Releases Fall 2026
Photo courtesy of the University of South Carolina
Glory
Music by Valerie Coleman and Jeff Scott
Featuring the University of South Carolina Chamber Players
Celebrating Richard T. Greener
2026 SR006
Brian Fenderson, baritone
Jennifer Parker-Harley, flute
Hassan Anderson, oboe
Joseph Eller, clarinet
Michael Harley, bassoon
Hunter Poe, horn
Ari Streisfeld, violin
William Terwilliger, violin
Daniel Sweaney, viola
Claire Bryant, cello
Craig Butterfield, bass
Jabarie Glass, conductor
Glory by Valerie Coleman
I. Prelude
II. Glory
III. Recitative
IV. Young Men to the Front
V. By and By
A Pioneers Opus by Jeff Scott
I. An American Dreamer
II. Prayer
III. Let Liberty Be!
Total duration: 42 minutes
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Produced by Michael Harley, Jennifer Parker-Harley, and David Kirkland Garner
Recorded by Jeff Francis on August 14-15, 2024 at the University of South Carolina School of Music Recital Hall.
Edited, Mixed, and Mastered by Jeff Francis
Cover Design by Dan Ruccia
Cover photo courtesy of the University of South Carolina
In 2009, a contractor preparing an abandoned home for demolition on Chicago’s South Side pried open a battered steamer trunk stored in the attic. Inside he found a trove of unusual documents, including yellowed photographs, diplomatic materials written in Latin and Russian, and an anti-slavery book titled Autographs for Freedom. A water-stained 1870 diploma from Harvard University, a law diploma from the University of South Carolina, and a license permitting the bearer to practice law within that state all bore the name Richard Theodore Greener.
This album reflects the ensuing resurgence of interest in one of America’s most important but largely forgotten civil rights pioneers – and represents the hope that the name Richard Greener will never again fall into obscurity. One of the 19th century’s leading intellectuals, Greener was a true trailblazer: the first Black graduate of Harvard College, first Black professor at the University of South Carolina (and at any Southern state university), and America’s first Black diplomat to a white country (Vladivostok, Russia). He was a friend of Ulysses S. Grant, toured with and debated Frederick Douglass, and was called a “bright, particular star” by Booker T. Washington.
Composed by Jeff Scott and Valerie Coleman, themselves trailblazers as founding members of the Grammy-winning chamber group Imani Winds, A Pioneer’s Opus and Glory celebrate and sustain Greener’s life and legacy. Commissioned to celebrate the 2018 unveiling of a statue of Greener that stands outside of the University of South Carolina’s Cooper Library, the pieces, recorded here for the first time, are given spirited performances by USC faculty and students.
Scott’s music, for chamber orchestra and narrator, powerfully reflects on and underscores texts by Langston Hughes, Julietta Curenton – in a newly-composed poem inspired by Greener’s fearless, uncompromising rhetoric – and Greener himself. In the dramatic first movement, which sets Hughes’ “Let America be America Again,” one hears echoes of Aaron Copland and Virgil Thompson. The lyrical second movement, “Prayer,” offers up a gorgeous new melody that feels as timeless as the spiritual, “Wade in the Water,” that hauntingly pervades the work’s final movement. Here Scott ironically juxtaposes the famous slave song with fragments of “Dixie,” the minstrel tune that became the unofficial anthem of the Confederacy during the Civil War.
In Glory, for wind quintet and baritone, Coleman sets bespoke texts of her own making. This is powerful storytelling and vintage Coleman: a vibrant, virtuosic blend of musical styles including slave shouts and spirituals, Americana, gospel, blues, and jazz. In the work’s second movement, “Glory,” describing Greener’s feelings for the time he spent as a professor at the University of South Carolina, a message of hope in the language of the traditional African-American spiritual emerges: “We sow visions yet to be born, well before the by and by.” The final movement returns to this text, propelled by a relentless bass groove in the bassoon and punctuated by riffs and hits, in a raucous, joyous Shout. Coleman writes, “I created this work not only to celebrate a historical figure, but with hopes to re-introduce his ideals at a time when the world needs grounding and humanity needs nurturing.”
