Musical Memorial to Dead Leader
Last month, 2MBS-FM participated at the request of the Candian Consulate in a multi-national broadcast to mark the 50th
birthday anniversary of civil rights leader
Martin Luther King.
Following Dr. King's assassination in Memphis in 1968 there were many tributes from around the world. Most of these were in words. But one man - Czech-born composer Oskar Morawetz - chose to express his feelings in a musical memorial
for solo cello and wind instruments.
It was this work we broadcast on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's birthday, January 15th, introduced by the composer and preceded by a brief excerpt from King's now-famous "free at last" speech to freedom marchers.
"Free at Last" is a negro spritiual. It was Martin Luther King's favourite spiritual and a line from it is engraved on his tombstone. Toward the end of his work, Morawetz incorporated a stylised version of the spiritual on brass, drums and bells whilst the solo cello makes lamenting comments after each phrase of the song.
In 1967, Rostropovich asked Morawetz to write something for him and orchestra "with an unusual orchestral colour". But it was only in April of 1968 when the composer was deeply moved by King's tragic death that the work took its present form. The premiere was scheduled for the Vancouver Symphony in February, 1970, with Rostropovich as soloist. But Rostropovich fell ill and his tour was cancelled. The premiere took place later and distinguished Canadian cellist
Zara Nelsova introduced the work. She recorded it with the Montreal Symphony and this recording was programmed by 16 stations in Canada and the US on April 4th last year
- the tenth anniversary of Dr. King's death.
Writing to suggest the broadcast also on King's birthday anniversary, Morawetz suggested another multi-nation broadcast and 2MBS-FM was pleased to join stations
in other parts of the world in this tribute.
Morawetz, 62 this year, went to Canada from Czechoslovakia after Hitler's troops occupied the country in 1939. He said his experience in Europe made him more sensitive to King's fight for civil rights and racial freedom. "Ever since the persecutions of Hitler, I was always very concerned about persecutions of anybody," Morawetz commented.
The composer said he was moved by the epitaph that King wanted on his tombstone:
"Free at last, thank God Almighty, I'm free at last".
It was estimated that some 20 million listeners heard the first broadcast of the Memorial to Martin Luther King. Mrs. King, the leader's widow, has taken a personal interest in these
multi-nation broadcasts of the Morawetz work. To the millions who heard the first broadcast must now be added those who heard our broadcast last month as well as those from 2NUR-FM in Newcastle and from stations in New Zealand and Europe. It is to be hoped that some enterprising recording company will soon issue the splendid Nelsova recording made by the CBC in Montreal.
