Her research into 19th century American history for a different project led St. Louis-based composer Barbara Harbach to the story of Harriet and Dred Scott.
“I was inspired and fascinated with the story of Harriet and Dred Scott. Although they could neither read nor write, their legal fight for freedom would eventually contribute to the Civil War and the end of slavery in America,” Harbach told The American.
Harriet and Dred Scott, of course, initiated the historic suit for their freedom from slavery in St. Louis that went to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the court’s arch-conservative ruling in favor of the slaveholders helped trigger the Civil War.
“Harriet first started the legalities when she was about 30 in 1846. Her decision to file a suit for freedom and stay with it until its final conclusion were acts of high courage and determination,” Harnach said.
“These traits would give strength to the long and difficult struggle for civil rights that Harriet Robinson Scott’s descendants would endure for the next hundred years.”
Harbach’s researches resulted in her new composition Freedom Suite, which will be premiered 10 a.m. Monday, January 17 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, with the Dickson Quartet (from Portland, Oregon) performing the premiere – part of UMSL’s 2011 recognition of the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday.
The composer is aware of the story’s personal touch to St. Louis, still home to blood descendents of the Scotts, including great-great-granddaughter Lynne Jackson, who founded the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation.
“I met her at the dedication of Harriet Scott’s grave last May,” Harbach told The American. “I’m hoping that she will come to the premiere of Freedom Suite.”
“I do plan to be there,” Jackson told The American. “I can’t wait to hear it!”
Harbach’s composition has another St. Louis connection. One of her primary sources for the life of Harriet Scott was Dred & Harriet Scott: Their Family Story by Ruth Ann Hager. Hager is a St. Louisian who has worked closely with the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation, and her work – rich in original contributions to genealogy and history – was published by St. Louis County Library (where the author works as research specialist).
Freedom Suite is a completely instrumental composition, with no choral parts and no narration. When asked how a composition can be “about” such a specific and powerful subject when you are not composing in words, Harbach said, “I have always enjoyed the music from the Civil War era – reels, folksongs, spirituals, camp meetings, fiddle tunes and marches – so it was natural for me to write my interpretations of the music that Harriet would have heard in her lifetime.”
This compositional approach starts at the beginning of the suite, in its first movement “I. Harriet Scott – A Strong Woman.” Harbach crafts a new spiritual based on the traditions of 18th and 19th century American spirituals, then uplifts it with dance reels in imitation of the Virginia Reels that were popular in 19th century St. Louis. Then a cello line picks up the melody from Harry (Henry) Thacker Burleigh’s spiritual “Don’t You Weep When I’m Gone.”
“The cello so wonderfully portrays the rich somberness of Burleigh’s melody,” Harbach writes in her notes.
The second movement, “II. Eliza and Lizzie – Let My People Go!” is based on two spirituals, “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” and “Go Down, Moses,” with two violins and a viola used to explore those now immortal melodies. A final section of “Eliza and Lizzie” achieves what the hip-hop generation might style as a mashup of the two spiritual melodies.
In the third and final movement, “III. Freedom,” Harbach ties all of this together while trying her hand at composing her own instrumental spiritual inspired by the words of the 19th century spiritual “Many Thousands Gone” – with a final melodic trend toward hope for the freedom that Harriet and Dred Scott were denied.
Harbach is a composer, musician, publisher and professor of music at UMSL.
The January 17 event at the Touhill is free and open to the public.
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