We Hold These Truths to be Self-Evident

We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident by Joseph C. Phillips, Jr. is a four-movement composition commissioned by Carnegie Hall and the American Composers Orchestra. The Carnegie Hall concert features the first two movements, along with a film by Malik Isasis, commissioned to accompany the premiere performance. The composition is part of a series of orchestral, choral, and chamber works which, while tied to various subjects in my ongoing eight-opera 1619 cycle about the history of the US, also represents distinct, independent addendums and companions to the operas. We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident highlights ideas of freedom for Black Americans within the country’s systemic inequalities and inequities—an expansion of the theme of the second opera in the cycle, Till Paths Be Wrought Through Wilds, which I am currently composing.

‍We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident’s first movement, “The Great Silence” (10 minutes), reflects physical aspects of freedom, inspired by Black-owned resorts and leisure spaces of the late 19th century through the 1970s. The second movement, “Stealing Away” (4 minutes), is inspired by more spiritual aspects of freedom and those places internal and external where one goes to understand the world and one’s place in it.

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—Joseph C. Phillips Jr.

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We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.