Dr. Chelle Stearns, violinist and Associate Professor of Theology at 天美视频, recently sat down for a conversation with composer Stephen Michael Newby, Associate Professor of Music at Seattle Pacific University, which we鈥檙e excited to share with you today. Dr. Newby has composed two large-scale works based on the life and writings of Dr. Martin Luther King; selections from his oratorio, Montage for Martin, were performed at a candlelight service commemorating the 50th anniversary of Dr. King鈥檚 death at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, DC earlier this month. This interview originally appeared on the .
Chelle: Some members of the African-American community have noted that the current generation of young adults don鈥檛 know 鈥淟ift Every Voice and Sing,鈥� considered by many to be the black national anthem. What does this anthem mean for today?
Stephen: Some people don鈥檛 even know what they don鈥檛 know. But what the anthem does for us, it connects us once again to our story. It is more than a riff or trope or a motif. It鈥檚 an anthem. So much of our music today that hits the mainstream, they鈥檙e tropes, they鈥檙e riffs, something that has been commercialized, that signifies something and then moves away from that meaning. The Johnson brothers created this incredible anthem because anthems anchor us. They anchor our souls to our stories. It is indeed important for us. But people don鈥檛 know it, so they don鈥檛 know their soul. Especially black Americans.
It is more than a riff or trope or a motif. It鈥檚 an anthem.
I have questions: Are there systems trying to get us to forget our souls? Trying to destroy the narrative? And if it is just a quick motif or riff, the black life, or the stories鈥攊t is just that. But when you 鈥渓ift every voice and sing, till earth and heaven ring 鈥� ring with the harmony of liberty,鈥� that鈥檚 not only the black national anthem, it is an anthem that informs humanity. It鈥檚 not just good for black people, but it鈥檚 good for all people. If people are concerned about liberty, freedom, and justice, then lift every voice. Everyone has a voice, so lift your voice and sing. There鈥檚 a lot of shouting, but to sing鈥攖o sing鈥攊t鈥檚 a holistic way of embodiment of what you are saying. Everyone has a voice, and when we can sing it together, it unifies us. It does. It at least puts us on the same page for a minute.
Chelle: Why do you think people have neglected 鈥淟ift Every Voice and Sing鈥�?
Stephen: Probably because it is not 鈥渃ool.鈥� Where is it performed today? I remember performing it almost every Sunday, in a period when I was at Messiah Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, in the late 鈥�80s and the 鈥�90s. Every Sunday, it was sung. [Today] people aren鈥檛 going to church, so they don鈥檛 sing this. It was also sung in the schools. I have this book here that I used when I was in the Detroit Public School system, Afro-America Sings. This book鈥攃reated by and for the Detroit Public Schools鈥攚as published in 1971, only three years after the death of Martin Luther King: and we were singing this stuff!
Chelle: What is the importance of community, music, and story being bound together in this way?
Stephen: You show me a human being that doesn鈥檛 eat, and there is malnutrition. Right? Show me a family that eats together鈥攅ating is important in itself鈥攂ut when you eat together, that鈥檚 really good. The question is, are people singing? It鈥檚 important that we sing, we are human beings. And we need to be singing together. It鈥檚 as important as eating food, having a meal together. Singing together is like having a meal together: it feeds us. It鈥檚 what human beings do. So when you鈥檙e not singing, that鈥檚 a problem.
Let鈥檚 pay attention to what we are singing and what happens when we don鈥檛 sing together.
鈥淟ift Every Voice and Sing鈥�
Words by James Weldon Johnson
Music by John Rosamond Johnson
Lift every voice and sing,
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list鈥檔ing 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 chast鈥檔ing 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.
For a history of 鈥淟ift Every Voice and Sing鈥� and the Johnson brothers, you can listen to the Radio Times episode from WHYY in Philadelphia.