PERUSALSCORE
An American Story for narrator and orchestra
Music by Damien Geter
Text by Kwame Alexander 2026
Program Note
An American Story is a symphonic work for orchestra and narrator that traces the struggles and triumphs of African Americans across the arc of United States history. Written in reflection of the nation's 250th anniversary, the piece refuses to look away from the contradictions at the heart of the American experiment — acknowledging the painful chapters that continue to echo in the present, while celebrating the resilience, progress, and hope that carry us forward.
The text for the narrator is drawn from author Kwame Alexander's award-winning works An American Story and The Undefeated — writing that speaks with precision and poetry to an experience that is, at once, uniquely Black and undeniably American.
The work opens with a winding chorale that serves as its emotional and musical foundation, returning and expanding at key moments of tension and release throughout the piece. Woven into the fabric of the score are tributes to two spirituals: "Wade in the Water" and "Calvary" — the latter paired deliberately with "You're a Grand Old Flag" to give voice to the profound dichotomy that has always defined this nation: the pageantry of celebration set against the long, unfinished struggle for true freedom for all.
Instrumentation
Piccolo
2 Flutes (II = Alto Flute)
2 Oboes
2 Clarinets in B♭ (II = Clarinet in E♭)
2 Bassoons
4 Horns in F
3 Trumpets in C
2 Trombones
Bass Trombone
Tuba
Timpani
Percussion (3 Players):
Vibraphone, Clash Cymbal, Tam-Tam, Suspended Cymbal, 2 Triangles, Snare Drum, 5 Tom-Toms (graduated), 4 Woodblocks (graduated), Bass Drum
Harp
Strings
PERUSALSCORE
Commissioned by the Chautauqua Institution
Duration: c. 12 minutes
First printing of this edition, March 2026
Copyright © 2026 Damien Geter (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved. Published by Just a Theory Press | www.justatheorypress.com
Text excerpted from the book AMERICAN STORY by Kwame Alexander. Copyright © 2023. Adapted with permission of Hachette Book Group and Little Brown Books for Young Readers, New York, NY. All rights reserved.
gliss.
gliss.
B. Tbn.
An unbelievable story about evil plans, and big guns hiding in the night,
waiting for the women to sing everyone to sleep, waiting for the men to dream of tomorrow,
A story of struggle and sacrice about tall ships and bodies shoved below in small, hot spaces, about no longer being able to look back and see home, about not being able to look ahead and see where you’re going or what awaits you when get there.
is is an unspeakable story about the ones who survived America by any means necessary, and the ones who didn’t.
About copper dreams shackled in iron, working hard from can see to can’t. For free. About picking cotton and threshing rice and harvesting coffee and cooking and cleaning and building and cooking and cleaning, and building FOR FREE.
An unforgettable story about a people who hurdled horror and scored the chains on one hand and faith in the other. e audacious ones who carried the red, white, and weary blues on the battleeld to save an imperfect union.
is is an undeniable story about strength, and pride, and refusing to be broken, and refusing to stop loving.
outside players only, min. vib.
outside players only, min. vib.
outside players only, min. vib.
About the swift and sweet ones, the righteous marching ones who opened a world of possible, who lifted their voices and sang we shall not be moved because black lives matter.
is is an un appable story about yesterdays’ nightmare and the unstoppable courage of today’s black as the night is beautiful ones.
e dreamers and doers who swim across the big sea of our imagination and show us the majestic shores of the promised land: e Sophisticated ones who box adversity and tackle vision.
the Shirley Chisolms and the Barak Obamas, the Altheas and the Serenas,
the Robesons and the Audra Macdonalds, the unbelievable and the unbending, the undiscovered but no long untitled. is is an American story.