Western Voices: Scenes from the Life of a Martyr

• Dr. Richard Hodges, conductor
• Emily Gantt, piano
• Tim Fitzpatrick, piano
• Including post-concert talk with artists

This epic work is is a musical depiction of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life: from birth, to adolescence, to adulthood, to his marriage to Coretta Scott, to his missionary work, to his assassination and finally to his afterlife. Scored for SATB Chorus, four vocal soloists, narrator, and orchestra, the 40-minute piece consists of 16 movements. This is the first engraved edition of the vocal score with piano reduction. Undine Moore became the first African American woman composer to earn a Pulitzer Prize nomination for the original orchestra score. Moore drew the text from various sources, including the Bible and spiritual songs.

While the piece does not follow any particular form or structure, the musical styles change from beginning to end, corresponding to King’s growth. The piece starts with settings of spirituals (representing his mother singing to him), very straightforward and accessible. Once the piece moves into King’s adulthood, styles change and become more individualistic, more personal for the composer, and more idiomatic of 20th century styles, particularly in terms of its harmonic vocabulary and orchestration.

About composer Undine Smith Moore

Born on August 25, 1904, in Jarratt, VA, the “Dean of Black Women Composers” Undine Smith Moore was an African-American music educator and composer. She was the granddaughter of slaves and took to the piano at a young age. Her post-secondary education began at historically Black college Fisk University where she studied piano, organ, and music theory, earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1926. From there, she obtained her Master of Arts at Columbia University Teachers College in 1931. Additionally, Moore studied at the Juilliard, Manhattan, and Eastman Schools of Music, and was notably the first Fisk graduate to receive a scholarship to Juilliard.

Read the full bio of Undine Smith Moore