Race Riot
Digital Sheet Music

Jazz Combo - Advanced - Digital Download

SKU: S0.480567

Composed by Geoffrey Peterson. Jazz. Score,Set of Parts. 37 pages. Published by Geoffrey Peterson Music (S0.480567).

The May 17, 1963,issue of Life Magazine featured a photo essay of appalling images taken by theAmerican photographer Charles Moore. The opening paragraph bluntly stated that“The pictures on these 11 pages are frightening. They are frightening becauseof the brutal methods being used by white policemen in Birmingham, Alabama,against Negro demonstrators . . . And they are especially frightening becausethe gulf between black and white is here visibly deepened.” Known as theBirmingham campaign, Moore’s photographs of this senseless brutality sentshockwaves throughout the country and the world of the deeply embedded socialand institutional racism and segregation of the South. 

On May 2, 1963, underdirect orders from Birmingham’s then Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene“Bull” Connor, all African Americans participating in a nonviolentdemonstration organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference were tobe subdued with high-pressure water blasts from fire hoses and violentlyattacked and taunted by police dogs.

After seeing Moore’s photos in Life, Andy Warhol created a seriesof Race Riot paintings using a terrifying image of Moore’s of aman being attacked by a German shepherd in his trademark acrylic and silkscreenprocess. Interestingly, the title Race Riot is a contradictionbecause it was in fact a peaceful protest interrupted by the violence of thepolice.

There is a menacing quality to the music that I hope conveys both Moore’soriginal photo and Warhol’s appropriation.