It must have been during my college years that I began to understand the significance of the song-its place in American communal life. “Lift Every Voice and Sing” has always been there: in the ether of every Black church attended in Chicago in “the Hills” of north-central Mississippi and in “the Delta,” where the blues and my daddy were born. Not unlike the experience of singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” or reciting the Nicene Creed, it is only possible to pull off the performance in the presence of a congregation that reminds you of the next line. It is the song sung in the places where our “fathers and mothers had sighed.” The words and melody are eminently familiar to me. It has always been there: in the ether of every Black church attended in Chicago in “the Hills” of north-central Mississippi and in “the Delta,” where the blues and my daddy were born. I may have sung it at every assembly at Hearst Elementary, the all-Black school I attended from ages 3 to 6. I cannot recall a time when I did not sing or at least hear “Lift Every Voice and Sing” or even when I first learned to sing this hallowed hymn. What can this song mean for a nation in peril? The prospect of a new life for this hymn heard in churches and assemblies across the country at once causes me discomfort and piques my interest. Clyburn proposed that “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” popularly accepted as the national anthem of Black people in the United States, be adopted as a new “national hymn”-a symbolic bid to foster healing in a divided nation. Trump’s presidency, House Majority Whip James E. I worry about losing the rituals of belonging and becoming that shape our vastly varying identities and draw us together. He has also appeared with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and on international tours with Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra.As a child I stood, hand on heart, pledging allegiance to the flag and singing about “bombs bursting in air.” I can never remember which lines come first in our national anthem: “gallantly streaming” or “twilight’s last gleaming”? While these patriotic customs may be more contentious these days I find them valuable, especially now as an adult. Among Howard’s successes in concert have been Die Walküre (Miami Music Festival) and Beethoven’s Symphony No. Sparr’s Approaching Ali (North Carolina Opera, WNO). Other important appearances have been Aida (Met, Madrid’s Teatro Real), Don Carlo (LA Opera), La bohème and Don Giovanni (The Santa Fe Opera, Teatro Municipal de Santiago), Das Rheingold (L’Opéra de Montréal, Canadian operatic debut), Semele (The English Concert, international tour), Simon Boccanegra (Bordeaux), The Magic Flute and Macbeth (Glimmerglass Festival), Jeanine Tesori’s The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me (WNO), and the title role/D. Previously at Lyric: Lawrence Brownlee and Friends concert, Wurm| Luisa Miller (both 2019|20).Īn alumnus of Washington National Opera’s Cafritz Young Artist Program who has rapidly risen to prominence, the American bass recently returned to both WNO (as winner of the Marian Anderson Vocal Award) and the Metropolitan Opera (Sarastro/ The Magic Flute). Included in nearly 40 hymnals, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is an essential piece for innumerable choirs and distinguished soloists across America. The song was first performed by schoolchildren in Jacksonville, Florida, celebrating the birth of Abraham Lincoln. Closely associated for years with the NAACP, James Weldon Johnson led the organization throughout the 1920s. The elder Johnson’s novels and poems were central to the Harlem Renaissance, and he was also a prominent academic (the first Black professor at New York University) and diplomat (President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him as U.S. The song was written in 1899 in a collaboration between two brothers: James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) wrote the inspiring text, which was set to an equally stirring melody by J. In 1919 it was designated “the Black national anthem” by the NAACP. “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is one of this country’s most beloved songs of hope and freedom.
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