Description
Augusta Read Thomas is one of the most active composers in the world, with commissions, performances, recordings, awards, and honours, but she is also a long-standing, exemplary citizen of the Profession at large with an extensive and deeply committed history as a generous colleague in the profession. She is without question one of the best and most important composers of our time. Her music has substance, depth, and a sense of purpose. She has a lot to say and knows how to say it, and in a way that is intelligent yet appealing and sophisticated. Thomas said, "Music is akin to an infinite alphabet." Weaving together two texts, originally written in two different alphabets (about 800 years apart,) Freedom To be Free and Sky Bound unfolds and develops an elegant, resonant, graceful dialogue between Parks' "Freedom" and Rumi's "Love". Textual and musical braids embody Thomas' notion of "infinite alphabet." Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American activist in the civil rights movement, best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has honoured her as "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement." Parks received countless recognitions, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet, Hanafi faqih, Islamic scholar, Maturidi theologian, and Sufi mystic. Like other mystic and Sufi poets of Persian literature, Rumi's poetry speaks of love which infuses the world. This is made explicit in Rumi's verse (not included in this composition) that describes love as "that flame which, when it blazes up, burns away everything except the Everlasting Beloved." - Augusta Read Thomas
![Augusta Read Thomas - Augusta Read Thomas: Freedom To Be Free and Sky Bound (2022) [Vocal Score for tenor & baritone voices] - NMP1284](http://propermusic.com/cdn/shop/files/9790708219347.jpg?v=1742978686&width=1200)
![Augusta Read Thomas - Augusta Read Thomas: Freedom To Be Free and Sky Bound (2022) [Vocal Score for tenor & baritone voices] - NMP1284](http://propermusic.com/cdn/shop/files/9790708219347.jpg?v=1742978686&width=800)
![Gavin Higgins - Gavin Higgins: Road Works (2000) [for percussion ensemble] - NMP1319](http://propermusic.com/cdn/shop/files/9790708219699.jpg?v=1742978714&width=700)
![Augusta Read Thomas - Augusta Read Thomas: Freedom To Be Free and Sky Bound (2022) [Vocal Score for treble voices] - NMP1283](http://propermusic.com/cdn/shop/files/9790708219330.jpg?v=1742978686&width=700)
![Augusta Read Thomas - Augusta Read Thomas: Sun Plaits - Bridges and Links (2024) [for solo violin] - NMP1290](http://propermusic.com/cdn/shop/files/9790708219408.jpg?v=1742978686&width=700)
![Augusta Read Thomas - Augusta Read Thomas: Shakespeare's Jesters (2023) [for SATB saxophone quartet] - NMP1279](http://propermusic.com/cdn/shop/files/9790708219293.jpg?v=1742978686&width=700)
![Augusta Read Thomas - Augusta Read Thomas: Freedom To Be Free and Sky Bound (2022) [Vocal Score for tenor & baritone voices] - NMP1284](http://propermusic.com/cdn/shop/files/9790708219347.jpg?v=1742978686&width=700)
