The Pieces of the American Mosaic

In the 1970s, he was recruited by jazz legend Freddie Hubbard to join his band; today, he is a renowned classical composer: Billy Childs, a jazz pianist from Los Angeles, has written a new string quartet. The work was commissioned by the Isidore String Quartet, which will perform it on tour, including at the Beethovenfest in Bonn. Childs calls his Quartet No. 4 »American Mosaic«. Here, he writes about the work and its message of American unity in diversity.

American Mosaic is my fourth string quartet. The overarching theme of the composition is an examination of the troubled paradigm of race relations in America. The title of the piece is representative of my belief that America, at its best, can be a mosaic of races and cultures – a combination of diverse ethnicities working together to form an inclusive, unified, and complete nation.

But America has a violent and painful history with regard to race (i.e. slavery, the genocide of Native Americans, Japanese internment camps, the Ku Klux Klan, ICE agents profiling Hispanic-looking people for deportation). The aim of this work is to hold a mirror up to ourselves and reflect, and to encapsulate this centuries-old problem to the listener. 
I believe that the only way for this country to heal from the enormous wound of racism is to confront it head on. Until that is truly acted upon, America will remain fractured by the weight of its racial legacy. It is my hope that this string quartet, in some small way, moves us as a nation closer to the goal of self-examination.

The perspective of American Mosaic is primarily concerned with the fraught history of black and white race relations in this country. With that in mind, I composed the string quartet in three movements, the arc of which illustrates a journey from a segregated and antagonistic beginning to an ultimately idyllic and harmonious conclusion. Moreover, I have assigned symbolic racial roles for the instruments themselves: the violins represent the white ›race‹ and the viola/cello represent the black ›race‹.

The first movement is entitled »Separate but Equal«, named after the doctrine which upheld legalized segregation in late 19th century America. In this movement, the violins (the whites) play only by themselves, the same being the case for the viola/cello (the blacks); the four members of the quartet never play together as a unit. This is a fast moving, aggressively conceived piece meant to put the two groups at odds – to highlight their separation by creating a situation where they play at each other. There is a contemplative middle section which makes extensive use of harmonics, bookended by scherzo-like, rapidly moving sections.

The second movement illustrates the uneasy path towards racial coexistence, whether it be the enormity of the Civil War, the steely determination of the Civil Rights movement, or the many landmark legal decisions which have attempted to create more equity – and which we are now under threat of losing. It is called »The Coexistence Struggle«.

In this movement, the quartet plays as a unit, but the music is restless. It starts out with a slow moving canon which, during its evolution, gradually speeds up and eventually morphs into a brisk section. This passage is followed by a reflective interlude which uses a twelve-tone melody as its theme. After some development, the rapid momentum returns and brings us to the uneasy ending of this movement, an ominous C minor chord with upper extensions.

The final movement’s title, »Lift Every Voice«, is inspired by the black national anthem composed by James Weldon Johnson (poem) and his brother J Rosamond Johnson (music). In this movement, the entire quartet is meant to coalesce in harmonious unity, under the umbrella of ›America‹; this movement seeks to emphasize that we are all equally Americans, that we are all immigrants. 

The general mood of the music is very tonally coalescent, with all four strings contributing equally to the sonority. The movement starts out with a solo cello reading of the main melody, later played with impressionist harmony by the entire quartet. In the middle, there is a nod to fiddle music, but harmonized and structured in a non-traditional way. After this section, the first two verses of Lift Every Voice and Sing are quoted – once in a straightforward treatment, and then followed by a maestoso rendering harmonized in fifths. The piece ends on a quiet, somber D Major triad.

I want to finally thank the Isidore Quartet for giving me the great honor of inviting me to compose my fourth string quartet.

Billy Childs (*1957)
String Quartet No. 4 »American Mosaic« (2026) 

American Mosaic was commissioned by Music Accord in partnership with Shriver Hall Concert Series, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and The 92nd Street Y, New York for the Isidore String Quartet.