BLACK COMPOSER MINIATURE CHALLENGE
An anthology of 30 second pieces for flute, alto flute, piccolo, harp, and flute-harp duo by 18 Black/African Diasporic composers.
A Note About Performance Rights
Should you perform and/or record any of the works included in this anthology, please contact the composer directly as performance rights and/or other licensing fees may apply.
A Note from the Editor
The scores in this anthology represent numerous different approaches to composition. Most pedal/muting indications are editor's suggestions and can be freely altered. For duo works, separate flute parts were not created for full scores of only one PDF page.
Special Thanks
Many thanks are due to Anthony R. Green for engraving these scores, Jonathan Bailey Holland for printing limited edition publications, and all the contributing composers for their creativity and fellowship.
About Castle of our Skins
Castle of our Skins is a Black arts institution that centers Black music, culture, and history through people, programming, and partnerships. In classrooms, concert halls, and beyond, Castle of our Skins invites exploration into Black heritage and culture, spotlighting both unsung and celebrated figures of past and present. For more information, please visit www.CastleSkins.org
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Composers
Solo Piccolo
Edewede Oriwoh : For Piccolo
Solo Flute
Rodrigo G. Sousa : Miniature
Adero J. Knott : Chade's Dream
Eddy Conrad : Springtime in Sweden
Solo Alto Flute
David Bertrand : Pass Round D'Side Dey
Dr. Bernard Short : Permutation
Solo Harp
Malcolm Jackson : To Flow to the Horizon; Dance
Danae Venson : Petite Berceuse
Flute and Harp Duo
Ahmed Al Albaca : Mere Mortals
Autumn Maria Reed : Air Over Dewdrops
Charles Lumar II : The Grand
Deeann D. Mathews : Clouds to Sun Lullaby
Kevin Scott : Pavane for the Morning Sun
Bonita Oliver : XIII Blackbird
George Brandon : Juneteenth Call
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Alto Flute and Harp Duo
Brittney Benton : The Call
Raphael W. Salassie : The Lost Child In The Forest
Gary Powell Nash : Journey for Justice
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THE COMPOSERS
Ahmed Alabaca is a composer, conductor, song-writer, and pianist. During 2021 they were fortunate enough to have been commissioned to write works ranging from solo instrument to full orchestra including the San Jose Chamber Orchestra and the Florida Orchestra.
Brittney Benton is a senior studying music composition at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She has explored writing for a variety of instruments and musical styles and has a strong interest in working outside of the concert hall, especially in the realm of video game music.
David Bertrand is a flutist/clarinetist and composer active in the New York jazz scene. A graduate of the Aaron Copland School of Music, he leads a quartet devoted to finding organic, personal intersections between modern jazz and the folkloric rhythms and songs of his homeland, Trinidad & Tobago.
George Brandon is a trombonist, composer, and educator having taught at the University of Maryland, City College of New York, and Omega Institute for Holistic Studies. His music has been performed by such groups as Face the Music and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE).
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Eddy Conrad is 12 years old. He studies piano at the New England Conservatory of Music, and plays trumpet with Berklee's City Music program. Springtime in Sweden is his first composition for solo flute, and his second work featured in Castle of our Skins’ #BCMC project.
Malcolm Jackson is a multifaceted percussionist who performs in various styles and music genres. As a creator of music, Jackson’s compositions and production works often find themselves intertwined together, expanding on an initial concept.
Adero J. Knott is a curator, artist, violinist and composer. A congenital amputee, she is a prosthetics designer and founder of AK Prosthetics, a robotics startup making customized prosthetics and adaptive wearables accessible and inclusive.
THE COMPOSERS
Charles Lumar II is a New Orleans based musician, composer, and teacher. He has performed and recorded with such artists as Solange, People Museum, and Kristin Diable, and has toured at such notable venues including the Kennedy Center, Radio City Music Hall, and the Guggenheim Museum.
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Deeann D. Mathews is a composer, songwriter, and pianist. She is the author of The Freedom Guide for Music Creators, creator of The Ultimate Guide to Copyright Songs course, and director of Praising Pilgrims Music, a publishing company of music and music-related materials.
Gary Nash, a native of Flint, Michigan, is Professor of Music at Fisk University where he teaches music theory, technology, composition, and applied Woodwinds, and conducts the Fisk Jazz Ensemble. His music has been performed in all major regions of the US and abroad in Europe and Asia.
Bonita Oliver utilizes multiple mediums as a performance artist and improviser. Her work is about transitions–the process of moving through. Bonita creates deeply emotional, body in space, concept art through voice, music, environmental soundscapes and movement.
Edewede Oriwoh is an African female Composer of mainly Liturgical and classical works. She is the Founder and Editor of AfricanComposers.com. Her composition “Play” is included on the 2019 CD "The Other Half of Music: 21stcentury Female Composers”, released by the record label Dynamic.
Autumn Maria Reed is a Wisconsin-based composer and Berklee alumna. Autumn has composed library and theatrical music for companies in Madison and Milwaukee. She plays the string bass for the Black String Triage Ensemble directed by Dayvin Hallmon.
Kevin Scott has received several awards and has composed for chamber ensembles, voice, chorus, and incidental music for theatre and film. As a conductor, Scott is a tireless advocate of performing new, unknown and neglected composers.
THE COMPOSERS
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Dr. Bernard Short has been commissioned by The Julien Chamber Winds Ensemble at The University of Dubuque and received world premieres at the Delian Academy for New Music’s International Summer Academy for Composers and Sound Artists and Alba Music Festival.
Rodrigo G. Sousa is a Brazilian Black composer, writer, and poet born in 2002. He has composed pieces for symphonic band, full orchestra, string orchestra, big band, and chamber ensemble. For him, music is like a painting, and the empty music score is like an empty canvas.
Danae Venson is a composer, musician, and rising freshman at the Mannes School of Music. She won an honorable mention in the 2021 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Awards and garnered the opportunity to collaborate with the Houston Ballet Academy.
Raphael Wolde-Selassie is a composer who currently lives in Stockholm, Sweden. He is a recent graduate of Musikskolan Lilla Akademien (“The Junior Academy”). Over the years, he has learned how to play piano and guitar, and he has composed solo, duo, and chamber works, as well as orchestral works.
Note:
Rodrigo G. Sousa
Chade's Dream
Adero J. Knott
Springtime in Sweden
Eddy Conrad
Pass Round D'Side Dey
David Bertrand
This
is about
Permutation
Dr. Bernard Short
To Flow to the Horizon; Dance
Malcolm Jackson
Composer’s Thoughts
This work is meant to reflect the whimsical nature of the flow of water and the flow of air, as if they were dancing freely. This reflection is to be felt as if one is meditating, encompassed in nature’s calmness.
Petite Berceuse
Danae Venson
Air Over Dewdrops
Autumn Maria Reed
The Grand
Flowing, connected yet urgent ; q= 67
(think Anthony Hamilton)
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Clouds to Sun Lullaby
Deeann D. Mathews
Pavane of the Morning Sun
Kevin Scott
Pavane of the Morning Sun
Kevin Scott
XIII Blackbird
Bonita Oliver
Bonita Oliver
The Lost Child in the Forest
Raphael W. Selassie
Journey for Justice
Gary Powell Nash
* Note: all chords are to be played as if they were bracketed, unless otherwise notated.
Gary Powell Nash. All rights reserved.
Journey for Justice
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