Composer Tamar Kali remembers her ancestor, Gala Geechee, who sang spirituals like “Wade in the Water” when she went fishing in the lowlands of South Carolina. And she envisions Harriet Tubman arriving with a Union gunboat in the summer of 1863, when her ancestors actually had to cross the water in search of freedom.
Gala Geechee, who called Tubman Black Moses, contributed to the creation of a rich spiritual book that blended biblical imagery with their own predicament. “I think of those who have approached this faith as a form of coping with their destinies in life.
Brooklyn-based Tamar Kali thinks about history all the time, and that influences her music. Her biggest rendition to date is her Sea Island Symphony: Red Rice, Cotton and Indigo, a new work for orchestra and vocalists, which premiered Wednesday in Manhattan as part of Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City. It is scheduled to premiere.
This programmatic symphony tells the story of Gala Geechee from the Civil War to the rise of Robert Smalls, a Carolina man who was born a slave and became a member of the United States House of Representatives in 1875.
“I’m a complete concept girl,” said Tamar Kali, who began working on the piece in 2019. Because it’s really like following the guidance of the muses. “
The world premiere of this symphony by the American Composer’s Orchestra is the culmination of a series she has curated. “Freedom is a constant struggle” This included a panel discussion on the complex and often neglected history of American black composers and classical music. Tamar Kali said the series was designed to emphasize that the works are contextual and that “the end of British colonial rule only symbolizes the independence of a very small number of people.” said it was important to have it around Independence Day.
The four-movement Sea Island Symphony is the most ambitious addition to date to his composing and performing career, which includes punk rock, film scores and opera. Tamar Kali’s eclectic body of work draws from a wide variety of inputs, including her family’s juke joint on Sea Island, blues and jazz, Ashkenazi cantrior melodies and classical music she imbibed while growing up in New York City. is a product of
Tamar Kali C. Brown (that’s her full name) describes herself as “the lost child of classical music.” She received her formal music education at a Catholic girls’ school in Brooklyn in her 1980s, studying theory and singing in a classical choir. But her experience there – which she called “an institutional space based on post-colonial missionary thinking” – was “a journey that basically felt like war to me. “I didn’t want to continue,” she said. “So I thought early on that I would approach music in my own way.”
She came to New York’s musical scene screaming — shredding electric guitars and blaring resistance lyrics in a punk-rock fashion, becoming a fixture at Joe’s Pub. Lincoln Center’s new Chief Artistic Officer, Shanta his take, was an early fan. “She’s very ferocious if you just want to visually describe her walking around,” Take said. “There was a warrior-like ferocity to her on stage, and just such a command for the audience and the song itself.”
Another fan from the Joe’s Pub days was composer Daniel Bernard Romaine, now a professor at Arizona State University. While Lumain was living in Harlem in his early 2000s, he invited Tamar Kali to his apartment where he recorded a raw electric version of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill.”
“She was a bold, sassy, avant-garde, original New York artist. Incredibly powerful, incredibly original,” Luhmann said. She was her destination and her career was groundbreaking even at the time. “
Tamar Kali transcended punk to found the Psycho Chamber Ensemble, an all-female string and choral group. Kate Bush also covered. She was re-immersed in classical music, and although she later found herself trying to recreate the camaraderie she experienced in her school choir, she now felt her own agency. Be in a safe place while maintaining. “I didn’t even realize I was trying to heal myself,” she said.
Before long, Tamar Kali’s string writing style and sense of story captivated filmmakers. She made her musical debut in 2017 with Dee Rees’ director Mudbound. She recently scored the PBS documentary After Sherman about Gala Geechee and is also working on a Shirley Chisholm biopic directed by John Ridley and starring Regina King.
Her film work is acoustic, often chamber-sized, and produced in her studio in Brooklyn’s Dumbo neighborhood to a handcrafted quality. She often incorporates her own singing voice. Luhmann said her music has always been vocal in a way. “It’s always infinite, always wants to talk. In a way, you can’t hold it back.”
She composes most of her music with her own voice, translating it into software and synthesizer mockups before it is interpreted by other musicians.
It was Lumain who nominated Tamar Kali to the Arizona State Commission in 2019, and the work became the seed for the “Sea Island Symphony.” She describes the work as stylistically Americana, a synthesis of all her influences. “It just… sounds like me,” she said.
The completed symphony opens with a movement depicting the Royal Port Experiment of 1861. In this experiment, the Gullah were put in charge of themselves in an undesirable wetland in the lowlands, and the lyrics were sung by a tenor singer representing the newly liberated person.
The second movement proceeds to the Combahee Raid of 1863, in which Tubman leads a Union military campaign to rescue over 700 enslaved people, and the real version of the song “Kum Ba Yah.” Take back the origin. “It’s not about making amends or feeling happy and kind,” said Tamar Kali. “It is a cry for intercession by a higher power: ‘Lord, come here.'”
This part culminates in Ring Shout, a call-and-response circle developed by enslaved Africans to protect their heritage while strategically keeping white captives from offending. Drums were banned at the time, so the singers accompany “shoutsticks” (historically often mops or broomsticks).
The third movement is a scenic piece inspired by General Sherman’s Special Field Order No. 15. This is his 1865 military order granting ownership of the Galaguichee Corridor to the newly emancipated people of the area.
The final movement follows the story of Robert Smalls’ voyage to freedom using the art of navigation. He enlisted in the Union Army and later became a member of Congress. Smalls’ name is all over his hometown of Beaufort, but it’s another piece of history that Tamar Kali didn’t know as an adult.
Tamar Kali said she hopes to eventually take the symphony to the Lowlands and Washington, DC. She claimed the premiere was part of a free summer show, meaning it was a one-night stand, with a tight budget and very limited rehearsals.
Having grown up attending free concerts in Brooklyn and Central Park, she knows that “the most multicultural, multigenerational audiences, with the most diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, reside in free public programming.” He added that it was “a gateway to diversity in the world.” hole. But it is neglected and underfunded. “
Classical music lost her once. She hopes to find more people just like her.
