George Floyd Honored in New Chorale Piece

It has been nearly two years since the death of George Floyd, where an officer, who has now been convicted of murder, holding his knee on Floyd’s neck until he stopped breathing. To remember and honor George Floyd, composer Adolphus Hailstork and librettist Herbert Martin, both in their 80s, joined forces to create an orchestral work meant for a large chorus and three soloists that would pay tribute, with the piece entitled “A Knee on the Neck.”

Martin stated: “Every Black family in America must have had this kind of talk. My mother simply said, ‘If you go downtown to do something for us, you must do this, this and this and this. Because I don’t know what will happen’ … so all of that seemed to be welling up inside of my mind.” Hailstork continued in stating: “It’s the size of the subject that Herb gave me. It’s a big theme. We’re talking about the taking of a life, the taking of many lives, and the general cultural attitudes we have. There’s a little spot in the text, Herb says there’s a virus going around that’s killing people and it’s very well done. Of course, everybody’s going to be thinking about omicron or something like that. But no, the virus is the virus of hate and murder in our culture. This is a big theme … It’s a very dramatic score because he gave me a dramatic piece of writing.”

Source: NPR