PEACE ORATORIO 2021-25

Featuring Joniece Jamison and John Meldrum.
As I studied the text of MLK's famous oration from August 28th, 1963, I noticed that Dr. King quoted Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation from exactly 100 years before. And when I read Lincoln's words I knew I had my song. ("That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State... shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free"). The song flowed out naturally and quickly. Dr. King's point was precisely to remind all Americans that the law existed on the parchment of the Emancipation Proclamation for Over 100 years, yet the reality in many States of the Union was that segregation was everywhere.
The performance that you hear of "Forever Free" is not yet definitive, but it has its merits. I wrote this tune with Joniece Jamison in mind, she's such a great singer, I had always hoped to sing with her. This song is the linchpin of Peace Oratorio, and the concept behind future performances is that it should be a white and a black singer singing the duet together. We shall always be TOGETHER Forever Free, the inference being that not only were the African- Americans slaves to the system, but the white masters and their families were too. Nobody was free in this barbaric and unnatural way of life. NB In the narration to introduce this song, I have used a direct excerpt of Dr King's writings because his words are simply inimitable and beautiful. I hope that the song "Forever Free" does justice to this unique moment in American history.
NARRATION : As he looked over the crowd of hundreds of thousands of people, he later wrote, “It was an army without guns, but not without strength. It was an army into which no one had to be drafted. It was white, and Negro, and of all ages. It had adherents of every faith, members of every class, every profession, every political party, united by a single ideal. It was a fighting army, but none could mistake that its most powerful weapon was love. We had strength because there were so many of us, representing so many more. We had dignity because we knew our cause was just. We had no anger, but we had a passion- a passion for freedom. So we stood there, facing Mr. Lincoln and facing ourselves and our own destiny and facing the future and facing God.”  Copyright 1998 The Heirs to the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr. Taken from “The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.” p. 222-223 Edited by Clayborne Carson Published in paperback 2007 by Abacus / Little, Brown Book Group with the permission of Intellectual Properties Management, Inc.