Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing

Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing
Concert Variations
Composed by John Rosamond Johnson
For Flute (and Optional Alto Flute – same player) and Piano
Arranged by Evelyn Simpson-Curenton
Published by Theodore Presser Company
Includes score and flute part

Duration: 5:30

The song “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” began as a poem written by the lawyer and activist James Weldon Johnson in 1900; Johnson later served as leader of the NAACP, as foreign diplomat during the Roosevelt presidency, and as professor at New York University. In 1905, Johnson’s brother John Rosamond Johnson set the poem to music, and the song grew to be known as “the Black National Anthem,” continuing in this role today over 100 years later.  J. Rosamond Johnson studied composition at New England Conservatory and sang in the original cast of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Together the Johnson Brothers were influential and inspirational voices of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, and they also created several operettas and musicals.
Evelyn Simpson-Curenton has arranged the piece with her own variations as a concert level entry for flute and piano.