Goodnight Harlem
by Rebekah Griffin Greene
Commissioned for Hexnut as part of the Walden School 2010 faculty commissioning project
Premiered on July 16, 2010, in the Louise Shonk Kelly Auditorium, Dublin, NH
Ned McGowan: flute, contrabass flute + Susanna Borsch, recorders + Gijs Levelt, trumpet +
Ere Lievonen, piano + Stephanie Pan, vocals
Harlem!
The lights, the smells, the music running through my
veins, more powerful than any drug...
Most clubs have DJ's now, but the memory of jazz
greats still lingers...tickles my fingers...the sounds of
Monk
Wayne Shorter
Miles, and Duke, and Ella, and Fats Waller...the list
goes on...
The Harlem Renaissance gave a voice to a people that
had not so long before been seen as private property
of the wealthy, who were now their patrons...
The dark history of slavery gave way to freedom and
music beyond compare...
But did you know that in 1944, while jazz voices lifted
in Harlem, New York, across the sea in the city of tulips
known as Haarlem in Holland, Corrie Ten Boom was
hiding Jews from Hitler?
What lullaby did she sing to help the little ones sleep?
Slaap, kindje, slaap
Daar buiten loopt een schaap
Een schaap met witte voetjes,
Dat drinkt zijn melkzo zoetjes,
Slaap, kindje, slaap,
Daar buiten loopt een schaap...
Have you ever seen the tulips in New York in the
springtime?
Harlem...Haarlem...Harlem
These cities, connected by the blood of innocents:
The slave trade and the Holocaust...
The remnants of Dutch rule remain in New York:
A statue of Peter Stuyvesant, cobblestone streets,
Wall Street, which was built by slaves, and
Amsterdam Avenue...
And the free sound of jazz has traveled across the
ocean too...
Despite the evil intentions of oppression, the spirit of
freedom could not remain buried under ashes...
Because of people who have stood on Truth's side, there
is good, there is music, there is hope, and there are
tulips...
Please remember that we are all connected by blood
and innocence...
Goodnight Harlem...and Haarlem, goedenacht.
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