Adolphe, Bruce

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I Will Not Remain Silent - Reach Out, Raise Hope, Change Society

The compositions on this album touch on themes of social justice and advocacy through the prism of Joachim Prinz, a 20th-century rabbi and activist who spoke out against the rise of anti-Semitism in Germany in the 1920s and 30s and later became a prominent voice of the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S.

I Will Not Remain Silent is a two-movement violin concerto that depicts the broad arc of Prinz’s life from Europe to America. The violin—an instrument Adolphe sees as “profoundly tied to Jewish musical identity”—represents Prinz as an orator and prophet, the voice that refuses to remain silent in the face of violence and opposition.

In the first movement, “Berlin During the Nazi Era,” a potent and foreboding orchestra represents the powerful, oppressive National Socialist regime. In the second movement, titled “America During the Civil Rights Movement,” the violin soars over quotations of “Oh, Freedom” and “We Shall Overcome,” but struggles as it confronts angry masses opposed to the Civil Rights Movement.

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The title of Reach Out, Raise Hope, Change Society is drawn from the slogan of the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan, which commissioned Adolphe to compose a cantata in honor of its 90th anniversary in 2010. The cantata’s second movement is a setting of the line from Prinz’s 1963 speech, “The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful and the most tragic problem is silence.” Also included in the cantata are social justice-themed texts by other mostly American sources, including Chief Joseph, Carolivia Herron, and June Jordan. The slogan, "Reach Out, Raise Hope, Change Society," forms the text for the first and last movements.

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Additional Credits

I Will Not Remain Silent was commissioned by Iris Orchestra
Recorded live, January 2015
Iris Orchestra with Sharon Roffman, violin, under the direction of Michael Stern
Recorded in the Duncan-Williams Performance hall, Germantown Performing Arts Center, Germantown, Tennessee.

Commissioned with funds from Joan and Allan Fisch, Reach Out, Raise Hope, Change Society was originally composed for the 90th anniversary of the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan in 2010 and recorded by the University of Michigan, School of Music, Theatre & Dance.