Composer Notes

I first heard Gerald Rich’s moving tribute to our skins’ true colors in the late 1990s, at a poetry reading where he read from his work. As the opening words of this poem were spoken, the room grew suddenly still except for a few barely audible gasps. As I took in each delicious shade of color, I envisioned a musical language that would contain as much harmonic and melodic color as the poem, moving softly and tenderly from one subtle hue to another. What I did not imagine was that the very act of composing this song would change me myself, but that’s exactly what happened. Day after day I sat at the piano, attempting to reflect through sound how light reflects from one person’s body to another person’s eyes. And at some point I realized that a different lens had been made available to my own eyes, one that was more appreciative, less fearful, and full of delight.

I owe a debt of gratitude to friend and fellow composer Ann Silsbee, who upon seeing an early draft remarked that she was disappointed that I’d set the word “champagne” on a low note, pianissimo. “I hear it as a champagne toast,” she said. “A toast to our beautiful colors!” Ann was right, of course, and I immediately went home and reset the word on a gloriously bright chord.

Over the years A Palette To Paint Us As We Are has received many performances and enthusiastic reviews. Conductors have called it “inspiring,” “powerful,” and “moving,” but also “overly sentimental” and  “divisive.” One newspaper reviewer called the harmonic language “astringent.” And a white professor once called me on the phone to regretfully inform me that her theoretical analysis revealed that I had a subconscious cultural bias towards lighter skin. Among her most passionate arguments was that I had elevated the word “champagne” above all the others, proof that I believed lighter skin colors were superior to darker skin colors.

I don’t know whether this song is powerful or biased or sentimental or astringent, and I certainly don’t know whether a theoretical analysis of this song reveals anything about my unconscious bias, but I do know that people sure do seem to have strong opinions about this song. A whole diverse palette of them. And I know that composing this song made me an ever-so-slightly better person, which is what music is supposed to do.