In All Our Names

for (speaking) alto flute and piano (5’30”)

homage á Beethoven

SCORE DOWNLOAD

Watch the premiere performance

Featuring flutist Amelia Lukas and pianist Sequoia, presented by the National Association of Composers USA 2021 Virtual New Music Festival / Conference.

Specially commissioned for March Music Moderne VII: BTHVN 2020.

Programs with:

  • Beethoven’s 200th anniversary, 2027

  • racial justice

  • American voices

  • spoken and theatrical repertoire

Built from:

  • Heiligenstadt Testament

  • Eroica

  • Op. 131

  • a ciphered line from Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me

  • a trace of Strange Fruit

Composer Note

When asked to write a piece for alto flute and piano to be premiered on a concert featuring works by Berio, Mahler and Charles Ives, well...how could I resist the temptation to use collage techniques? Alert Beethovenians will instantly recognize quotes from the Heiligenstadt Testament and bits of the Third Symphony and Op. 131.

Beethoven's outrage at tyranny has never gone out of style and inspires us to this day. I chose to make the connection between Beethoven's revolutionary spirit and that of Ta-Nehisi Coates, who uses his artistry to call for social justice and an end to institutionalized racism in our country. I have embedded a quote from his book Between the World and Me (2015) through a cipher: "...it is so easy to look away, to live with the fruits of our history and to ignore the great evil done in all of our names." The word "fruits" brought to mind another artistically potent cry for racial justice: Strange Fruit, as sung by Billie Holiday.