Pianist, choral director and composer, R. Nathaniel Dett was as prominent and highly regarded as an African-American classical musician could be in the first half of the 20th century. He led the singers of Virginia’s Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) on a triumphant European tour, was friends with the phenomenal Australian-American pianist-composer Percy Grainger, and had his magnum opus, the oratorio The Ordering of Moses, performed by the Cincinnati Symphony and Chorus, under music director Eugene Goossens, in 1937. (The live radio broadcast was interrupted in the middle, probably because callers had protested against a Black composer’s work being on the air.) The work was subsequently neglected for many years, until the Cincinnati Symphony, under James Conlon, revived and recorded it in 2014.
The Ordering of Moses was written when Dett, after many years of service at Hampton, returned to school to earn a master’s degree at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. An Oberlin graduate who had also studied at Harvard as well as with the legendary Nadia Boulanger at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau outside Paris, Dett was a lifelong learner. In this unique work, he achieved a perfect synthesis between the previously unconnected worlds of the Negro spiritual and the European oratorio tradition.
The oratorio is divided into fifteen movements, performed without pause. The orchestral introduction opens with a cello solo quoting the main motif of the spiritual “Go Down, Moses.” Both the spiritual and the cello as a solo instrument will play a central role throughout the work–the cello used to connect the various sections and to offer personal commentary on the events as they unfold.
This long-forgotten work has astonished its 21st-century listeners by its vibrant energy, its powerful vocal writing, and its sophisticated harmonic language. The part of Moses was written for a heroic tenor, the voice of God for a sonorous basso profondo. Miriam is a dramatic soprano who must hit an operatic high C, while the alto soloist, representing the children of Israel, plumbs the depths of her range in her lament early in the oratorio. The magnificent choral fugue on “Go down, Moses,” the dramatic orchestral movement depicting the Egyptians pursuing the Israelites, and Miriam’s song of thanksgiving with its Middle Eastern coloring, are just a few of the many memorable moments in the piece. All in all, The Ordering of Moses is not only a landmark work in the history of Black music, but a masterpiece of 20th-century choral music in general.
THE WORD – BARITONE SOLO AND CHORUS
All Israel’s children sorely sighed;
And unto God they sorely cried.
‘Neath Egypt’s king they hard were tried;
By reason of their bondage.
VOICE OF ISRAEL – ALTO SOLO
O Lord, behold my affliction;
My heart is turned within me;
A darkening cloud is Thy anger.
Thy hand is hard against me.
My eyes and heart fall grieving;
I walk alone in deep shadows.
Oppressed and sighed in her mourning.
Zion sighed in her mourning. O Lord!
CHORUS
O Lord!
SOPRANO, ALTO, BARITONE SOLOS
God looked on Israel and heard her children groaning.
He looked on her children groaning and had respect unto her.
God looked on Israel and had respect unto her.
CHORUS
God looked on Israel and heard her children groaning.
Mercy, Lord!
And from a burning bush, flaming, God spake unto Moses:
Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt’s land;
Tell Pharaoh: “Let my people go!”
Thou shalt lead thy people to the promised land.
Go down, Take thy rod in thy hand,
Thou shalt lead thy people to the promised land.
For I have looked on Israel
and have heard her children groaning,
And I have respect unto her.
“Go down, Let my people go!”
VOICE OF MOSES – TENOR SOLO
Lord, who am I to go unto Pharaoh,
and why should I lead children to Israel?
How shall they know Thou sendest me?
What name shall I say unto them?
What signs or wonders show?
I am not eloquent, have no gift of speech,
Am slow of tongue!
CHORUS
And God spake unto Moses saying:
VOICE OF GOD – BARITONE SOLO
Who hath made a man dumb?
Or who hath made his mouth speak?
Is it not I, Jehovah?
Now therefore go!
CHORUS
Jehovah! God of your fathers?
Now therefore go down, and I will be thy mouth;
I will instruct thee what thou shalt say.
Now therefore go!
THE WORD
And when Moses smote the water,
The children all passed over,
When Moses smote the water,
the sea gave way!
CHORUS
And when Moses smote the water,
The children all passed over
When Moses smote the water,
The sea gave way!
Rejoice, children, and be glad,
The sea gave way!
THE WORD
And when they reached the other shore,
They sang a song of triumph o’er.
MOSES
I will praise Jehovah for he has triumphed gloriously,
The horse and his rider he has o’erthrown in the midst of the sea!
He is my God and I will praise Him;
He has become the rock of my salvation.
CHORUS
O hallelujah, hallelujah!
Hallelujah, Let us praise Jehovah!
Praise the Lord!
THE WORD
Then did the women of Israel
Gather with timbrels and dances;
And Miriam gifted with prophecy,
Answered exhorting then, saying:
MIRIAM
Come, let us praise Jehovah,
For his triumph is glorious,
The clouds and fire are his chariots,
The winds and waves obey him;
Now all the armies of Pharaoh are sunk as stones in deep waters.
The deeps stood up as the mountains
When thou didst blow thy breath upon them!
CHORUS
Hallelujah!
MOSES
Sing ye to Jehovah, for he has triumphed gloriously.
CHORUS
Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power;
Pharaoh’s hosts thou hast cast in the depths of the sea!
MOSES
Sing ye praise to Jehovah; Sing ye!
CHORUS
He is King of Kings, He is Lord of Lords!
Praise Jehovah, Sing together,
Praise Jehovah, Great God of our Fathers;
God the Great, I Am that I Am!
Hallelujah, God the Great, I Am that I Am!
Hallelujah, He is a Man of war.
He is a Man of war, mighty is Jehovah,
Mighty in battle, He has overthrown his foes.
Hallelujah! Praise Jehovah, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord!
Mighty is Jehovah, Mighty in battle.
No God doth wonders like Him.
O sing to Jehovah, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord;
Sing to Jehovah, Praise the Lord.
Great I Am that I Am, Praise the Lord.
Hallelujah, Sing to Jehovah,
Whose right hand is our salvation,
O praise the Lord,
Sing unto Him who hath triumphed.
MOSES & MIRIAM
O praise ye, praise ye Jehovah,
Praise His holy name!
MOSES
I will sing unto Jehovah,
For he has triumphed gloriously.
Jehovah is my strength and my song.
He is my God and I will praise Him.
Thou, Lord, in thy loving kindness
Hast led the people, whom Thou hast redeemed!
Jehovah shall reign forever!
MIRIAM:
The horse and his rider he hath thrown into the sea,
And he is become my salvation.
My father’s God and I will exalt Him.
Jehovah shall reign forever!
CHORUS
He is King of kings and He is Lord of Lords;
Sing together, Praise Jehovah.
Great God of our Fathers;
Praise the Great I Am that I Am, Hallelujah.
King of kings and Lord of Lords Praise His holy name.
Mighty is Jehovah, Mighty in battle!
He has triumphed o’er His foes.
O praise Him, Mighty in battle,
No God doth wonders like him.
Praise the Lord, Sing to Jehovah,
Great I Am that I Am, Praise the Lord.
Hallelujah! Sing to Jehovah whose right hand is our salvation, Hallelujah.
Praise the Lord, Hallelujah! Praise the Great I Am.