Physical copy of the sheet music mailed to you.

Composer: Marcus Norris

Year: 2023

Instrumentation: solo Piano

Duration: 4 minutes

About the Work: 

In May 1803, enslaved Igbo people from what is now Nigeria were forcibly taken to Savannah, Georgia. 75 of those people were then chained and put under the deck of another small vessel named the Schooner York to be transferred to St. Simons Island, Georgia. During this voyage, the Igbo people bravely rose in rebellion and drowned their captors, grounding the ship along Dunbar Creek.

Exactly what happened next is unclear. What is known is that following their leader, the Igbo sang and marched ashore, and then proceeded to sing and march directly into the murky, marshy water, choosing to drown by their own doing rather than be enslaved.

In the time since, people have called this the first freedom march. People have said that the water spirits brought the Igbo to America and therefore would take them home. It’s been said that the Igbo walked on water back to Africa or grew wings and flew home. The site where all this occurred is known today as Igbo Landing.

This piece was commissioned and premiered by Ensemble for These Times in 2023. It’s the second in a series of solo piano works exploring our complicated relationship with water, following my 2018 piece “Lake Turkana”.

-       Marcus Norris