Written in the mid-14th century, Boccaccio’s Decameron contains a harrowing description of the devastation brought about by a plague. Corpses lie in the streets and citizens flee terrified into nature. In the midst of the pandemic, people play and sing soothing songs, aiding in their survival. Boccaccio compares living during a plague to climbing a steep mountain where the summit is not clear—and imagines that when people get to the top they will see a nature more beautiful than they have ever seen before. 

Valerie Coleman’s Seven O’Clock Shout is that lush vista. She explains:

The work begins with a distant and solitary solo between two trumpets in fanfare fashion to commemorate the isolation forced upon humankind, and the need to reach out to one another. The fanfare blossoms into a lushly dense landscape of nature, symbolizing both the caregiving acts of nurses and doctors as they try to save lives, while nature is transforming and healing herself during a time of self-isolation.

The Philadelphia Orchestra commissioned Seven O’Clock Shout in the spring of 2020, and it was premiered on a digital gala in June. Coleman wrote the piece for musicians to record their parts separately at home and a producer assembled the parts. In this new rendition the Orchestra will be together during its performance. It has become the Orchestra’s unofficial anthem, “inspired by the tireless frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the heartwarming ritual of evening serenades that brings people together amidst isolation to celebrate life and the sacrifices of heroes,” says Coleman. 

Coleman was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1970. She says about where she was raised, “You know, I grew up in Muhammad Ali's neighborhood, the west end of Louisville. And that is about as inner-city as any inner-city can get.” Her mother introduced her to classical music while she was still in the womb. Coleman recounts, “She would play Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, the ‘Pastoral’ Symphony, to me all the time. And so, that's how it all began.” A precocious child, Coleman started notating music in elementary school. She began formal musical studies at the age of 11 and by the age of 14 had already composed three complete symphonies. In high school she earned the opportunity to study flute and composition at Tanglewood, later receiving a double degree in composition/theory and flute performance at Boston University. 

Coleman moved to New York City, where she founded the Imani Winds for which she has composed many works, including her Afro-Cuban Concerto for wind quintet and orchestra, encore pieces, and arrangements of spirituals. In 2002 Chamber Music America selected Umoja, whose full orchestral version The Philadelphia Orchestra commissioned and premiered last season, as one of its “Top 101 Great American Works” and in 2005 she was nominated with Imani Winds for a Grammy^® Award for Best Classical Crossover Album. A sought-after teacher, she is currently assistant professor of performance, chamber music, and entrepreneurship at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.

Coleman describes her compositional process as a “very intuitive one,” though “never an easy one,” which requires “digging deep.” Sometimes she begins with a poem, a painting, or a biography of a unique, great person. For instance, her Portraits of Josephine, a ballet suite in eight movements for chamber ensemble, celebrates the life of entertainer Josephine Baker. Coleman is inspired by the creativity of Wayne Shorter’s improvisations and Mozart’s flute concertos. The poetry of Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou have led her to compose. She has a love for Paris and mentions the paintings of Matisse as revelatory backdrops. Her compositional process begins with what she calls a “kernel,” a topic that is “impactful,” and she strives to “listen for the soul” of her idea. She uses the metaphor of cooking to describe how composing for the Imani Winds was like being a “cook in the kitchen.” One of her goals in composing is to create a shared experience. 

To create the shared experience during a time of isolation, Coleman used a technique called ostinato in Seven O’Clock Shout. She explains that an ostinato is 

a rhythmic motif that repeats itself to generate forward motion and, in this case, groove. The ostinato patterns here are laid down by the bass section, allowing the English horn and strings to float over it, gradually building up to that moment at 7 PM, when cheers, claps, clanging of pots and pans, and shouts ring through the air of cities around the world! The trumpets drive an infectious rhythm, layered with a traditional son clave rhythm, while solo trombone boldly rings out an anthem within a traditional African call-and-response style. The entire orchestra “shouts” back in response and the entire ensemble rallies into an anthem that embodies the struggles and triumph of humanity. The work ends in a proud anthem moment where we all come together with grateful hearts to acknowledge that we have survived yet another day.

Seven O’Clock Shout is a breathtaking pastoral tone poem, in the tradition of Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, as Coleman says, “turning from a ballad to a celebration.”

—Eleonora M. Beck

Program notes © 2021. All rights reserved. Program notes may not be reprinted without written permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association, Eleonora M. Beck, Patrick Castillo, and/or Luke Howard.