![]() There are 99 names of Allah, and there are 52 niggers.”Įastman went on to explain that the three pieces were written using a concept he called “organic form,” related to the additive process of minimalist music, which was still fairly new: “That is to say, the third part of any part has to contain all of the information of the first two parts, and then go on from there… They’re not exactly perfect yet. In response to a protest by the campus African-American student organization, the titles were left off the program, and in a pre-concert talk Eastman explained, in his eloquent deep bass, that he used the offensive word to honor the African-American’s role in American history: “What I mean by niggers is, that thing which is fundamental that person or thing that attains to a basicness or a fundamentalness, and eschews that which is superficial, or, could we say, elegant. Using Northwestern student pianists, Eastman premiered three works for four pianos, with incendiary titles: Crazy Nigger, Evil Nigger, and Gay Guerilla. ![]() He had been invited by faculty composer Peter Gena, who, like Eastman, had been a member of the Creative Associates at SUNY Buffalo (a performance group run by composers Lukas Foss and Morton Feldman). On January 16, 1980, renegade composer/singer/pianist Julius Eastman gave a concert of his works at Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois. Michael Lorenz, Quinn Collins, John Pettit, Marc Jaffee, Ben Rosen, Travis Woodson, Joshua Hey, Brian McBrearty, James Merle Thomas, Alban Bailly, David Middleton, Dylan Reis, George Korein, Matt Hollenberg, and Alex Lewis *version for 14 electric guitars by Dustin Hurt Joseph Kubera, Dynasty Battles, Michelle Cann, Adam Tendler - pianos Program: Julius Eastman: SPOKEN INTRO (1980)Īrchival recording of Eastman's explanation of the use of "Nigger" in the title of his compositions. This concert features two of the works performed as a piano quartet and Gay Guerrilla performed by a large ensemble of electric guitars. ![]() Eastman perfected his multifarious minimalism in three works of the late seventies: Crazy Nigger, Evil Nigger, and Gay Guerrilla. Each work is scored for multiple instruments of the same kind.
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