Hello --

Take two minutes and enjoy listening to the mp3 by clicking on the link above. You'll be glad you did.

It's the Harvard University Choir singing my setting of these great words by the African-American preacher and civil rights activist Howard Thurman:

"Don't ask what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive.
For what the world needs is people who have come alive."

This recording is not on any CD. They simply recorded their rendition and sent it to me. No one else has heard it yet! You are among the first!

To hear Ask What Makes You Come Alive, click on the link above.

To see a PDF of the score, click on the link above.

Rick Sowash
Cincinnati OH

🎶 🎶 🎶 🎶 🎶

“When are you going to write a piece of music about the African-American experience?” asked the late Arimel Campbell, an African-American lady who sang in our church choir and was an active member of our mostly white congregation for most of her life.

I was at a loss to know how to answer Arimel’s question.

During my quarter-century membership at Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church, I’ve written about 20 anthems for the choir and 15 hymns for the congregation. None of them pertain to “the African-American experience.”

In some of my works, I have adopted musical elements invented by American-Americans: ragtime, jazz, polyrhythms and the Blues scale. My seven-movement “Calloway Suite” for clarinet and cello pays tribute to the great Cab Calloway. The suite is one white composer’s earnest attempt to honor and build upon African-Americans’ contributions to music. The piece has never been recorded, alas (clarinetists and cellists, please see the P.S. below), so I cannot share it with you. The titles of the movements convey an idea of the piece:
1. Clean Up
2. Can’t Help I’m Feelin’ So Blue
3. Sun Yourself
4. Weary Song
5. Beignets & Gelato
6, Ah Got Kin
7. Marching in the Light

I know, however, that this piece would not have satisfied Arimel Campbell. It is, admittedly, NOT “about the African-American experience.” How could it be? How could I, white-as-the-day-is-long, explore that experience? What do I know about it? Nothing. My Calloway Suite is the music of a white guy observing African-American musical culture from inside his bubble of privilege. How could it be otherwise?

And yet … other white artists have observed the African-American experience and been inspired to create “Porgy and Bess,” “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” and “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” which revealed the horrors of slavery.

One of the many moving sections of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” begins, thus:

The runaway slave came to my house and stopt outside,
I heard his motions crackling the twigs of the woodpile,
Through the swung half-door of the kitchen I saw him limpsy and weak,
And went where he sat on a log and led him in and assured him,
And brought water and fill'd a tub for his sweated body and bruis'd feet ...

Yet those powerful verses are not directly about the African-American experience. Rather, they express the authentic experience of white Americans observing, with great empathy, from within their respective bubble. Is that not a good thing?

Our intense discourse about George Floyd’s death and, by extension, our nation’s racial inequality and the seeming impunity of armed white male power has led millions of white and black citizens to do more than observe. Much more. Ironically, Mr. Floyd’s death prompted hundreds of thousands of Americans to come alive and express themselves.

Which brings me to the one piece of mine which may address, in the limited way of a white composer, something authentic about the experience of Arimel and all African-Americans. It’s a choral setting of these transcendent words by the great African-American author, theologian and civil rights activist Howard Thurman:

“Don’t ask what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive and go do it.
Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.”

These words transcend racism and the differing life experiences of segments of humanity. They are addressed to each of us, whatever our condition, yet they speak of the needs of ‘the world.’ They push us to a larger view, as do the utterances of M.L. King, Dr. Thurman’s associate.

Those who are protesting have come alive and are acting accordingly. So are those of us who, unable to protest physically with our presence in the streets, bless them and pray for them and communicate our thoughts and feelings to our elected officials.

Many, many Americans are suddenly becoming the “alive people” Dr. Thurman said the world needs. Though he penned his admonition before the word “woke,” meaning alert to injustice, came into use, he was aiming toward that notion.

When you listen my setting of those words, notice the African-American influences, a touch of the Blues scale, some dense jazz harmonies and modulations, a bit of syncopation in the way the words are sung, the polyrhythms Louis Armstrong explored.

Not that this music SOUNDS African-American. It doesn’t. It can’t. It is simply one white composer’s attempt to honor, incorporate and extend a few elements of the musical vocabulary which our African-American brothers and sisters have bestowed upon us.

I have a hunch that Arimel, if she had heard this music, might have nodded, smiled and approved.

This recording is not on any CD. You are among the first to hear this music!

To hear the Harvard University Choir singing, “Ask What Makes You Come Alive”, click on the link above.

