Mac
I wrote the medley Going/Gone after reading the novel The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. The song is a tragic love story about a doomed interracial relationship from the 1800’s. Sadly, I think some of the basis for the narrative is still as present today as it was then. If you get a chance read that book.
Brad
When I first heard this piece I instantly thought “19th century pastoral setting.” So for the first movement I started with the piano part; then the harps and the classical guitar sort of piggy-backed onto that. I wasn’t planning on scoring a string section but I kept hearing this melody in the final chorus. It worked out well because it led to the Ravel-inspired transition into the second movement – key of B major to the key of F# minor.
For the second movement I decided to incorporate a “train beat” which would not necessarily be associated with Black Church music of the South (referenced in the lyric); it’s merely a literal reference to the Underground Railroad to which the song pays homage.
Going
I was born the son of a plantation owner
In the summer of 43
The cotton was high and the gold that was flowin
would one day fall to me
My mommas favorite maid she raised me up
And she loved me like her own
Sometimes I could play with her children
But never inside our home
I’d say
Follow me
Down by the river there’s a trail thorough the trees and there’s a place
so far from here
We might just disappear
Now she had a daughter just my age
Her daddy called her his Honey Bee
Prettiest girl in Camden county and she was always sweet to me
We both knew that we shoulda known better then to
go and fall in love
We whispered vows to God as our witness and the
Georgia sky above
I’d say
Follow me
Down by the river there’s a trail thorough the trees and there’s a place
so far from here
We might just disappear
When the war began we had our plan
And we were headed north
We’d sleep with the sun and rise with the moon
And use the stars to map our course
The night we left was warm and clear
But there came a wind on that seventh day
And the storm that it was blowin in
Would wash our map away
But I said
Follow me
Down by the river there’s a trail thorough the trees and there’s a place
so far from here
We might just disappear
Gone
They followed us down to the river
They followed us through them trees
They followed us all the way through Georgia
And in to Tennessee
We ran like we was on fire
We ran and we did not rest
They never would’ve tracked us down
If we’da headed west
You could hear that choir singin
In the church outsida town
Their songs of mercy risin up
While we
were headed down
Now they took my Bee away from me
We fought em the best we could
But all our pleas and supplications
Didn’t do us any good
You see you cannot fight a hardened heart
You cannot fight a gun
You put one behind the other
And our runnin days were done
You could hear that choir singin
In the church outsida town
Their songs of mercy risin up
While we
were headed down
There are no morals to this story
The only lesson to be learned
Are some pages in our history books are too heavy
To turn