Garrop, Stacy: Glorious Mahalia

In GLORIOUS MAHALIA, Stacy Garrop weaves fragments of interviews from the early 1960s between gospel singer and civil rights activist Mahalia Jackson, and writer and radio personality Studs Terkel, into a fascinating and stirring 20-minute work for string quartet and pre-recorded sounds. The interviews address Jackson’s career and the prejudices she faced, the meanings behind the spirituals she sang, her hope for the future of the nation, and include a recording of her singing “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” on the air. All of this is vibrantly brought to bear on contemporary ears through Garrop’s innovative and personal writing for strings. (This product includes a download code to retrieve the audio components from the publisher’s website.)