To see a PDF of the score, click on the link above.

Thanks for your interest in my life’s work.

Rick Sowash
June 7, 2020
Cincinnati OH

P.S. to clarinetists and cellists …

If you sometimes play music for clarinet-cello duo, would your duo be willing to record a movement from my “Calloway Suite” for clarinet & cello?

The music is tonal, melodic, uplifting and, I think, well-written for the instruments. The parts are professional in appearance, easy to read. The page-turns are workable! Yes!

Each movement is two or three minutes long.

When I say “willing to record,” I do NOT mean entering a professional recording studio. All I’m asking is that two good musicians set up their music stands in their living room, push the ‘record’ button on a cell phone and start playing. It should be fun!

Then, send me the recording and I’ll share it in upcoming ‘mpFrees’ with friends and fans.

Almost all my instrumental works have been recorded, one way or another, but never this one.

If you are interested, naturally you’ll want to see the music before committing.

If you’re interested, please reply “affirmative” … I’ll know what it means and will send you PDFs of the score and parts. If you’re not interested in recording but would like to have the PDFs just for fun, that’s OK, too.

🎶 🎶 🎶 🎶 🎶

“Don’t ask what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive and go do it.
Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.”
-- Howard Thurman

What makes you “come alive” ??

Me? Many things. My wife, our children, our home, our garden. Good food. My friends at Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church. Teaching at “OLLI,” the Univ. of Cincinnati’s Lifelong Learning Institute.

Also: creating these weekly emails you kindly permit me to send you. Choosing the music, writing and revising the verbiage, sharing the recordings and scores.

Perhaps I am most “alive” -- that is, most alert and astute -- when I am composing new music. This week I’ve been at work on another multi-movement piece for string trio (violin, viola and cello).

I’ve already written five such trios. Why write a sixth? Because I love the sound, because I have superb musicians ready and eager to play and record anything I write for them, because it’s my way of approaching the exalted tradition of chamber music for strings, because I’ve been studying the life and works of Haydn, the virtual inventor of the string quartet. It is both inspiring and daunting to try to write something worthy of his body of work.

Haydn’s words are as inspiring as his music. Just listen to what he says made him “come alive”:

“I compose music so that the weary and worn, or those burdened with affairs, may enjoy a few moments of solace and refreshment. I know that God has bestowed a talent upon me, and I thank Him for it.”

Or his marvelous advice to ‘our new composers’:

"Once I had seized upon an idea, my whole endeavor was to develop and sustain it in keeping with the rules of art. In this way I tried to keep going, and this is where so many of our new composers fall down. They string out one little piece after another, they break off when they have hardly begun, and nothing remains in the heart when one has listened to it.”

By implication, he expresses the hope that something will “remain in the hearts” of those who have listened to his music. Speaking for myself, I can say that he succeeded. His music “remains in my heart.”

I hope that something remains in the hearts of those who might hear my choral setting of these transcendent words by the great African-American author, theologian and civil rights activist Howard Thurman.

These words transcend the differing life experiences of segments of humanity. They are addressed to each of us, whatever our condition or beliefs, yet they speak of the needs of ‘the world.’ They push us to a larger view, as do the utterances of Rev. M.L. King, Jr., Dr. Thurman’s friend and associate.

No judgment is implied. Whatever it is that makes YOU come alive, Thurman says, “go do it.” He trusts that it will be something worthy.

When you listen to my setting of those words, notice the African-American influences: a touch of the Blues scale, some dense jazz harmonies and modulations, a bit of syncopation in the way the words are sung.

Not that this music SOUNDS African-American. It doesn’t. It can’t. It is simply one white composer’s attempt to honor, incorporate and extend a few elements of the musical vocabulary which our African-American brothers and sisters have bestowed upon us.

And, in keeping with Haydn’s advice, it seizes upon a single idea and develops it “in keeping with the rules of art.”

To hear the Harvard University Choir singing, “Ask What Makes You Come Alive”, click on the link above.

To see a PDF of the score, click on the link above.

I'd love to know what you think about this music; reply if you're inclined. But please don't feel that you are expected to reply. I'm just glad to share my work in this way.

As always, feel free to forward this message to friends who might enjoy it.

Anyone can be on my little list of recipients for these mpFrees (as I call these musical emails). To sign up, people can email me at rick@sowash.com, sending just one word: "Yes." I'll know what it means.

Rick Sowash
Feb. 23, 2020
Cincinnati OH