Free At Last

A number of years ago, we published a song for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day called "I Have A Dream." For the longest time, we thought that we could not do any more or any better than that, as we considered the song to be exactly what it needed to be. In recent years, we have had requests from teachers for even more music relating to Dr. King. This presented us with quite a problem. How could we follow up our first song? What could we say?

Inspiration finally struck this year when Teresa was reminded by her older brother, Mark, of Dr. King's famous line, "Free at last, free at last; thank God Almighty, we are free at last." The results are published here.

We would not be exaggerating to say that this is one of our favorite songs. The first time we played it for our staff, there were a number of tears in the room and everyone broke into applause at the end. It's a very emotional song about a very emotional subject.

It begins with a gentle, ethereal soprano saxophone solo. The idea is that the first part of the song is sung in the present. The style is contemporary, but the lyrics refer to the past. The children are singing to the Doctor, letting him know that they heard what he said. When the song moves into the chorus, it becomes an old-fashioned gospel song. The performers and listeners are instantly transported to the 1960s when Dr. King marched, preached, fought for civil rights, and gave his famous "I Have A Dream" speech.

We would like to encourage you to use the Performance/Accompaniment compact disc or cassette with this song if you perform it, unless you have a live rhythm section, including soprano saxophone. If you do perform it without the recording, remember that the difference between the contemporary gospel rock and the old-fashioned gospel needs to be distinct and abrupt for the appropriate impact. On the recording, we used rhythm section, organ, saxophones, and mid to low brass. The real power of the piece comes from the background vocals, which enter during the chorus. You will note that there are three versions of the song on your recording: full performance, accompaniment with background vocals, and accompaniment only.

The melody indicated on the piano/vocal is unison and quite singable by just about any group of singers, including your audience members. We have chosen to publish the background vocals separately (on page 32) so that the music would not look too intimidating. (We didn't want to do anything to discourage you from using this wonderful song.) If you have a group of select singers - older students from the high school, the teaching staff, an ensemble of parents, etc. - by all means let them learn and perform the background vocals with your students. It will add to the overall effect incredibly.

Be sure that at measure 34 the first two times it occurs, your singers make the most of the sforzando piano and crescendo. By the third measure, they should be back up to full forte. Tell them to enunciate clearly at this point in particular. When this same section occurs later in the song, there is not a drop in dynamic level (unless you want to add one), however, there is an addition of accents. Rehearse the different styles with your performers and really emphasize the accented words.

The one thing we did not do on the recording that we highly recommend, was add a mature female soloist ad libbing a solo over the last chorus and ending. But Patti LaBelle was not around that day, so we decided to use an alto saxophone solo instead. If you have a lady in your midst who can belt with the best of them, ask her to join in and really put the gospel flavor into it!