-Mike Harley
Glory by Valerie Coleman (b. 1970)
Richard T. Greener was an advocate for the advancement of African Americans during the time of Reconstruction in American History. As contemporary of Frederick Douglass and considered to be a member of what W.E.B DuBois called the "Talented Tenth” (a name for scholarly leaders within the African American community), Greener was the first Black student to graduate Harvard and the first African American Professor at the University of South Carolina. This work was commissioned by University of South Carolina's School of Music faculty Jennifer Parker-Harley, Michael Harley, and Rebecca Schalk Nagel in commemoration of the unveiling of a statue of Greener on the USC Campus.
In five movements, Glory celebrates Greener through original text created by composer that examines his passions, conflicts and scholarly pursuits as a man who claimed responsibility as a leader within the African American community. Through a sustained pulse from the clarinet, the first movement begins as an envisioning of Greener taking a retrospective assessment of the life he lived within a first-person narrative. Titled "Prelude," the movement sets the tone for the work as a whole, with elements of ‘Americana’ patriotism found throughout, most notably at the end of the movement where the flute and oboe exchange patterns in a fanfare-like fashion, supported by open intervals within the lower voices.
In the second movement, called "Glory," the text describes Greener's adoration for the time spent as a professor at the University of South Carolina. It begins with a virtuosic flute solo inspired by powerful, melismatic gospel singing. The strength within the "Amen" shouts from the accompanying winds gives a feel of hand clapping and foot stomping. It is in “Glory” that the baritone voice emerges with a message of hope to the listener: “We sow visions yet to be born” and (in the spirit of traditional African-American Spirituals), “Well before the by and by.”
In movements 3 and 4, the “Recitative” and “Young Men to the Front,” both text and music pay homage to Greener’s desire to mobilize young men into productive roles within society in order to change public perception of a people as a whole. In this, he enjoyed debates on the matter with Frederick Douglass, and the music reflects this through capricious solo riffs of the upper winds and strong gestures found within the ‘low brass’ hybrid sound from the bassoon and horn together.
The final movement is a snapshot of the early 1900’s, when spirituals had begun to be regarded as a substantially valid art form but still played an important role in worship. The familiar phraselet “By and By” is paired with Greener’s ideals and advice for young people. “By and By” is rhythmically charged and upbeat, with nods to the fevered pitch 'praise' moments where the walking bass drives with intensity to bolster the rallying call by the baritone voice. I created this work to not only celebrate a historical figure, but with hopes to re-introduce his ideals at a time when the world needs grounding and acts of humanity need nurturing.
-Valerie Coleman
Glory text by Valerie Coleman
I. Prelude
Who am I?
To refuse a pass
And yet,
Thirst to grasp the banquet of worth
Denied to my darker brethren;
I do this for them.
Who am I?
To embrace a dream
Of clarity,
With thirst to challenge the laws of might
That omit our right to be
and diminish our worth..
I search for you.
Who am I?
To seek a dwelling
in equity
By awakening to solace through transitions
packed into carpetbags and canvassings
I go there to advocate!
For I must
speak for a people
whose brutalities and suffering
are condemned to dwell as mutely rot.
Without voice,
Without muse.
I reach for them.
II. Glory
Glory unbound my feet to find you,
A faithful edifice to smooth
my wayward soul in time.
At hope drenched ground
from bent backs and brows
a shout wails professed
and deeply pained:
We sow visions
yet born,
yet proclaimed
well before the by and by.
III. Recitative
Brothers and sisters
See and Hear me,
The constitution was not meant for us
We must fight to change the law they call freedom
Though iniquity might remain unchanged.
And like I, if young men move to the fore
Equality will cease to be yearned.
IV. Young Men to the Front
Young men to the front!
Do not sit idly by
While opportunities slip away.
For fear of responsibility
or becoming bourgeoisie.
V. By and By
We sow visions yet to be born
Well before the by and by!
Brothers and sisters
See me,
As a man who does not fear nor regret
my dreams for those declared free.
We sow visions yet to be born
Well before the by and by!
