Silent Eye of Night– At West End Gallery
Testimony is an integral part of the Black religious tradition. It is the occasion where the believer stands before the community of faith in order to give account of the hope that is in him or her.
–James H. Cone, My Soul Looks Back (1986)
Wasn’t planning on writing today, only sharing some music. However, I came across the piece below, Testimony, from the Kronos Quartet and the passage above from Black theologian James H. Cone (1938-2018). Both made me think more than I was planning on this morning.
First, the composition Testimony was composed by Charlton Singleton, a wonderfully talented Grammy-winning trumpeter/composer/arranger whose home base is in and around Charleston, SC.
He was chosen to be part of the Fifty for the Future project from the Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association which establishes an online library of 50 commissioned works from 25 male and 25 female composers. These pieces will make up an online learning library that will have the scores and parts, recordings, and other learning materials for each composition. Developed for youth groups and schools, the site is free of charge and available to all.
While listening to Singleton’s piece I began to search for something related to the word testimony. I came across the words at the top from James H. Cone. I was struck by how he put the idea of religious testimony as being one’s public declaration of hope.
I saw this as being similar to the creation of a work of art. A piece of art is the result of a belief in the meaning and purpose of each of us as individual beings, as well as a belief that we all in some way echo into the future. Showing that work to others is indeed a public declaration of this belief.
Hmm. Got to mull that over for a while. While we are doing that, give a listen to Charlton Singleton’s Testimony as performed by the Kronos Quartet. Feels like the perfect fit for this week’s Sunday Morning Music.
Redtree Times 