Please enjoy this music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, by the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra and Chineke! Orchestra. Then click on the links to read about these groups.
Wonderful! Bravi tutti!
(I’d love to read about this collaboration, and why they have so many conductors. I’m sure there’s a reason for that that I don’t understand.)
Chineke! Chamber Ensemble perform Deep River by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
From the YouTube page:
Chineke! Chamber Ensemble perform Deep River, composed by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, in tribute to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and all victims of racial injustice across the world.
Please consider supporting and donating to initiatives that are working to promote diversity and inclusion, to enhance social justice and end racism.
Discover useful information and resources on the Black Lives Matter movement https://blacklivesmatter.com/, Stephen Lawrence Trust https://www.stephenlawrence.org.uk/ and the Obama Foundation https://www.obama.org/anguish-and-action/
This is quite powerful. I’ll let it do the speaking.
From the YouTube page:
A month ago, my colleagues from across the USA and I decided to record Lift Every Voice and Sing to inspire young black musicians who don’t often see representation of themselves in orchestral music. Instead, here we are again mourning senseless loss of lives and fighting for justice. This recording is for every protester, every freedom fighter, everyone who needs to be lifted up, and to honor George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and the numerous others whose lives have been stolen by police violence.
Arranged by Fred Onovwerosuoke aka Fredo
Flute – Demarre McGill
Flute- Ebonee Thomas
Oboe – Titus Underwood
Oboe – Geoffrey Johnson
Clarinet – Anthony McGill
Clarinet – Alex Laing
Bassoon – Andrew Brady
Bassoon – Marlene Ngalissamy
Contrabassoon – Anthony Parnther
Horn – Jeffrey Scott
Horn – Amanda Collins
Horn – Priscilla Rinehart
Horn – Adedeji Ogunfolu
#BLACKLIVESMATTER
#STOPKILLINGUS
#NEWCIVILRIGHTS
#LIFTOURVOICE
#TAKETWOKNEES
#ICAREABOUTBLACKLIVES
#FORTHECULTURE
#BLACKEXCELLENCE
#BLACKUNITY
And the words to the song:
Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who hast by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand.
True to our God,
True to our native land.
