Work
Lift Every Voice and Sing
for SSA choir and piano
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About
James Weldon Johnson was born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1871, the son of a freeborn Virginian father and a Bahamian mother, and was raised without a sense of limitations amid a society focused on segregating African Americans. He was a lawyer, as well as a civil rights activist, diplomat, poet and author. He became known as one of the leading figures in the creation and development of the African-American artistic community known as the ‘Harlem Renaissance’. He was the first African-American professor at New York University.
This highly rhythmic setting uses only the first verse of the poem (there are three verses in the original).
Dedication note
Written for Cigna Voice and conductor Vanessa Kay (Westlake Girls High School, Auckland)