The Testament of Freedom

Front page, Newcomb's copy of The Testament of Freedom

The Testament of Freedom is a four-movement work for men's chorus and piano composed in 1943 by Randall Thompson. It was premiered on April 13, 1943 by the Virginia Glee Club under the direction of Stephen Tuttle; the composer served as pianist. Thompson later orchestrated the piece, and also produced an arrangement for mixed chorus. The music was published in 1944. The Testament of Freedom has continued to play an important role in the Glee Club's repertoire in recent years.

History

The piece was written, at the request of University of Virginia president John Lloyd Newcomb, for the Virginia Glee Club while Thompson was teaching at the University of Virginia, and was meant to celebrate the bicentennial of the birth of Thomas Jefferson; consequently, the text for the work was taken from Jefferson's writings. Specifically, many of the texts were identified in a newly published collection of Jefferson's writings, Jefferson Himself, edited by UVA professor Bernard Mayo. The work was in rehearsals from as early in the spring semester as the beginning of February 1943.

The rehearsals were influenced by and made more difficult by the wartime conditions in which the Glee Club found itself. In a memorial address for Stephen Tuttle, composer Randall Thompson recalled some of the challenges, and how conductor Tuttle met them:

The Glee Club had forty or so members at the beginning of the year. Not too bad, but as a result of the war, many of its members came from states other than the Commonwealth. As a result the Club’s diction was not quite so unified as Steve could have wished. Worst of all, as the year wore on, enlistments and the Draft made heavy inroads on the membership. At one rehearsal, about a month before the concert only 14 men showed up. —And some of them had only come to say good-bye!

Do you suppose that this discouraged Steve? Not at all. He continued to be as encouraging and as excited as if he had just discovered a nest of warblers in the branch of a tree.

Then a kind of miracle happened. When the concert finally took place, there stood the glee club in all its splendor—40 strong! And what they sang was broadcast round the world.

February 1943 College Topics article

Although it was commissioned and performed as an occasional work, the piece was soon seen as an opportunity to project an uplifting message about the United States in wartime. Even before its first performance, it was noted by College Topics that "much of the text was written during other wars of the United States and are particularly applicable now." Its premiere was recorded by CBS and quickly broadcast nationwide. It was also transmitted by shortwave radio over the OWI network to Allied servicemen stationed in Europe.

The piece has continued to be popular; on April 14, 1945, it was performed by Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall as part of a concert in memory of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had died two days earlier.

Virginia Glee Club performances

The Virginia Glee Club has performed the work many times since 1943, including the following:

• Founder's Day Concert, 1943
• Concert at Randolph-Macon (1943)
• Concert at Sweet Briar (1951)
• Concert at Hollins College (1952)
• Concert with Madison College (1954)
• Fall Concert (1955) - first movement only
• Woodrow Wilson Centennial (1956)
• Founder's Day Concert (1956)
• Concert at Sweet Briar (1956) — first and last movements only
• Spring Concert (1959)
• Concert at Mary Washington (1959)
• Concert at Emory University (1961)
• City of Charlottesville 200th Anniversary (1962)
• National Gallery of Art American Music Festival (1962)
• State Department performance (1968)
• Openings Concert (1973)
• Frank Hereford Inauguration (1974)
• Concerts with the Norfolk Symphony (1976) - performed in honor of the Bicentennial
• Virginia Day Concert at the Kennedy Center
• Founder's Day Concert (1976)
• Spring Concert (1993) - in honor of Thomas Jefferson's 250th birthday
• Tour of the Midwest (1996)

Virginia Glee Club recordings

Two Glee Club recordings of The Testament of Freedom are known to exist:

• The Testament of Freedom (1943 recording) - radio transcription recording of the original performance
• A Shadow's on the Sundial - 1972 Glee Club recording

Style

Manuscript of The Testament of Freedom, Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia

The first of the piece's four movements is similar in style to a hymn; it opens with a five-note instrumental invocation meant to rhythmically spell out the name "Thomas Jefferson". The melody used in the movement reappears in various forms throughout the rest of the piece. The second movement is slower in nature, and resembles a dirge; numerous writers, including Virgil Thompson, commented on its resemblance to Eastern Orthodox chant. The third movement is a scherzo, while the fourth recapitulates themes heard in the other movements. The work ends with a return of the initial melody and text.

Texts

I

The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy but cannot disjoin them.::—A Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774)

II

We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. Honor, justice, and humanity forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them. Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resources are great… We gratefully acknowledge, as signal instances of the Divine favor towards us, that His Providence would not permit us to be called into this severe controversy until we were grown up to our present strength, had been previously exercised in warlike operation, and possessed of the means of defending ourselves. With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance, employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves.::—Declaration of Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms (July 6, 1775)

III

We fight not for glory or for conquest. We exhibit to mankind the remarkable spectacle of a people attacked by unprovoked enemies, without any imputation or even suspicion of offense. They boast of their privileges and civilization, and yet proffer no milder conditions than servitude or death. In our native land, in defense of the freedom that is our birthright and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it; for the protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest industry of our forefathers and ourselves; against violence actually offered; we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before.::—Declaration of Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms (July 6, 1775)

IV

I shall not die without a hope that light and liberty are on steady advance... And even should the cloud of barbarism and despotism again obscure the science and liberties of Europe, this country remains to preserve and restore light and liberty to them...The flames kindled on the 4th of July, 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them.:: —Letter to John Adams, Monticello (September 12, 1821) The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy but cannot disjoin them.

Critical reception

The Testament of Freedom was immediately regarded as a populist work rather than a typically classical one; Olin Downes said that it gave "reassurance...in a troubled hour". Others were more in agreement with composer Donald Fuller, who stated that it would best "suit some child's game with toy soldiers".

References

• Randall Thompson. The Testament of Freedom/Frostiana. Manhattan Chamber Orchestra and New York Choral Society, Richard Auldon Clark, director. Recorded 1994; released on Koch International Classics in 1995.

External links

• Texts and recording of the work