Through writs carved in sanguine ink
and chanced-paved cobble roads,
the ripened fruits of Reconstruction
cannot abolish covert codes.
And to my young daughters and sons
though perilous your journey may be
distinguish your character regardless
for your governance will bring heed.
We sow visions yet to be born
Well before the by and by!
A Pioneer’s Opus by Jeff Scott (b. 1967)
Around the year 1870, when Richard T. Greener walked the aisle to become the first African American to receive his Bachelor’s Degree at Harvard College, African Americans had celebrated a number of firsts. In 1864, Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler became the first African American woman in the United States to earn a Medical Degree. In 1865, John Stewart Rock became the first African American attorney admitted to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1875, Fredrick Douglass became the first African American nominee for Vice President of the United States by the Equal Rights Party.
These were pioneers amongst many others who literally paved the way for African Americans to succeed in a soon to become post-reconstruction-era America. Hence the title, A Pioneer’s Opus. What most defines the legacy of Richard T. Greener and Fredrick Douglass in particular is how fervent and outspoken they were in their efforts to reach back and uplift a whole people.
When I compose, I look for inspiration from sources that can be the driving force for the melodic material. Often I reach for the written word, as it helps tremendously to tell the story musically. To say the least, the text from Greener’s article “The Future of the Negro” is inspiring if not disquieting. This text, along with the Langston Hughes poem “Let America Be America Again,” as well as the newly-commissioned poem by Julietta Curenton, “Let Liberty Be,” were ample sources for melodic material that I could easily have written hours of music to.
-Jeff Scott
A Pioneer’s Opus text
Read before I. An American Dreamer
“Let America Be America Again,” by Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.
O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!
Read before II. Prayer
From “The Future of the Negro,” 1884 essay by Richard Greener (1844-1922), published in the North American
Review
Consider [the Negro] at his best. I cite the case of a manly and accomplished gentleman of the race. His life has no
background. What we mean by ancestry is lacking to him; and not only is it lacking but its lack is proclaimed by his
color, and he is always reminded of it. Be who he may and do what he may, when the personal test comes he finds
himself a man apart, a marked man.
There is a difference between the discrimination against him in one part of the country (the South) and in another
part (the North), but it is a difference in degree only. He is not any where in a fellowship in complete equipoise with
men of the other race. Nor does this end it. The boundless sweep of opportunity which is the inheritance of every
white citizen of the Republic, falls to him curtailed, hemmed in, a mere pathway to a few permissible endeavors. A sublime reliance on the ultimate coming of justice may give him the philosophic temper. But his life will bring chiefly opportunities to cultivate it. And for his children, what better? To those that solve great social problems with professional ease, I commend this remark that Mr. Lowell is said to have made, I was not born a Jew; but if I had been a Jew, I should be prouder of that fact than any other.” [Can] you find a man, who, if he had been born a Negro, would be prouder of that fact, than of any other? When you have found many men of this mind, then this race problem will, owing to some change in human nature, have become less tough, but till then, patience and tolerance.
1. James Russell Lowell (1819-1891), American abolitionist, poet, editor, critic, and diplomat
Read before III. Let Liberty Be!
“Let Liberty Be,” text by Julietta Curenton (b. 1981)
Words gleaned from Biblical pen.
Speak “Liberty Throughout all the Land,” adorn
that majestic and glorious bell,
offering hope for those long scorned.
Words commemorating the Jubilee.
A time Jewish men were released from slavery.
Rejoice with these!
While in America,
We disregard the dark men,
the dark men like me.
I say it again..
Jewish men were released from slavery,
While in America
We disregard the dark men,
The dark men like me.
This shining beacon of hope
The bell that sounded Freedom soared
Silenced by its infamous crack
It rang til it could ring no more.
This is America's greatest irony.
Home of the Brave. Land of the Free.
When shall we release the dark men
from the promise that turned out not to be?
America. Release the dark men.
Let us live and not die.
Free us from a prison of silence.
Hear our rallying cry.
America. Let Liberty Be.
You can beautifully be you only when you allow me to be me.
Let Liberty Be, I say.
We must relish in our multi-hued reflection of the Imago Dei.