“A musical piece has been commissioned to mark the 50th anniversary of the bombing” that killed four African-American girls at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, writes John Pope in Sunday’s (9/15) Times-Picayune (New Orleans). “The composition—‘A More Convenient Season,’ an orchestral work featuring a chorus, soloists, videos and electronic music—will debut in Birmingham on Saturday. The composer is Yotam Haber.… The 75-minute piece for the Alabama Symphony Orchestra takes its title from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Letter From Birmingham Jail,’ in which he chided well-meaning people who urged civil rights workers to wait for ‘a more convenient season’ to press for equality. The rigorously modern work … includes electronic sounds and readings from FBI files.… Haber’s piece is part of the evolution of Birmingham’s coming to terms with its history, said Diane McWhorter, a native of the city who won a Pulitzer Prize for her nonfiction book, Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution.… The concert is designed to be ‘a transcending experience,’ said Pierre Ruhe, the orchestra’s director of artistic administration. ‘[Haber] has created a sound world in which the rest of the piece exists.’ ”
Posted September 16, 2013
