rhonda, asked me to write a trumpet/organ piece. At first, I was researching folk songs in Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads.
Then I realized that I wanted to use Negro Spirituals instead of fishing around in the 6 volume collection of Child Ballad tunes I have.
I pulled all my collections of spirituals and began considering versions of melodies I love. I even found some new ones.
At this point, I’m hoping I can sort of channel Charles Ives and switch from his Beethovian abstract treatment to something more like a neo classical concerto treatment with motives and melodies of African American Spirituals intertwined.
I hope I don’t jinx my work by blogging about it. But not very many people are stopping by these days on my blog and I don’t think it’s going to do that for me. I’m approaching this work much more systematically than anything I have written in a while.
Watching what might be a bit of awakening around racism in my country helps me see that I would like to make some art around that idea.
Plus my copy of Gates’ Stony the Road came in the mail last night. I’m more than three quarters done reading the ebook. I also had a library copy for a while and like many of Gates’ books, it is a beautiful book.
I’m using up valuable reading and practicing time so here are some links and I’m outta here.