Black Joy Verses (2026)
for small orchestra
by Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR)

Instrumentation: 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, Clarinet, Bassoons, 2 Horns, 2 Trumpets, Trombone, Timpani, Percussion (1 player), Laptop(ist), Speaker(s), Strings
Length: 19 minutes
Please contact us to rent orchestral score + parts

COMPOSER’S NOTE:
“Dedicated to my friend - and champion for so many of us - Ashleigh Gordon.

Black Joy Verses is a work about the sound of Black aliveness. A way of remembering what has been taken from us while insisting on what cannot be stolen: our breath, our movement, our brilliance, our imagination, and our love for one another. I wrote this music as a series of verses because Black joy does not arrive in one form. It speaks, sings, shouts, whispers, dances, argues, testifies, mourns, laughs, and keeps going.

The work is connected to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, but it is not trapped by it. Black joy is older than America and will outlast America’s failures to understand it and Black people. This piece is dedicatee to the artists, ancestors, organizers, teachers, students, families, and communities who keep creating the conditions for Black life to flourish, and remain and be safe and free.”
- DBR

PERFORMANCE NOTE
The ‘Speakers’ can be one or more individuals. The circled numbers on the ‘Speakers’ staff in the score represent the individual(s) doing the speaking. At the point at which these numbers occur in the music, the conductor cues the respective Speaker(s).

Please contact us for rental, to request a preview score, or to purchase a study score.