New Morning for the World
Joseph Schwantner
General Information
Instrumentation
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Purchase OptionsLook/ListenFlorida State University Wind Orchestra
David Eccles, Narrator | Nikk Pilato, conductor Percussion Instruments Needed
*Vibraphones are bowed (two bass bows needed) |
Program Note
New Morning for the World: Daybreak of Freedom is Joseph Schwantner’s 1982 tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The idea of a work honoring Dr. King was first suggested to Schwantner in 1981 by Robert Freeman, Director of the Eastman School of Music. Schwantner writes:
“I was excited by the opportunity to engage my work with the profound and deeply felt words of Dr. King, a man of great dignity and courage whom I had long admired. The words that I selected for the narration were garnered from a variety of Dr. King’s writings, addresses, and speeches, and drawn from a period of more than a decade of his life. These words, eloquently expressed by the thrust of his oratory, bear witness to the power and nobility of Martin Luther King Jr.’s ideas, principles, and beliefs. This work of celebration is humbly dedicated to his memory.”
New Morning for the World was composed under a commission from the American Telephone and Telegraph Company for an East coast tour undertaken by the Eastman Philharmonia. The orchestra first performed the work on 15 January, 1983, in the Concert Hall of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, D.C., and was narrated by the renowned Pittsburgh Pirates baseball star, Willie Stargell. Following the premiere performance, the work was subsequently introduced in Philadelphia, New York, Pittsburgh, and Rochester, N.Y.
The work has received hundreds of performances by major orchestras throughout the United States and has been narrated by such noted individuals as: Correta Scott King, Yolanda King, James Earl Jones, Maya Angelou, Danny Glover, Robert Guillaume, Alfre Woodard, and Vernon Jordan. The version for wind ensemble was premiered on 20 April 2007 by the Florida State University Wind Orchestra in Tallahassee, Florida, Nikk Pilato conducting.
“I was excited by the opportunity to engage my work with the profound and deeply felt words of Dr. King, a man of great dignity and courage whom I had long admired. The words that I selected for the narration were garnered from a variety of Dr. King’s writings, addresses, and speeches, and drawn from a period of more than a decade of his life. These words, eloquently expressed by the thrust of his oratory, bear witness to the power and nobility of Martin Luther King Jr.’s ideas, principles, and beliefs. This work of celebration is humbly dedicated to his memory.”
New Morning for the World was composed under a commission from the American Telephone and Telegraph Company for an East coast tour undertaken by the Eastman Philharmonia. The orchestra first performed the work on 15 January, 1983, in the Concert Hall of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, D.C., and was narrated by the renowned Pittsburgh Pirates baseball star, Willie Stargell. Following the premiere performance, the work was subsequently introduced in Philadelphia, New York, Pittsburgh, and Rochester, N.Y.
The work has received hundreds of performances by major orchestras throughout the United States and has been narrated by such noted individuals as: Correta Scott King, Yolanda King, James Earl Jones, Maya Angelou, Danny Glover, Robert Guillaume, Alfre Woodard, and Vernon Jordan. The version for wind ensemble was premiered on 20 April 2007 by the Florida State University Wind Orchestra in Tallahassee, Florida, Nikk Pilato conducting.