The Visions of Harriot Tubman- sample – Organ
A couple of years ago,the US Postal Service decided to put the image of the famous African American , Harriot Tubman,on one of its currency denominations. I was struck by the reaction to this decision, and troubled in particular by the negative responses. I decided to read up on Ms Tubman and found her to be a remarkable woman; among other things one of the key figures of the Underground Railroad in the mid- 19th century. Ms Tubman, a deeply religious woman ,claimed that God spoke to her, urging her to lead runaway slaves to freedom.
This inspired me to compose my Visions of Harriot Tubman. In this work the music grows organically emerging into a kind of paraphrase of the African American spiritual Let my People Go.This was the tune that Harriot Tubman sang as a signal to the slaves she would lead to freedom. As the piece progresses, the music travels in phases from the hymn tune, to jazz ,to blues as so forth. The registrations and edits were by organist David Gay of Tucson, Arizona.
The Visions of Harriot Tubman was composed in 2016.