Spirituals
Katharine O'Connell
About this work:
Spirituals (1999)
I wrote this piece as a commission from Yvonne Kendall, flutist and musicologist at the University of Houston. It was first performed as part of a concert of spirituals, and as such, she requested that it be based on familiar Afro-American tunes. I had studied Shape Note music extensively as well, and thought it would be interesting to combine the melodies of these “white spirituals” with the black spiritual melodies. As I looked for pieces on which to base my piece, I found that many were in the same keys and modes and had similar contours in their melodies. I ended up basing the first movement on “Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child” and “I’m Just a Poor Wayfaring Stranger.” The second movement is based on “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel” and other tunes. The result is what I hope is a seamless mesh of two different and important American musics.
—Katharine O’Connell
Version: flute and piano
Year composed: 2004
Duration: 00:13:30
Ensemble type: Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice:Keyboard plus One Instrument
Instrumentation: 1 Flute, 1 Piano