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Sonata In Memoriam - Martin Luther King Jr.
for Viola and Piano
Man's spiritual quality gives him the unique capacity to live on two levels. He is in nature, yet above nature;
he is in space and time, yet above them. He can do creative things that lower animals could never do. Man
can think a poem and write it; he can think a symphony and compose it; he can think of a great civilization
and produce it. Because of this capacity, he is not bound completely by space and time.
Sooner or later, all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby
transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood.
The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind.
I have discovered that the highest good is love. This principle is at the center of the cosmos, It is the great
unifying force of life. God is love. He who loves has discovered the clue to the meaning of ultimate reality;
he who hates stands in immediate candidacy of nonbeing.
The way of nonviolence means a willingness to suffer and sacrifice. It may mean going to jail. If such is the
case the resisters must be willing to fill the jail houses of the South. It may even mean physical death. But if
physical death is the price that a man must pay to free his children and his white brethren from a permanent
death of the spirit, then nothing could be more redemptive.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. Martin Luter King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. This tragedy was made extremely personal
since this was my twentyfifth birthday. I completed the Sonata In MemoriamMartin Luther King Jr. for
viola and piano on April 8, 1969. The music reflects the confusion, violence, and pain of the assassination
and its aftermath.
An orchestral version was created mostly during the summer of 1993. This new version was made for a
recording project with the Master Musicians Collective. The recording session took place in December of
1994 with Karen Dreyfus, soloist, and the Silesian Philharmonic under the direction of Jerzy Swoboda.
Philip Koplow
The score and parts for the orchestral version are available from the rental library of Liben Music Publishers.
Click to view or download a PDF
sample of the Music
