Craig Harris - Souls Within The Veil (2005)

Craig Harris on Du Bois: “Souls Within the Veil” was composed to commemorate the centennial
of W.E.B. Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk. After one hundred years the book sets a high standard for those who aspire to compose, regardless of the medium in which they choose to express themselves. The compositional craft displayed by Du Bois has inspired me to compose a musical score which attempts to capture his timeless social commentary, where he melds the experience of an enslaved people and the English language into a state of Double Consciousness, modulating between social issues of the past-present. Examining the text through the lens of its final chapter, I present a work composed for ten souls using ten timeless Veils. They combine improvisiation and composition to the place where they become one. That state of Double Consciousness is where I navigate harmonically, rhythmically, and melodically not only within the shadows of the Veil but within a contiuum that predates the Veil by centuries. It is a music Du Bois refers to as “the most beautiful expressions born this side of the seas.”