Dr. King’s Garment of Destiny (2021)

Mixed Chorus (SSAATTBB) – 4 min.

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Program Note

As I first began reading this excerpt from Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, I was struck by Dr. King’s poetry, envisioning all life intertwined in a single garment of destiny. But as I read further, the words “I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be” began dancing as an enchanting mantra, meant to be repeated and repeated against its corollary: “You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be” — set in slower, slightly longer phrases. In the end, we are told that this is not a fanciful wish or a poetic dream, but the inescapable nature of reality.

Text from Martin Luther King Jr.: Letter from Birmingham Jail

“In a real sense all life is inter-related.
All are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,
tied in a single garment of destiny.
Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be,
and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be… This is the inter-related structure of reality.”