OAKLAND SYMPHONY PREMIERES SONGS OF PROTEST
Editors ChoiceThe Oakland Symphony presents the world premiere of a new work by Martin Rokeach this Friday (May 19) at The Paramount.
Rokeach’s new work, Bodies on the Line, was inspired by the great Flint Sit-Down strike of 1936, when, for 44 days, workers occupied the General Motors Flint plant, but refused to work, effectively forcing GM to recognize the UAW.
This strike was a flashpoint in U.S. labor relations. The work was commissioned by the Oakland Symphony. The libretto is by Rebecca Engle.
Bodies on the Line commemorates the collective action of the laborers, draws us into the standoff, and celebrates a heroic, pivotal victory. Composer Rokeach was, for 33 years, Artistic Co-Director of San Francisco’s contemporary music concert series, Composers, Inc. Currently, he is Professor Emeritus at Saint Mary’s College of California.
Also on the program, Beethoven’s defiant Third Leonore Overture, and Samuel Barber’s bracing Second Essay for Orchestra. The program is titled SONGS OF PROTEST.
Tickets start at just $25. Slipped Disc readers can enjoy a 25% discount on all
other priced tickets with this discount code: DISC0519.
OAKLAND SYMPHONY
Tito Muñoz, conductor
Melody Wilson, mezzo-soprano
Marc Molomot, tenor
Morgan Smith, baritone
Oakland Symphony Chorus
Pacific Edge Voices
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: Leonore Overture No. 3
SAMUEL BARBER: Second Essay for Orchestra
MARTIN ROKEACH / REBECCA ENGLE (librettist & dramaturge): Bodies on the Line: The Great Flint Sit-
Down Strike
It’s a mighty hard row that my poor hands have hoed
My poor feet have traveled a hot dusty road
Out of your Dust Bowl and Westward we rolled
And your deserts were hot and your mountains were cold
I worked in your orchards of peaches and prunes
I slept on the ground in the light of the moon
On the edge of the city you’ll see us and then
We come with the dust and we go with the wind
California, Arizona, I harvest your crops
Well its North up to Oregon to gather your hops
Dig the beets from your ground, cut the grapes from your vine
To set on your table your light sparkling wine
Green pastures of plenty from dry desert ground
From the Grand Coulee Dam where the waters run down
Every state in the Union us migrants have been
We’ll work in this fight and we’ll fight till we win
It’s always we rambled, that river and I
All along your green valley, I will work till I die
My land I’ll defend with my life if it be
Cause my pastures of plenty must always be free
– Woody Guthrie
What better place for this than Oakland?